This Nov. 26, 2013 photo shows Jon Hernandez of Roselle Park N.J. playing a game of Internet poker from his home on the day after it became legal in New Jersey. On Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, New Jersey lawmakers held a hearing to consider extending authorization for the state’s highly successful online gambling industry for another decade, through 2033. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, file) ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — As sports betting has swept across the country with states, casinos and consumers eagerly embracing a new gambling market, internet casino games have grown much more slowly.
But the online casino market has tremendous potential for growth and expansion, participants in a major casino conference said Friday.
Speaking at the East Coast Gaming Congress, executives of online gambling companies and their technology partners said the rapid growth of sports betting has provided a ready-made infrastructure and regulatory apparatus for online casino games.
So far, such gambling is legal in only six states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Delaware and Connecticut.
But panelists at the conference predicted three or four additional states could soon adopt internet gambling, including Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and New York.
In addition, more than a dozen states sell lottery tickets over the internet, according to James Carey, executive director of the New Jersey Lottery.
“I’m confident there’s plenty of room for growth,” said Jeffrey Millar, commercial director of North American operations for Evolution, an online casino content provider.
“The growth in this industry is still in its infancy stages in the U.S.” added David Rebuck, New Jersey’s top gambling regulator as director of the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Richard Schwartz, CEO of Chicago-based online gambling company Rush Street Interactive, said states that already have legal sports betting are strong candidates to adopt online casino games as well.“They already have regulators in place,” he said. “They have servers in place. It’s quicker to start up a casino addition.”Currently, 31 states plus Washington, D.C., offer legal sports betting, with several more expected to do so soon.Since it launched internet gambling nine years ago, New Jersey’s casinos have won $4.79 billion from gamblers online, according to the American […]
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