Wynn Interactive Cancels Application For NJ Online Casino License
The online poker market in New Jersey has been in decline for the last 12 months as online poker websites have found it difficult to generate player traffic in the garden state. Ultimate Poker, the first online poker website to launch in New Jersey has already shutdown operations after initial estimates of New Jersey’s online poker market failed to live up to expectations.
The New Jersey state gaming association is looking for new online gambling establishments to set up operations in New Jersey and revive the sluggish market. Wynn Interactive, the online division of Wynn Resorts was one of the establishments expected to launch in New Jersey. The company had teamed up with Caesars Interactive to provide online casino games in New Jersey and was in the process of obtaining an online license.
Wynn Interactive recently announced that it has decided against launching an online casino in New Jersey and had decided to cancel its application for an online gaming license. The sudden cancellation will be a disappointment for the state gaming association as regulators were positive about granting Wynn Interactive a license to operate in New Jersey. The company had initially contemplated about entering the online poker market back in 2013 but had always expressed its reservations of getting into the online gambling market.
Billionaire and chairman Steve Wynn has his own reservation on online gambling and once stated that online gambling wasn’t a very good entrepreneurial opportunity. Wynn had also leaned more towards Las Vegas Sands Chairman’s stance on being anti-online gambling and hence it isn’t a complete surprise why Wynn Interactive has decided to drop out of the online gambling market in New Jersey.
Considering the state of the online gambling industry in New Jersey it also appears to be a wise business decision at this point of time because analysts believe that the market will continue to decline into 2016. The state gaming association is expecting PokerStars to launch operations before the end of the year and believes that once the biggest poker website in the world opens up in New Jersey, the market will change for the better.
This move could also be delayed as state authorities are concerned over the on-going investigation into Amaya Inc, the company that owns PokerStars and are most likely to award a license only when the investigation is over and Amaya Inc comes out clean. Till then it appears that the online gambling market in New Jersey will have to be without PokerStars and Wynn Interactive.
