Washington Post – New Jersey is deadly serious about making sure anyone who gambles online once Internet betting begins this week is physically within the state. And the technology designed to ensure it may freeze some bettors out of the action unless they move farther away from the state’s borders.
A key aspect of the law legalizing Internet gambling is that all the activity takes place within New Jersey’s borders. To comply with that, technology companies working with the Atlantic City casinos have erected so-called digital fencing near — but not exactly conforming to — the state’s borders.
The result in some places will be small no-play zones, from which potential gamblers will have to move temporarily if they want to bet online. These include places like the edge of the state’s borders along the Hudson and Delaware rivers, where the fence has been moved an unspecified distance inland to guard against anyone located in New York or Pennsylvania slipping through the safeguards and gambling online in New Jersey.
“Unfortunately for some people, there may not be sufficient verification that they are in New Jersey — even if they are — and they’ll be denied,” said David Rebuck, director of the state Division of Gaming Enforcement. “It’s an unavoidable consequence.”
