Besides initial geolocation issues, one of the biggest problems that hampered the New Jersey iPoker market last year was credit card rejections. Specifically, only 73% of Visa transactions were approved at online gaming sites while just 44% of MasterCard transactions were accepted. Obviously this isn’t good and it serves as a huge turnoff to any prospective poker player in the New Jersey market. But fortunately, the Garden State will be getting a huge boost with regard to credit card processing.
New credit card categorization code coming in the spring
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) recently released a press release discussing their first full year of iGaming and what they hope for in the future. And one very interesting tidbit involves how the DGE expects to have an improved credit card acceptance rate in 2015. Here’s an excerpt from the PR:
“The Division has been in discussions with the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to address the difficulties related to payment processing. Most recent statistics indicate that about 73% of Visa and 44% of Mastercard transactions are approved. A new credit card code has been created for legal online gambling transactions and it is expected to be in effect spring of 2015. It should also be noted that the rate of chargebacks for Internet gaming.”
The statement also points out how, in the meantime, players can continue to fund their online casino and poker site accounts with services like Neteller. Additionally, the PR offers that any payment processing issues should be resolved as “the banking industry becomes more familiar with legalized Internet gaming.”
Looking to the future
Aside from taking care of credit card transactions, the DGE cites that interstate/international compacts will be very important to their future moving forward. Going further, it’s pointed out how online poker specifically can really benefit from compacts due to increased liquidity.
So who are the DGE’s target partners right now? The PR states that discussions have occurred with both Nevada and the UK, although nothing concrete has happened yet. However, the letter provides optimism by stating that the DGE is “open to discussions in this area.” That said, the main problem plaguing the US iGaming market still remains the lack of states involved. New Jersey is willing to get involved with other iGaming-friendly states, but they need them around first.