Poker Fuse – Mario Galea, online gaming consultant for the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, expects New Jersey to enter into an interstate agreement before the end of the year. Galea, a former Chairman and CEO of Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta, was hired by the DGE in May 2013 to oversee the implementation of online gaming in New Jersey. “All the hard work has been done,” Galea told Becky Liggero of calvinayre.com (video below). “The next step is now for New Jersey to go out there and say, ‘Hey, we have the systems in place you guys…

Card Player – Late last week, IGT announced that its “Powerbucks,” a multistate wide-area progressive jackpot link, will be deployed at Caesars Entertainment properties in approved jurisdictions, starting with the states of New Jersey and Nevada. In other words, the games will be linked between the Silver State and the Garden State, leading to potentially bigger prizes. Recent changes to Nevada gaming regulations allowed for this. “We’re excited to transform the jackpot experience,” IGT said in a statement. “With Powerbucks, IGT re-imagines casino gaming thrills by creating more winners, more often, across multiple states. We all win when players engage…

Las Vegas Review Journal – Early projections of a massive swell of cash from legalized online gaming may have been overly optimistic, but regulation launched a breakthrough in the gambling world, Ultimate Gaming’s top executives told a crowd of about 200 on Thursday at the iGaming North America 2014 conference. In a joint keynote speech at Planet Hollywood, the company’s chairman Tom Breitling and CEO Tobin Prior pushed for extended legislation across the country. While creating new jobs, the sites can be trusted and taxed, they said. “Regulation now means victory,” Prior said. The two highlighted lessons the company learned…

Las Vegas Review Journal – A legislative committee tasked with looking at technology’s effect on the casino industry launched a debate Thursday on whether Nevada’s more than 2,000 restricted gaming locations rely too heavily on slot machines as a revenue source. The issue — whether funds gleaned from gaming in bars, taverns, restaurants and other businesses with 15 or fewer slot machines incidental to the location’s overall revenue stream — has been argued over the past few years by lawmakers, gaming regulators, the casino industry, restricted licensees and others. Various changes have been made to state and local ordinances, regulations…