Interstate Compact This Year, Says New Jersey iGaming Consultant Interstate Compact This Year, Says New Jersey iGaming Consultant
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Key Takeaways
  • Mario Galea, online gaming consultant for the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, expects New Jersey to enter into an interstate agreement before the end of the year.
  • “New Jersey is definitely looking at that agreement and I’m pretty sure they would be happy to come into that agreement,” Galea said.

Mario Galea, online gaming consultant for the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, expects New Jersey to enter into an interstate agreement before the end of the year.

Galea, a former Chairman and CEO of Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta, was hired by the DGE in May 2013 to oversee the implementation of online gaming in New Jersey.

“All the hard work has been done,” Galea told Becky Liggero of calvinayre.com (video below).

“The next step is now for New Jersey to go out there and say, 'Hey, we have the systems in place you guys can use our systems to be able to share that information.’”

Earlier this year, Nevada and Delaware entered an agreement to allow internet gambling operators to share player liquidity between the two states and any other states that join the agreement.

“New Jersey is definitely looking at that agreement and I’m pretty sure they would be happy to come into that agreement,” Galea said.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval revealed that he has had conversations with New Jersey in regards to joining the multistate agreement.

“We would love to have New Jersey as a partner,” Sandoval expressed back in February.

New Jersey has been interested in interstate compacting since the beginning, according to Galea. Knowing that its efforts would be more successful as part of a group of states than it would be alone, New Jersey built its technology within a conceptual framework that would accommodate data sharing between states.

The technology in the US is evolving faster than it has in Europe, Galea stated.

Regulated markets in Europe have not yet begun sharing data across borders, though regulators from Spain and Italy have held discussions about the possibility. Galea points out that the US has not only advanced in terms of policy, but it also has the technology in place to execute the terms of the agreements between states.