The news was revealed on Monday by New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement Director David Rebuck with him stating Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, the Tropicana Casino and Resort, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, Bally’s Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City had all been given the green light to proceed with real money play, while The Golden Nugget Atlantic City will be joining them within the next week.
Still Issues To Be Sorted
The announcement follows a five-day ‘soft-play’ testing period which was limited to 500 players who could try out the suite of casino and poker games, with initial figures of 10,000 players registering for real-money play already proving to be positive signs.
However there are more technical issues which are still being addressed. In fact The Golden Nugget Atlantic City announced that they actually opted not to go live with the other six casinos, and instead wanted another week or so to ensure things run smoothly from the get go to ‘improve the customer experience’ after reports of slot games freezing during the test phase.
Geo location and payment processing are all ongoing issues which need to be advanced, with player identity verification also an issue being watched closely. During the test period there were zero players from outside of New Jersey able to join any of the online casinos which should mean the geo location was a success, instead however it is actually New Jersey residents facing problems. Several people who live along border areas have been reporting that they are blocked access to the online casinos as their locations are being tracked wrongly. It’s been stated by David Rebuck that the geo location issues are matters for the online casinos and their software partners to fix, and with the vast amounts of money on the line we expect this issue to improve sooner rather than later.
Payment processing is another big issue for these new online casinos. Both Visa and MasterCard have stated they would be accepting online casino deposits, but again numerous players have been reporting their deposit attempts have been denied. Currently Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co, and Paypal have publicly stated they will not be processing deposits to gambling sites, however much is expected to change in the next 12 months as more states open up for real money gambling and more online casinos enter the landscape.