Press of Atlantic City – Legislation proposed earlier this year could pave the way for Internet gambling to spread from New Jersey across state lines, state Assemblyman John Amodeo told a conference of gambling leaders and regulators Tuesday.
The bill that could see action after November, Amodeo said, would allow the hardware and software involved in Internet gambling to be located outside of Atlantic City casinos, provided the equipment is still within the resort’s borders.
That opens up the possibility of the state hosting a central hub for multistate online gaming. The state could sell rights to run programs out of such a hub, said Amodeo, R-Atlantic. He suggested that adopting the legislation would be the first signal that New Jersey might entertain the idea of interstate compacts.
New Jersey’s Internet gambling legislation requires players to be located within the state to place bets. Compacts or agreements with other states — not necessarily neighboring states — could open up online gambling to more consumers, creating larger players’ pools and a nationwide system for online betting.
“Ultimately, we could see Las Vegas handle everything west of the Mississippi, and Atlantic City could handle everything east of the Mississippi,” Amodeo said after his public remarks. “This is that big. It has that kind of potential.”
