The state of online gambling in the State of New Jersey
First of all, you need to know that I live in Virginia and I understand that the online options offered are really designed for NJ residents who cannot or choose not to travel to Atlantic City. That said, I thought I would describe my recent experience in case you are considering a vacation to either NJ or Atlantic City. It makes me long for the pre-UIGEA days to be sure.
You can create an account from anywhere and maybe you can fund it from anywhere (my Visa card delines the deposits) but you definitely have to have the right combo of geo-location technology to play there.
This means that you cannot stay at a hotel/motel that uses satellite internet access in their guest rooms (Hilton and IHG fall into this group and there may be more). To do so will cause the geo-location to conclude you are NOT in NJ.
Now onto the specifics. First the Tropicana -tropicanacasino.com. No poker option, but they do have slot machines online and will offer a $10 sign-up bonus and additional e-mails will offer more bonuses with deposits/play. If you are visiting the Trop you can find free, slow wifi in the poker room if you need to create an account. Geo-location here involves a SMS message to your mobile phone so be sure you have a phone signal before you begin the process. Cashout occurs at a Cashier's cage at the far end of the casino and there is a separate window for Internet gaming transactions. Deposits/withdrawals require the completion of two virtually identical paper forms that ask you to re-submit all the information that's already on your account from sign-up.
Ceasar's Entertainment - WSOP.com. I set up my account before leaving home, but they have perhaps the most consoluted system ever developed for casino deposits. The Boardwalk poker rooms will be consolidated at WildWild West when Showboat closes at the end of the month. The poker room is way in the back of the casino. After making the trek there you will learn that you cannot make the deposit at the WSOP.com poker room - you have to go next door to theCeasar's casino cage. I went to the cage and was told that I had to walk 20 feet to the right and pick up one of the two black phones to make the deposit. After phoning in the deposit you have to go back to a special, unmarked cage window (closed when I arrived) where an employee will call the deposit room, confirm the deposit and give you a receipt. Crazy!! Then you go back the WildWild West's poker room where there is free wifi to play - sorta. I could connect but never got an IP address after 15 minutes so I gave up. Did not attempt a witdrawal. More on this fiasco in a little bit as we must first go off to Borgata.
Ride the jitney to Borgata for $2.25 each way and hope to survive the jitney-bus-auto roadway duels. Find the cage deep in the bowels of the casino and hope to find an employee who understand that you want to make an online deposit and knows how to do it. 15 minutes later I'm off to the poker room area for free wifi. Able to login to Internet borgatapoker.com - hurrah! Whoops, the geo-tracking device says that, sitting right outside the Borgata poker room, I am not in NJ. Rats, satellite internet? So now I have a deposit that I can't use just like at WildWild West.
One last option on this oddysey and that's to find another free wifi location. Well, it's 10:30PM so the library is closed. I walk over to the soon-to-be-shuttered Revel casino where they do not even have a poker room and find good, free wifi in their entrance lobby. Bless them!! But will it geo-track? Fire up WSOP.com on my tablet and I never even get an SMS message for my phone and the PC software confirm that I'm in NJ. I CAN PLAY!! Reminds me of Poker Stars and actually has quite a few games available in the lobby. No time for a tournament before my tour bus departs so I didn't check them out. Now to try Borgata site. No SMS message and it agrees that I am in NJ - double hurrah! I don't like their site. Ended up at two tables all by myself so I suspect few players, at least in ring games. Many confusing promotional messages keep popping up. I can pick the type of game I want but not the table that I want. Finally, it feels like playing Facebook games as I get achievements for playing hands and winning them - big whoop!
Conslusion: (1) those hoping to find an online poker game while visting NJ are going to have to jump through a lot of hoops for an uncertain outcome and even if you get connected it will not be as much fun as in the old days and (2) if in Atlantic City, play the live games!
Excellent report!! Thanks for writing this! I am pretty deeply following all of the online poker issues and opportunities, and I think you very well sum up what everyone is saying. We have a long way to go, to get back to the 'glory days' status of how things used to be. The way I see it, this reborn industry isn't even in the infancy stage yet....we are still in the fetal stage! I have played on a couple of sites in NJ, and also had problems getting online. But for those that are patient and dedicated to getting properly geolocated and getting their funds deposited, it's a lot of fun. It's all uphill from here. Stars coming to NJ will be a good thing for the industry IMO, and especially when other states like NY and CA come to market, things will begin to see more like they used to be....assuming the states agree to work together, which I believe they will. Thanks again for sharing your experiences.
Agree that the industry has just started. I expect that, unfortunately, Virginia will opt out. Nearest casino with poker is 3-4 hours away in metro Baltimore/DC so the drining is a pain. AC IS 6-8 hours depending on shore traffic. All things considered the flight the Vegas is a better deal. Online will have to stay play money for the forseeable future.