NJ.com – More than a week after online gambling began in New Jersey, casinos and their partners are still struggling to verify the location of people who want to play on the new websites.
Steve Callender, the general manager at the Tropicana Atlantic City, said about 75 percent of people who have tried to play on the resort’s online gaming website — TropicanaCasino.com — have been denied because the system could not verify they were in New Jersey.
“I would say a quarter are getting on,” Callender said yesterday, noting there’s a positive side to that: “We don’t have a situation where people who are outside the state are getting on.”
Regulators with the state Division of Gaming Enforcement have made it clear that casinos must ensure all players are physically located in the Garden State, using multiple location techniques. That means, for example, matching a computer’s internet address with a player’s cell phone location.
Some users have been legitimately rejected, with people in more than 25 different states trying to play. Others who have been rejected, though, are actually located in New Jersey and expressed frustration with the process.
But executives say that — slowly — more people are being able to get on and play. That’s in part because of technology changes, but mostly because players are having success working with customer service representatives.
“Every day gets a little less stressful,” said Seth Palansky, a spokesman for Caesars Interactive Entertainment.
Many users have encountered trouble making deposits into accounts at the six casinos the state has authorized to offer internet betting, executives and regulators say. Some major banks — as well as American Express and PayPal — refuse to process online gambling transactions.
