It’s an exciting time for poker players in New Jersey because the state’s online poker sites are finally up and running. Unfortunately, some of this enthusiasm has been curbed because many players have had trouble signing up and/or playing at the sites.
The rule is that you must be in New Jersey to play online poker games. Casinos and their online partners adhere to this rule to avoid violating any federal laws. And so far, the safeguards have kept residents from 25 other states from playing at New Jersey poker and casino sites. But perhaps the safeguards have been a little over-effective…
Steve Callender, who’s the general manager of Tropicana Atlantic City, recently said that only 25% of the players who’ve tried to play have been successful. A good portion of the remaining 75% who’ve been prevented from playing are actually New Jersey residents, or at least within state lines.
In some cases, people are able to sign up and make a deposit, only to later find out that they can’t be located anywhere in the Garden State. Philly.com writer Jacqueline Urgo was one such person, as she documented her odyssey to playing internet poker games in New Jersey. She wrote the following:
For me, it was a day of false starts: successful log-ins, then unable to move past basic casino website pages; trying to pay with a Visa card and finding out the site would only make an Automated Clearing House withdrawal from my bank account; odd issues with browsers and a laundry list of programs that had to be disabled or enabled.
The Tropicana’s website was finally able to verify Urgo’s location, but her journey wasn’t over yet. She still had to have a Tropicana IT person walk her through all of the steps to make sure her computer and iPhone were set up to play. In the end, it took her a total of 10 hours to use the small $20 deposit she made.
The experience hasn’t been much easier for a large number of other players. And most of these people aren’t going to spend 10 hours going through the process so that they can have material for a magazine article. But if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel, it’s that New Jersey casinos are continually working to fix the sign up/verification issues that are plaguing players.