New Jersey has a new online gambling site as the Pala Band of Mission Indians received from New Jersey gambling regulators for a full launch of their online casino in partnership with Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
The casino began taking bets immediately after the five-day test period ended.
“We had a solid weekend and we have yet to start marketing,” Jim Ryan, CEO of Pala Interactive told the Associated Press. “We believe we are breaking into the New Jersey market at the perfect time.”
New Jersey began online gambling a year ago in November 2013. Online sites have to be offered either through or in partnership with Atlantic City casinos.
Initial projections for online gambling revenue were unrealistically high—as much as $1 billion was predicted by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie—and ended up at about $111 million for the year.
One site—Ultimate Poker—has folded since online gambling began. But state officials point to the interest from Pala Interactive and PokerStars—which is currently in the licensing stage—as a positive sign for the state’s industry.
The tribe runs the Pala Casino and Spa in San Diego County, California. Palacasino.com currently just offers slots and casino games, but poker is planned for early 2015, officials said.
The site’s debut came just days after New Jersey gambling regulators said they had found no evidence Ryan was involved in a 2006 cheating scandal at his previous employer UltimateBet.
The report from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement found that while the UltimateBet scandal occurred while Ryan was head of Excapsa Software—the firm’s software was used to cheat players by revealing their hidden cards to other users—the specific software was developed by a different company that predated Ryan’s employment at Excapsa.
“I had no knowledge of it, was not involved,” Ryan told the AP. “It was incredibly regrettable. It was a pretty sophisticated scheme.
The Pala site uses an entirely different platform, Ryan said.
“Part of my baggage in the social media world is that people say the Pala platform is the UB platform,” Ryan said. “It is not, in any way, shape or form. We took great pride in building a totally new site with state of the art anti-fraud protections. People coming to Pala are guaranteed a fair and safe experience.”
