Half a million New Jersey residents play poker on the internet

06/05/2010

The news that the state of New Jersey’s Senate Wagering and Tourism Committee had approved the further progress of a bill seeking to allow Atlantic City operators to move into intrastate online gambling continues to reverberate around the industry.

In follow up publicity, the committee’s chairman, Jim Whelan, said this week that over half a million New Jersey residents already play poker on the Internet.

“This is an attempt to regulate what is already taking place in the state,” the politician pointed out, saying that it was an opportunity for the state to “generate some revenues, and do it through the Atlantic City casinos so that hopefully they will be able to have some profit by it.”

Whelan's committee was told that taking a more enlightened approach to online gambling through the state’s Atlantic City casinos could create as many as 2 000 jobs, generate up to $55 million in tax revenue for the state and make Atlantic City the global hub for Internet gambling.