The gambling outlook in New Jersey

Real money casinos in New Jersey

We've compiled a comprehensive list of all NJ online casinos for your convenience. Whenever you are feeling lucky and would like nothing more than to try your luck at New Jersey casinos, the solution is simple: visit Atlantic City. And while the whole map of Atlantic City casinos may confuse a newbie who wants to have fun, there are plenty to choose from, with every casino game imaginable. Veterans and beginners alike flock to Atlantic City in droves to satisfy their cravings, whether it be to win big at the slot machine or live dealer games, to watch the fabulous Atlantic City shows and sample the endless buffets and satiate their culinary appetites – there’s no doubt about it: Atlantic City has it all!

It’s also obvious that Atlantic City is home to the best casinos in New Jersey. You can enjoy casinos online, on land, or off the ground into international waters, where there is no limit to the types of games you can play in New Jersey. We will give you an overview of online, land, and off-land casinos in New Jersey.

But before that, you should know that the legal gambling age is 18 or 21, depending on the kind of games you want to play. Other sections of this article will give more details about the legal gambling age.

Besides the conventional brick-and-mortar casinos common in every state, including New Jersey, the digital development of the world we are living in has ushered in an era of online casinos. These online casinos are the most convenient to use in terms of accessibility, comfort, and the amazing bonuses you can hardly hope to get in a land-based casino.

On the other side of the fun is the off-land casino (do not confuse it with NJonline casinos, because off-land casinos involve being on a ship and leaving for international waters to enjoy both luxury and pleasure). Offland Casinos are, however, for everyone – but it is especially made for high-class spenders.

Sports betting

Sports Betting is a gambling game that involves playing your bets on the result of a sporting event. It usually involves predicting who will win, what the scores will be, and other game specifics. It covers major sports like football, hockey, basketball, and all other sports games and events, even rare games and events like cricket, F1, table tennis, darts, and more.

Before 2018, sports betting was deemed illegal anywhere else in the state, although betting was centered in Meadowlands, Freehold Raceway, and Monmouth Park (the very first in NJ) race tracks which were home to horse races. Horse race gambling was very popular then, as gamblers could play online using the 4NJBet platform.

It wasn’t until 2017, however, that New Jersey was exalted for its fight to make sports betting legal, and June of 2012 saw NJ Governor Chris Christie sign a bill legalizing sports betting. But this is where it gets interesting, because soon after the bill was signed, the NBA, NCAA, and NFL, along with other leagues, filed a suit against NJ that claimed that sports betting was not supposed to be legal, according to the PASPA, or the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. And in 2013, Judge Michael Shipp ruled in favor of the sports leagues, making it illegal for New Jersey to issue licenses for sports betting. But in 2017, New Jersey took its case all the way to the Supreme Court, which, as we all know by now, ruled in NJ’s favor. In 2018, sports betting was officially legalized weeks after the Supreme Court disallowed a federal ban, and this regulation set down rules for gambling Atlantic City-based SportBook Makers.

Currently, there are nine functional land-based sportsbook makers within New Jersey, and it has also launched Prophet Sportsbook, which is said to be the very first peer-to-peer platform for sports betting in the US. Additionally, 12 mobile sports betting platforms are available for New Jersey residents in the digital age.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Daily Fantasy Sports - also known as DFS - is a very innovative and novel method of sports betting, allowing bettors to make use of their knowledge in sports, and it is legal for ages 18 and above. The New Jersey Consumer Affairs Division is responsible for issuing licenses to DFS operators. With the operators paying annual gross revenue-based fees, New Jersey residents have unrestricted access to play NJ paid DFS platforms.

Daily Fantasy Sports combines both gambling and sports, making it one of the most-played gambling games in New Jersey. In 2017, New Jersey became the 16th US state to incorporate DFS into their gambling system and formally legalize it. However, what makes New Jersey different from the other states where online sports betting is legal is that it remains the first state to include college sports games in DFS.

DFS is mainly for those interested in a fictional self-created sports world rather than the real deal. Here is a list of some DFS games available in New Jersey:

Online Daily Fantasy NFL

Online Daily Fantasy NBA

Online Daily Fantasy MLB

Online Daily Fantasy NHL

College Fantasy Sport

These Daily Fantasy games are all played by setting up a team of your choice with the available virtual players that play these games in real life. In addition, some virtual players are purchased with real cash.

You can earn points based on the real-life performance of the players you have on your team. The real-life goals, assists, and blocked shots are accumulated as points. Then, the highest-ranking team wins the game. Keep in mind that the legal gambling age for DFS in NJ is 18 years, so anyone who is over the age of 18 can take advantage of DFS.

