The clock is ticking, slowly, for the New Jersey legislature. The state faces a November deadline by which it must re-authorize online gambling, including online poker, as a legal and regulated activity.
While there's little doubt that the needed legislation will pass later this year, the applicable measures have been moving forward at a predictably slow pace. It's already been nine months. Senate Bill 3075 (S3075), was introduced last September, with matching bill A2190 also introduced in the New Jersey Assembly.
Despite the lack of opposition to the re-authorization, the Senate version of the bill has cleared only two committees over the interim. For seven of those nine months, S3075 languished in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee before being passed unanimously last week.
S3075 will extend the state's authorization of online gaming another decade, to late 2033. New Jersey initially authorized iGaming in 2013, joining Nevada (for online poker only) and Delaware in that regard. Since then a handful of states, concentrated largely in the Northeast, have also legalized online casino games, though the market's growth has been slower than initially predicted.
