eGaming Review January 2014 | Page 13

[C O L U M N I S T ] New Jersey launch is a false dawn Former 888Poker marketing director Gareth Edwards argues that early trends from New Jersey’s launch should not be taken too seriously he size of the market, the regulatory conditions, and the ability to increase customer value with casino games as well, makes New Jersey the first relevant market in the US for poker operators. So in my opinion, this was the real launch of regulated online poker into the US, especially since it was a more level playing field. It’s taken more than a year of blood, sweat and tears from several thousands of software developers, network engineers, marketers, lawyers, analysts, fraud experts, and many more, as well hundreds of millions of dollars for the newly licensed operators and service companies to get the full gambling experience live into New Jersey. At last New Jersey is live and the approved operators were able to celebrate their hard work. I know they did, as I saw stacks of party photos on Facebook from friends in b \