Online Gambling On The Rise, But Online Poker Not Enjoying Those Spoils

Has the magic left the building when it comes to online poker? It seems like in a lot of ways it has. There are new numbers out from New Jersey indicating that the overall numbers for online gambling are up, but that the online poker portion of that equation still continues to lag. 

The numbers for November show that the online gambling world is still in a booming stage in New Jersey. In the month of November, online gambling accounted for $20.6 million in revenue for the state. That meant that for the last nine months in a row, it has exceeded the $20 million dollar mark. 

The numbers are stark when you put online casino revenue against just online poker revenue. What you can see is that the online casino activity continues to grow when compared on a year to year basis, but online poker does not do the same. The numbers for November for online casino gambling were roughly $18.8 million compared to $15 million for the same time period last year. The online poker numbers did not quite look so rosy. They showed a figure of approximately $1.8 million this year compared to $2 million last year. 

A lot of people blame this on the fact that the state only permits players within its geographic borders to play the game at the moment. However, that is supposed to be changing soon. New Jersey has joined in an inter-state poker pact that would allow players from all states where online poker is legal to compete with one another. This could increase the number of players in the total pool of players, and it could also mean that more people are able to play things like large-scale tournaments. If that kind of vision comes to pass, then perhaps online poker will stop lagging behind the rest of the online gambling industry. 

There has yet to be an effective date set for the inclusion of New Jersey into the inter-state poker pact, but as soon as that becomes known, you can expect that the numbers will change at least to some extent.