New Jersey Boasts Vastly Improved Geolocation Technology
March 18, 2014 5:13 pmNew Jersey’s fledgling online gambling industry may thus far only have achieved a tenth of the revenues envisioned by Governor Christie in his pre-regulation forecast, but that situation may improve soon as the state rises to the challenge of efficiently monitoring its state borders using geolocation technologies.
When the state launched regulated igaming in November, 2013, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement insisted upon a strictly enforced geolocation buffer zone designed to ensure out of state players couldn’t gamble at any of NJ’s regulated online gambling rooms. However, it soon became clear inefficient technologies meant legitimate players located close to state borders were counted as part of the ring fenced off area and subsequently locked out from gambling online. Consequently, the state’s industry has suffered in terms of both appeal and revenues as a large proportion of potential igamers has been cut off from the action.
With the introduction of a smaller buffer zone combined with enhanced geolocation technologies, however, New Jersey is already beginning to see an uptick in its numbers, and as Brian Mattingley, Chief Executive of 888 Holdings, commented recently:
“By allowing us a little bit more flexibility and easing the tolerance in that distance, it made it significantly better in the second and third month.”
Currently, 10 out of the state’s 11 internet gambling sites rely on GeoComply to monitor the geolocation of customers, but with recent technological enhancements the company now boasts an improved 95% success rate.
So far, New Jersey may only have generated $27.2 million in revenues over the past three months, but analysts are becoming increasingly more confident NJ igaming operators will soon see an improvement in their player numbers and revenues as initial kinks in the industry are ironed out. The situation is only likely to improve further after major banks, such as American Express, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase, start processing online gambling transactions.