America Being Dealt Another Hand In Online Casino Gaming

With the upcoming launch of PokerStars in New Jersey, the real-money online games industry in the world’s top economy is set to get a big boost.

PokerStars, which has nearly 70 percent of the world’s online poker market, averages roughly 16,000 cash game players over a week these days, according to PokerScout. 888poker, which is involved with online poker in New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada, has a seven-day average of roughly 2,400. Bodog (1,500), iPoker (1,450), Winamax.fr (1,350) and PartyPoker (1,200) are the next most played online poker networks.

In terms of play-money poker, Zynga still has a dominating share of the pie with a seven-day average of 38,500 players, followed by PokerStars’ free-play platform with 15,500. DoubleDown Casino is next with 4,000, and then there’s a giant drop-off between the next largest player in the space.

For real-money sites that are licensed in the U.S., WSOP/888 NJ leads the way with a seven-day average of 200 ring-game players. WSOP NV/DE Lottery is second with 160, followed by Party Borgata NJ with 130. The American market is still in its infancy thanks to being cut off from other player pools around the world.

A PokerStars network in New Jersey is expected to compete right away for America’s most played poker site, but Garden State players for now won’t be able to play against anyone not located in New Jersey. The law allows for that possibility in the future. New Jersey would just have to work out deals with other jurisdictions for online poker liquidity sharing, like Nevada and Delaware did in 2014.

New Jersey online casinos won $148 million from gamblers in 2015 (an increase of 21 percent year-over-year), which dwarfed the combined markets of Nevada and Delaware.

The global online gambling market is growing at an 11-percent clip, but for growth to continue the American market must further open. Online gambling is currently worth around $37 billion a year, as about 85 nations across the world have chosen to legalize Internet gambling, according to the American Gaming Association.

According to KeyToCasino, more than 70 percent of the world’s online casinos restrict access to Americans, which is worst in the world. For comparison, roughly 30 percent of gambling sites restrict access to Iran. Financial services firm Morgan Stanley believes the U.S. online gaming market could reach $5 billion in the next handful of years, assuming more states legalize and regulate the industry. Europe is still where roughly 40 percent of worldwide online gaming revenue is generated.

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