Legal betting online in the US is alive and well. With New Jersey’s registered online gamblers jumping on the new state-sponsored casino and poker offerings to the tune of nearly 3,000 a day, the three state total for registered Internet gamblers in Nevada, Delaware and NJ recently passed the 100,000 mark. Delaware has less than 1 million residents, but gambling legislators in that state are ecstatic with the way things are going at this early stage. Delaware recently passed the 5,000 registered player mark, and has already generated more than $4 million in revenue from those online gamblers.
Nevada may have been the first state to offer legalized online betting and gambling, but the Silver State does not offer legal online casino games like Delaware and New Jersey does. However, the Nevada online poker sites run by WSOP and Ultimate Poker have seen about 10,000 registered users. On December 1, New Jersey announced it had passed 71,000 registered online gamblers in its Internet casino and legal online poker player pool, and that the number was growing by approximately 3,000 more users each and every day, giving NJ the lead at more than 85,000 players currently.
Gaming officials for all three of those states have stated they are pleased with the effort so far in this extremely young US legal Internet gambling experience. Without offering casino gambling, legal Nevada online poker room companies have to be happy with the numbers so far, as does Delaware. New Jersey possesses more than double the combined populations of Delaware and Nevada, so they will logically be inclined to benefit from a much larger player pool. The best evidence of the popularity of legal betting online in its current state in the US is the fact that registered users have grown in number, and continue to grow, since the launch of online gambling in all three of those states.
Delaware probably deserves the blue ribbon for the smoothest launch of online gambling so far, as the number of false negatives encountered by legally registered and located potential players was just 10% of all applicants. That state also generated $3.8 million in revenue from its first 2,800 online gamblers. Obviously, with more possible players because of its large 9 million resident population, New Jersey experience the most hiccups during its Internet gambling launch. The biggest problem came from New Jersey residents and visitors physically located within state boundaries who were shut out of registering and playing.
NJ gaming officials have since addressed that issue, and are continuing to tweak the location of their virtual fences. Nevada suffered a 20% false negative occurrence during its launch of Internet poker, but has since corrected that problem as well. With Las Vegas, Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey already owning worldwide reputations as leaders in delivering physical gambling options, those two states will probably continue to lead the smaller Delaware in player registrations.
Several states, including California and Pennsylvania, are watching this early delivery of legal US online gambling very carefully, as they are both strongly considering passing Internet gambling legislation in both of those states. There are at least 10 other states which have expressed a desire to legalize online gambling in some form, and if players continue to sign up successfully in Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada, and the money continues to roll in, look for more legal online betting options for US citizens sponsored by their state legislators. At this time, nobody has been successful in legalizing state sponsored legal online sportsbooks, however there are plenty of licensed offshore brands offering legal online sports betting to US players.