Poker

In the latter part of February, 2013, online poker became yet another legalized option for casino games in New Jersey. And if you are just new to gambling, poker is a nice gambling game suggestion to try your luck. As most everyone knows, poker is a card game played with a standard deck card. The game simply involves gaining card combinations. The higher the card's value, the bigger the chances of winning.

Enthusiastic poker players will delight in the good news that poker is legal in New Jersey and available in many New Jersey online gambling sites, which makes it only the 4th state to legalize online poker. As of the moment, New Jersey is a member of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, which means NJ players can play their hand against other residents of member states. Another fun fact is that NJ residents have unrestricted access to live and online poker rooms as long as they have attained gambling age in Atlantic City. NJ initially had three sites offering online poker in the state, but that has increased to over seven in all.

As mentioned, poker was officially introduced into the New Jersey gambling world in 2013. However, there are four distinct poker networks in New Jersey that most casino sites jointly use:

All-American Poker Network

Pala Poker

Partypoker Network

Pokerstars

The All-American Poker Network is the widest poker network in terms of range and gaming opportunities and options. In addition to this, the network is interconnected with Nevada and Delaware, making it possible to have an inter-state poker tournament. How exciting!

The smallest poker network is Pala Poker, which only has a limited working time frame - nights. Coupled with its time-selective operating hours, it does not share traffic with other poker networks.

If you are a poker enthusiast, you can also enjoy the privilege of playing poker variants in New Jersey virtual poker rooms:

Stud Poker

No-Limit Texas Hold'em

Pot-Limit Omaha

Fast-Fold

Gambling timeline in new jersey

Gambling has existed for more than a few centuries in New Jersey. Before it was banned in 1844, lotteries were common in the state. It has even financed military wars to enhance its weapons purchasing power, and it has also financed the building of the now Rutgers University and Princeton University, both located within New Jersey’s borders. But what started it all, and how did New Jersey become the state that has been a pioneer in land-based and online gambling that everyone knows of today?

It all began with horse racing. Existing since the 1830s, the Freehold Raceway was the first horse race track in the United States. The Monmouth County Agricultural Society also used Freehold Raceway for ceremonial events from 1854. However, in 1894, New Jersey legislators brought up a bill banning pool betting. It was officially in 1897 that a referendum was held to amend the constitution of New Jersey to ban all forms of commercial gambling.

Between 1894 to 1939, it was quite unclear whether gambling was truly banned, as churches and other organizations held public bingos, and even horse race betting continued. In 1939, though, Horse Race Betting was legalized once again, which began a new era of gambling history in New Jersey. 1953 saw the referendum of the people re-legalizing churches and other non-profit associations to conduct bingos and raffle draws.

In 1970, the New Jersey State Lottery was created, and by 1975, the first New Jersey Lottery game was launched – aptly named "Pick-It." But come 1976, a referendum of the state legalized casinos but restricted them within the confines of Atlantic City. In 1978, the first casino, Resorts Casino Hotel, opened in New Jersey.

In 2006, there was a shutdown of state government activities. This was due to the standoff between the then Governor and the legislators of New Jersey. As a result, Atlantic City suffered a backlash and has not fully recovered as of 2021.

Meanwhile, it was in 2012 that a bill was passed allowing sports betting to be legal in New Jersey except for college sports. However, it faced an uphill battle once again, as there were appeals and suits set up amongst sports associations to counter the bill. As a result, the Court faced many challenges in settling the dispute between the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and the 2012 bill.

It wasn’t until 2018 that the Supreme Court settled the constitutional issues and declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) 1992 unconstitutional. Following the decision made by the New Jersey Supreme Court, Governor Phil Murphy assented to Assembly Bill 4111, making Sports betting legal. In August 2018, premier online sports betting officially took place.

As it relates to online gambling, the struggle for its enforcement was tough as New Jersey legislators first passed it in 2011. However, it was vetoed by Governor Chris Christie based on his concern about the risk of nightclubs and cafes infiltrating the legislative loophole.

Governor Chris Christie then signed a revised bill in 2013, recognizing the legal age to gamble in Atlantic City as 21. The bill also increased the online gambling tax to 15% for participating casinos. In addition, certain technologies were incorporated to secure compliance with the bill - like GPS tracking to confirm the location and device used to gamble.

Gradually, online casino businesses began to open, and by 2017, about 12 casinos were focusing on online gambling. However, Atlantic City has held the casino gambling monopoly of New Jersey since 1976, and this decision was maintained to avoid the bankruptcy of casinos and prevent high competition.

All in all, though, New Jersey has shown that progress can indeed be made, both in land-based and online casino gambling in all its forms, from online sports betting to online poker and even lotteries and bingo. It has proven that both land-based and online casino gambling can exist side by side and even profit from one another. The future looks promising, and New Jersey is a state that bears a close watch in the coming years.