New Jersey Online Gambling News Round-Up
Published May 17, 2019 by Elana K
New Jersey is suing the DOJ for not releasing documents pertaining to the current online gambling crackdown. In other news, a Nevada man won $29 gambling illegally at a New Jersey online casino; the casino is now being fined $25,000.
What a month New Jersey is having, and it’s not even over. The attorney general announced that the state is suing the Department of Justice for failing to hand over information regarding Sheldon Adelson and the recent crackdown on legal online gambling. The AG requested the information in February, following the crackdown that began in January, and has since then heard nothing from the DOJ. The failure to deliver the requested documents is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act, according to the New Jersey lawsuit.
New Jersey has regulated a thriving online gambling industry since 2013 and is considered by many states the paragon of a successful operation. In fact, this past March, NJ online gambling hit a record high of nearly $40 million. With so much at stake, AG Gurbir Grewal is not ready to give it all up.
Grewal stated, “Online gaming is an important part of New Jersey’s economy, and the residents of New Jersey deserve to know why the Justice Department is threatening to come after an industry we legalized years ago.
“It’s especially important that we figure out whether this federal crackdown is the result of a lobbying campaign by a single individual seeking to protect his personal business interests.”
The lawsuit requests that the DOJ deliver the documents within 20 days, but the consequences are not yet known should the DOJ choose not to.
In Other New Jersey News
There’s a reason New Jersey’s online gambling operation is so successful: The Division of Gaming Enforcement takes it seriously. Case in point is last week's incident of a Nevada man winning $29 by gambling at a New Jersey online casino. This, of course, never should have happened, since the geolocation technology used by New Jersey online casinos is supposed to block anyone outside state borders from logging in.
Due to the breach in technology, the Gaming Innovation Group, which runs the online casino of Atlantic City's Hard Rock Casino, is being fined $25,000. The group has stated that this was a one-time error and will not be repeated.
