The Inside Scoop – Party Poker to Restore The Shore

Editor Note: Jeremy Enke is an industry veteran most well known for his publications as well as his industry accomplishments. Jeremy also leads the community at Poker Affiliate Listings. Jeremy writes a weekly feature for Poker Affiliate Solutions on the fast-moving developments in the regulated U.S. online poker market.

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Almost one full month after regulated online gambling went live in New Jersey, the states (DGE) Division of Gambling Enforcement came out this week and announced that 109,000 online gambling accounts have been created thus far.

The number of accounts being created each week in New Jersey continues to increase at a healthy and stable rate of approximately 20,000 new accounts per week.

And while itÂ’s impossible to know which operators are leading the market on the casino side of the business, the online poker leaders have resoundingly made their presence known. With over 50% of the states market share, NJ.PartyPoker.com has established their brand as the clear market leader. Followed by WSOP.com, and then AAPN, these three networks are dominating the New Jersey online poker scene.

Party Poker New Jersey – Paying It Forward

Leading up to regulation in New Jersey, there had been plenty of debate on whether regulated online gambling would be good or bad for the state. This week Party Poker showed us the exact benefits of having regulated online gambling in the U.S.

NJ.PartyPoker.com announced this week that they had officially partnered with New Jersey based non-profit Hometown Heroes. Together the duo will be organizing and hosting a six-month charity online poker series coined “Restore the Shore” to kick off on January 4th.

The series will raise money to help rebuild the following towns on the Jersey shore devastated by last years super storm, Hurricane Sandy: Seaside Heights, Toms River/Ortley Beach, Brick, Union Beach, Ocean Gate and Lavallette.

The tournament series will consist of six events, with each raising money for one respective town. The buy-in for each event will be $ 20, with $ 10 going towards the overall prize pool, and then $ 10 being donated directly to Hometown Heroes.

And with no hesitation, Party Poker also agreed to “pay it forward” by committing an additional $ 10 donation to the Hometown Heroes for each member that registers for an event throughout the series.

We at the Inside Scoop say Kudos to the entire Party Poker team on this charitable event. ItÂ’s actions like this that will help legitimize the regulated online gambling markets, and form the perception that online gambling companies bring positive things to the markets they enter.

Issues Still Facing the Regulated New Jersey Gambling Market

The first month of regulated online gambling in New Jersey has proven to be a successful one for both players and operators. Sure, there have been glitches and bugs to be worked out, but in a newly created market of over 100,000 players in 30 days, it would be hard to expect absolute perfection.

The two major issues facing both players and operators remain credit card approval rates, as well as geo-location issues in border towns. Geo-location issues should improve however into 2014 as developers and companies such as Loc-aid are constantly working to advance the underlying technology.

Credit card processing on the other hand is more so at the liberty of Visa / MasterCard, as well as the banks servicing these credit cards. As I mentioned in last weekÂ’s Inside Scoop, it makes no sense that a player could walk into the Borgata poker room and withdrawal from their Visa debit card to play poker. Yet, if that same player simply wants to play at BorgataPoker.com from the comfort of their own home, they cannot deposit at the companies online cashier.

Steve Ruddock researched the various success rates of New Jersey online poker deposit methods and published it.

Interesting to me was that as of right now only Borgata and Party are accepting Skrill. As the market continues to mature, the popularity of third party e-wallets such as Skrill is going to significantly increase.

Online Poker Report did a great interview with Skrill USA CEO Neil Steinhardt this past week. When asked what the top three things that need to happen to improve payment processing in new Jersey, Steinhardt states the following:

“First, banks need to be educated on this situation. Too many banks do not recognize the emergence of regulated gaming and have a blanket no-gaming policy.

Second, IÂ’m not sure if there is enough liquidity in a small state like NJ, but should a larger state like California legalize online gaming then there would be many more millions of customers looking to make deposits. The banks would take more notice.

Third is time. I think a lot of banks are taking a “wait and see” approach.”

January in New Jersey – A New Year’s to Remember

If online poker players in New Jersey thought that the first month of regulated poker in the Garden State was awesome, they havenÂ’t seen anything yet. Online tournament players in New Jersey are going to find no shortage of guaranteed money and exciting events.

For starters, NJ.PartyPoker.com is kicking off it’s “New Jersey’s Next Millionaire” promotion. In a nutshell, players can qualify online for the main event and final table to be played live at the Borgata where the winner will win a mind blowing $ 1,000,000 first prize. You can get all the event details in this write-up over at NJ Poker Online.

Next up, prior to WSOP satellites starting in February at WSOP.com, the iconic brand has announced they will be hosting a nine event series called the “WSOP.com New Jersey Online Championships Tournament Series”. Not to be outdone by Party giving away $ 1,000,000, WSOP.com is also guaranteeing $ 1,000,000 in this series. More exciting for players is that the series also includes two separate $ 250,000 freerolls.

You can read more about the 2014 WSOP.com events here.

And finally one of the World Poker Tours most popular televised championship events, The Borgata Winter Open, announced this week that New Jersey players would be able to qualify online in January for this $ 3,000,000 guaranteed event.

You can read the official press release here.

And with all that said, and writing about New Jersey this week, all I want for a Christmas is a plane ticket and to spend the month of January in the Garden State!

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