State can't rush into legalized online gaming

State can't rush into legalized online gaming


As a business proposition, does anyone know whether Internet wagering would be incremental or reduce wagering and traffic in the casinos? Is something sold online something that would have been sold in a store or something that never would have been bought otherwise? Will Internet wagering reduce real casino visits and strand more of the casino industry's capital investment, discourage new capital investment or cause further reductions in on-site employment?


And what of the moral and ethical, as well as legal, questions inherent in making it possible to gamble any day, every day, all day from wherever you are in New Jersey, even on mobile devices? Or don't we care about things like that anymore?


The legislation is replete with extensive requirements that need a full set of new regulations concerning how wagering can be offered controlled and accounted, but legislators are not regulators and leave the messy complexity of regulations to others and Internet gambling could be a real mess. The enormous potential for social and economic harm and criminal activity inherent in Internet gambling; the heightened potential for cheating; the explicit need for the tightest systems of internal and accounting controls, and that the legislation essentially is limited to New Jersey make this a dubious proposition of questionable benefit to Atlantic City.

If something ever needed long, thoughtful, comprehensive examination it is Internet gambling. Equally with what it will do for Atlantic City the question ought to be what it would do to New Jersey and the nearly 9 million people who live here.

Carl Zeitz served as a member of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission from 1980 to 1988