Sports Gambling Atlantic City

admin  3/25/2022
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s top gambling regulator is threatening to fine sports books operating in his state that ask customers to cancel requests to cash out money from their accounts, saying the practice is ongoing and “unacceptable.”

In some cases, sports books have offered to give players cash bonuses if they cancel withdrawal requests, according to David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

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In a letter posted Wednesday to the division’s website, Rebuck did not name the sports books who have engaged in this practice, nor did he say how many complaints the division has received of such activity.

But he wrote that trying to talk customers out of withdrawing funds from their accounts violates numerous state rules.

“Patrons who request withdrawals have the right to receive their funds as expeditiously as possible,” he wrote. “Operators should clearly understand that the Division will take regulatory action and impose civil penalties whenever patrons are improperly encouraged or incentivized to rescind their withdrawal requests for the purpose of resuming gaming activity.”

New Jersey has become the national leader in sports betting in the U.S., taking more than $6 billion worth of such wagers last year. In December, its casinos and horse tracks took nearly $1 billion in sports bets, setting the latest in a string of national records for the most money wagered on sports in a single month.

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Its regulatory structure is considered to be among the most stringent in the nation, and has served as a model for numerous other states as they adopted their own sports betting legislation over the past three years.

Still, the head of the Stop Predatory Gambling organization on Friday accused the New Jersey attorney general’s office, which oversees the DGE, of “moral hypocrisy” for launching high-profile litigation against the opioid industry, while treating sports books with much more leniency.

“This is a naked attempt by online gambling operators to get citizens to lose more money,” said Les Bernal, the group’s director. “What New Jersey should be doing is suspending and fining them, not just some long-winded letter threatening future action.”

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This kind of activity is not limited to New Jersey. The United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission recently ordered its licensees to stop “reverse withdrawal options” until further notice out of concern over gamblers who may engage in excessive betting during coronavirus lockdowns.

New Jersey regulations do not require withdrawals to be processed immediately; an unspecified amount of time can be taken to verify a customer’s identity and investigate any fraud or money laundering concerns.

But as soon as those concerns have been laid to rest, the customer must be given his or her money without further delay, officials said.

“In the period between a withdrawal request and the actual release of funds to the customer, patrons reported contact from providers encouraging or enticing them to reverse the withdrawal request and wager the funds,” Rebuck wrote. “It has been reported by some patrons that they were even offered bonus money to reverse a pending withdrawal request.”

He said such an offer of bonus money would be considered “an aggravating factor” in any disciplinary action against a sports book.

Richard Schwartz, president of Rush Street Interactive, which operates PlaySugarhouse.com in New Jersey, said his company approved more than 75% of online player cash-out requests “in real time” during the fourth quarter of last year.

“Our automated payout system protects our players by enabling them to cash out quickly so they don’t otherwise cancel their payout requests and continue gambling with their winnings,” he said.

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Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.

NJTV News Business Correspondent Rhonda Schaffler spoke with Nicholas Amato, an attorney at Genova Burns in Newark. Amato was the former executive director of the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and a past president of the Casino Association of New Jersey. He spoke about the impact the Super Bowl will have on legalized sports betting in New Jersey.

Schaffler: This is really going to be the Super Bowl of sports betting — legal sports betting — here in New Jersey. How’s the state going to do?

Amato: Terrific, we’re going to be beat Nevada.

Schaffler: Beat Nevada?

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Amato: Last year Nevada did about $158 million. I think New Jersey could do $200 million.

Schaffler: Why?

Amato: That’s called a handle. That’s not the total win.

Schaffler: Right, so, why do you think New Jersey stands a chance to win?

Amato: Well I think New Jersey has so many sports enthusiasts. You have all the team — baseball, football. This is the biggest event in football history, the Super Bowl. Everybody wants to play in the Super Bowl. And now we have internet gaming, we have mobile gaming, so it makes it very convenient. You can do it from your house, all right. And there are so many of what they call proposition bets, or novelty bets. You can bet on how long the national anthem is going to take, whether or not a player is going to take a knee, you can bet how many times Tom Brady may or may not get sacked, how many times he’s going to get hit. They’re called novelty or proposition bets.

Schaffler: This certainly explains the rush to get all of these sports books up in time for the weekend. Casinos know it’s a moneymaker.

Amato: Sure, and the racetracks. You have Monmouth and Meadowlands. It’s going to be very, very exciting for the people of New Jersey, and for Atlantic City, and for Monmouth and for the Meadowlands.

Schaffler: What do you think sports gambling is going to do beyond Super Bowl weekend for New Jersey’s economy, for places like Atlantic City, which, in the past, we’ve tried to see a resurgence there?

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Amato: It’s going to be a rocket.

Schaffler: A rocket. You’re so enthusiastic about it.

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Amato: Yeah. It’s going to be a rocket. I mean, first we had the internet, and that brought back Atlantic City from where it was, like a revitalization. Look at the advertisement of the Golden Nugget, how well it did with internet gaming. Now you have sports betting, OK? Sports betting is probably extremely exciting because of all the teams — don’t forget, you have the New Jersey market, New York, Philadelphia, Connecticut. Right now, all the teams that comprise that. It’s amazing.

Schaffler: But what about the fact that there is going to be an increase in competition? Other states are getting in the sports betting game. So we have this early advantage, if you will, but how do we stay competitive against the other states?

Amato: By giving a better product. You’re going to have — right now, there’s eight states that have sports wagering, OK. Eventually, probably, New York is going to have it. They’re going to have it now in their upstate casinos, but they don’t have it really anywhere close by. Meadowlands right now has almost a monopoly. The point is that you’ve got to keep offering a better and better product, make people interested in what you have to offer, make it exciting and I think that Jersey is going to lead the way.

Schaffler: You have a lot of experience in the past, in terms of the ins and outs of casinos in Atlantic City. What are they going to do right this time?

Amato: Well, right now, you know, some of it was their fault, some of it wasn’t — the recession, Pennsylvania coming, they’re estimating Pennsylvania. Right now the city government is back on track. They got the tax structure going, they have to get the government back on track. Once you have a solid foundation, you have tremendous executives running the casinos and they’re name is to make money for themselves and for Atlantic City because a better Atlantic City makes a better casino.

Schaffler: And how confident are you that the regulators will stay on top of this burgeoning sports betting business. There have been some fines levied. There’s been some underage gambling. Do you think we’re going to be able to stay on top of the growing industry?

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Amato: We’ve stayed on top. That’s never been a real issue. We have probably one of the greatest regulatory systems in the country — the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement by Director Rebuck. It’s terrific, and they have a geotechnical location system. I don’t know if you know about it, but, for example, if someone is trying to bet from Pennsylvania in New Jersey, they’re not allowed in. They can see them on this giant screen and they’re kept out.