While Nevada was the first state to allow intrastate online poker, it has been left far behind when it comes to the revenue side of things when compared with New Jersey’s thriving online gambling industry. Just after New Jersey published its most recent numbers showing a fast growing online poker sector, Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval has once more indicated his desire to partner with the Garden State and create internet poker player pools.
According to New Jersey’s latest numbers, online casinos in the state won $17 million from gamblers during April – a record for one single month since the state introduced regulated online gambling, and a 33.8% growth compared to the same period a year ago. More specific to Nevada, where only online poker is allowed by law, revenue from peer-to-peer poker play grew 30.4% – from $2 million in April 2015 to $2.6 million last month.
This was the first full month that PokerStars has participated in New Jersey’s online gambling industry since its launch on March 21st, and industry analysts say that the iconic poker room accounted for nearly 50% of New Jersey’s online poker market last month.
With all this in mind, it is no wonder that Nevada’s governor is making a concerted effort to partner with New Jersey. At the recent Nevada Gaming Policy Committee meeting, the Governor Sandoval said that a compact with New Jersey would benefit both states.
Both governors, under state legislation, are permitted to negotiate player sharing compacts. The question is whether New Jersey feels the need to do so. The state already has 92% of the regulated online gaming market share in the United States.
In February 2014, Governor Sandoval reached a similar deal with the state of Delaware so that they could both share online poker liquidity. The problem is that these states are both very small in comparison to New Jersey and the arrangement hasn’t had much impact on revenues.
PokerStars seems to be sitting pretty in New Jersey’s market at the moment, and probably doesn’t feel the need to push to enter Nevada just yet. At one time the Amaya-owned brand sought to enter Nevada through a tentative agreement with Wynn Resorts, however those plans were shelved after the Department of Justice targeted online poker sites in April 2011 in a day that came to be known as Black Friday.
