2 Partnerships Still a Mystery as New Jersey Online Gambling Market Takes Shape

Update July 3rd 3pm EST  – PokerStars and Resorts have announced their intention to form an online gambling partnership.

UPDATE July 3rd  12pm EST– The Tropicana has announced a partnership with Gamesys, and Trump Plaza has teamed up with Betfair. This article has been updated to reflect the change.

NJ operators had until 4 PM on July 1st – an extension of the original June 30th deadline – to disclose their proposed online partnerships to the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE).

And the big news out of New Jersey as the deadline drew near was the announcement of a partnership between Ultimate Gaming and the Trump Taj Mahal.

But the story didn’t end there.

From the Twitter account of Chris Krafcik, North American Research Director at Gambling Compliance:

(1/3) From #NJ DGE: "Each Atlantic City casino has notified the Division of its intentions to partner with an #Internetgaming provider."

— Chris Krafcik (@CKrafcik) July 1, 2013

(2/3) "The Division is currently reviewing the completeness of the submissions and will be working with the casinos on the next step … "

— Chris Krafcik (@CKrafcik) July 1, 2013

(3/3) " … which is the filing of completed applications for all licenses (CSI, Ancillary or Vendor) by July 29."

— Chris Krafcik (@CKrafcik) July 1, 2013

The NJ online market as it currently stands

So, as of Monday, the existing partnerships in New Jersey were as follows:

• Caesars Entertainment and 888 (Caesars owns four Atlantic City casinos: Harrahs, Caesars, Showboat, and Bally’s).
• Boyd Gaming and bwin.party (Boyd Gaming co-owns The Borgata).
• Golden Nugget and Bally Technologies.
• Trump Taj Mahal and Ultimate Gaming.

And 2 more partnerships were announced post-Monday:

• The Tropicana and GameSys.
• Trump Plaza and Betfair.
• Resorts and PokerStars.

But there are a total of 12 casinos in Atlantic City. And all submitted information to the DGE regarding online partnerships, according to both Krafcik and an article on NJ.com that cites DGE spokeswoman Lisa Spengler.

This means there are five three two more partnerships that have been submitted but not announced:

• The Atlantic Club
• Revel Casino

The ACC got what effectively amounts to a final ok from the New Jersey courts to tear up its deal with PokerStars today, meaning both companies are basically back in play.

There hasn’t been much, if any, public speculation regarding potential partnerships for the other casinos listed above. But the number of unattached companies of note that don’t face suitability issues is a fairly small one.

With the next deadline approaching at July’s end, it’s likely we won’t have to wait long to see the mystery solved.