I wonder if NJ is a big enough market, with big enough liquidity pools, to attract a lot of Black Friday expats to return to the US to play here. Unlike Nevada and Delaware, New Jersey has really significant population. And that's without compacts. If NJ could sign compacts with other states quickly, why wouldn't players stuck in foreign lands relocate to NJ? They'd be close to Manhattan and Philly, they'd have access to both live and online play. Seems like a natural.

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Edit/MH:

Close may be a problem. Because of the bordering states, they will (probably?/definitely?) need to set up a draconian exclusion zone, cell phone tower triangulation system. In the case of NJ, that line may fall in some inconvenient places.

they will not move to New Jersey because they they would have to live in New Jersey.

if u think ppl would move to New Jersey this tells me you've never been to New Jersey.

Any licenses awarded to operators so far or its too early in the game.

Um...

sandsmarc
grinder

Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Northern NJ

Borgata as far as I know.

What I do want to ask if that person HAS to live in Nj ? I wonder what defines it . I live on both NY and Nj technically . I was hoping you just had to be within the state to play.

Do you know how many beautiful areas there are in this state? We are not taking Durrr to Linden or Hackensack. It's going to be Newport or Hoboken, or Marlboro, or Brick, or Saddle River, or Alpine, or Mendham, or Holmdel, or Rumson, or even Sparta.

This state with a successful implementation of online poker would be a grinder's dream. With a mix of online and live action, excellent proximity to the Capitol of the World (Manhattan), and some of the fastest Internet in the country. You watch. I see a bright future as of today. And until and unless NJ effs it up in some way, I will continue being optimistic.

You will not have to live in NJ.

No. You can play at the IHOP in Keyport. Really, if you are going to grind 8 hours a day, and you want to supplement with live, you will functionally have to live in NJ. I'm talking about pros, not casuals.

Borgata is pretty nice for pros, and you won't have to live here. You can just go to Borgata for a few days or weeks.

I know a pro who used to come to Borgata for 3 weeks then went home one week to his wife. Borgata will give you free rooms, you'll be able to play online or live in one of the best rooms in the country.

Borgata also received its license already.

Pro's wont be the issue. The issue is going to be liquidity. NJ will roughly be only twice as large as NV because the population is roughly 3 times of NV but people in NJ are 1/2 as likely to play online as people in NV.

I only play fast poker online, the only room you can play that at 1/2 or 2/5 is pokerstars. I doubt that in NJ with about 1-2% of the player base that stars has we will have amazing games other than micro stakes.

We will see how it plays out.

True, the ultimate name of the game will be state compacts. That will provide the liquidity. But of course, it has to happen. Definitely wait and see with a lot of hope.

Well if they create pacts with big states, you'll also have the ability to choose those states.

And given higher state income taxes, maybe even higher cost of living... I'm not sure NJ is going to be a popular enough choice to be the new gaming capital of the world.

Your other points make a lot of sense though. NJ is well located geographically, and while some people joke (and I've never been to NJ mind you), there's a long stretch of beach and probably some pretty attractive areas. It's not like you're auto living in AC or Camden if you move to NJ to play poker.

I honestly don't see any poker capital though. Texas, CA and NY could all have large enough populations to do very well on their own, but unless they team up with an international pool very quickly, I don't see how they become the ONLY destination for most poker pros to consider. Just too many lower income tax/cheaper cost of living states than NY or CA, and TX isn't as desirable to many/probably won't have online poker right away either.

True. If NJ compacts with Hawaii, well then...

nj needs to have a better medical marijuana situation then maybe... otherwise im just crossing my fingers cali gets it going soon, now THAT would be an online poker capital.
ps. does nj still have no self serve gas stations?

Yeah. Nj doesn't let you pump your own gas. I always take over after the gas guy starts it up. So it is 100 percent true you won't have to live in Nj? As there are some good opportunities then in the border cities like union city /JC/ Hoboken.

Now why would you want to do that? Our gas is cheaper and we don't have to pump it. I used to live in New York and I would have to get out and pump the gas in January while its 5 degrees with a minus 15 wind chill. When I first moved to NJ I was disconcerted at first. But I quickly realized it was a better way to go. So what, 20 extra seconds for the transaction? It's worth it, and I never accidentally dribble gas on my clothes or shoes. More employment for low-lives. Win win.

Soft launch scheduled for Nov 21st I think and full launch something like Nov 26th. Borgata definately has a license, others are in the process I believe, including Pokerstars.

haha thats funny. i stand corrected, but this reinforces my point. the OP lives in New Jersey so he should know successful poker players would never want to live there.

in all seriousness though, New Jersey is the nut low.

You couldn't be more wrong. It's one of the best places to live in the free world. And it will make a great capitol.

10 million dollar poker room at Resorts to be built if they get licensed. Can't wait for the comp wars to start when that happens!

So far only the Borgota/Party Poker have a license.
Next week may bring more.

One biggie is if PS will get licensed. I think they will as why would Morris Bailey (Resorts) go this far without serious encouragement from Trenton. PS has stated they will build a $10 million poker room. If that happens, Resorts will possibly come back from the dead and be the land host for a serious number of PS tourneys. Hard to believe a year ago that the 1978 Resorts would be in this good a position.

Let the licenses be issued and the servers installed.

Absolutely . the only people who think jersey (especially north jersey ) is a bad place to live has no clue how Nj really is .

The only way its gonna be the capital of Online Poker is if these two things happen.

1. Pokerstars gets a license
2. NJ signs compacts with Italy, Spain or France. The current NJ bill allows for this to a possibility. I can see players moving to jersey if they can get to play against a international player pool.

Have any European nations signed compacts with each other? I think that would come long before NJ. Plus the Justice Department would arrest NJ if they had the audacity to sign international compacts.

not yet but there are talks between france and italy.
the downside the rake taken out on french sites in cash games is almost unbeatable.
but a alot mtt grinders play the tourneys there.