While New Jersey online gaming numbers haven’t met lofty projections so far, there have been certain factors holding the market back. And the biggest roadblock right now is credit card rejections, which, according to January 2015 figures, were being accepted at the following rates:
Visa – 73% acceptance rate
Mastercard – 44% acceptance rate
Things are set to change Now
While the old adage to never give up may apply to many things, it likely doesn’t hold much weight when depositing at an online poker or casino site – especially if you’re just a casual player. So these low credit-card processing rates have no doubt taken their toll on New Jersey iGaming. However, this problem should improve drastically now because the Garden State recently issued a new credit card code – “7801”.
How does Code 7801 change the Matter?
Despite online gaming being legal in New Jersey, Visa and Mastercard were still rejecting many related transactions under the 7995 code. Going further, many banks/credit card companies are abiding by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006), so the old code has been rejected because it’s related to online casinos.
The 7801 code is supposed to change all of this by showing credit card companies that New Jersey iGaming deposits are 100% legal. Given the previously grim acceptance rates, whether every single transaction is accepted remains to be seen. But we should at least see a major improvement in the amount of deposits being accepted in the near future.
Will this Heavily influence Revenue Numbers?
Having more iGaming transactions go through certainly can’t hurt in the grand scheme of things. There’s no telling how many hundreds (or even thousands) of players gave up on the concept when their cards were declined. So at least future players will be able to make deposits without any trouble. And who knows…maybe some of the potential players who got rejected the first time around will try again and experience success.
What kind of impact this has on the actual numbers is iffy. Maybe a few hundred thousand each month, maybe even a few million when the market matures down the road. Whatever the case may be, it seems that the Garden State’s iGaming operation continues making steady improvement and slowly increasing their revenue.