Miami Herald – The Virgin Group is poised to launch its online casino gambling site in New Jersey. Gambling on virgincasino.com, one of 15 gambling websites approved last fall by New Jersey regulators, is due to begin Friday. But company officials said they chose to delay its launch while problems affecting numerous online sites involving login problems, payment issues and software glitches were worked out. Virgin is partnered with online game maker Gamesys, which also runs the Tropicana online casino site.

“We’ve been rehearsing this moment for several years in the UK, including dealing with players who have bet more than $4.3 billion on Gamesys games in 2012,” said Lee Fenton, chief operating officer of Gamesys. The site features more than 30 games. Like all New Jersey Internet gambling sites, it is only accessible to gamblers who are physically located within the state.

New Jersey’s Internet gambling sites took in $8.4 million between the Nov. 21 launch and the end of the year.

Analysts expect the state to take in $200 million to $500 million this year in online gambling revenue.

As of Jan. 12, users had created 155,374 accounts with New Jersey gambling sites, though officials say many users have accounts on more than one site.

Internet gambling represents the biggest expansion of legalized betting in New Jersey since its first casino opened in 1978. It is designed to provide new revenue for Atlantic City’s 11 casinos, which have been struggling with declining revenues for the past seven years.