As in most of the United States, New Jersey residents must use legitimately regulated online poker sites that are located outside of the country in order to legally access licensed online poker gambling, but there are three main exceptions to that rule. One of those exceptions is the state of New Jersey. Despite the reportedly stagnant poker market within the state, Pala Interactive has announced the new launch of their poker platform, PalaPoker.com to be based out of the Garden State. The new platform will have both desktop and mobile capabilities available to residents of New Jersey and is currently in open beta testing.
PalaPoker will remain a standalone site despite finding its licensing through the same source as their casino site. The company is owned in majority by the Pala Band of Mission Indians out of California and has an ex-PartyGaming CEO named Jim Ryan. The CEO, Ryan, teased the release of a new poker brand in in an interview with CalvinAyre.com in 2015 being quoted to have said that the brand’s new poker site was “ready to go” and only waiting on a few things to clear up in the national climate of legal online poker.
One of those things was the fast-approaching launch of a new PokerStars brand by Amaya Gaming in New Jersey. The company wished to let the market subside a little before releasing their brand with ideas to also watch how the brand did in comparison. The other was the inherent desire to take online poker to California, where the company find’s its home state. At the time, California had some rising hope in legislation for legalized and state-regulated online poker. However, California’s attempts at legislation have been staved off almost indefinitely and has left the company looking to make a release somewhere that will have them. They have expressed some desire for other states like Illinois and New York but nothing yet has happened at the state government level and they have come full circle back to New Jersey and this time they mean it.
The company has undoubtedly dwarfed their expectations in the poker market of New jersey as the PokerStars brand has verified the difficulty a poker site might have in the state. The CEO, Jim Ryan, made it clear in his interview that they were just happy to provide another outlet for residents of New jersey and Delaware to have another option for legal and safe state based online poker entertainment. The company still holds their ambitions to expanding into their home state as well as many other states as they start to legalize and regulate legal online poker rooms in the US. PalaPoker will add to the list of options available to NJ residents that include multiple state based online gambling brands as well as legally sanctioned offshore gambling sites accepting players from NJ.
You can read the official press release from PalaPoker for more information.