Plans are taking shape for a nationally recognized play-in person poker tournament, the World Poker Tour, to bring its championship to Atlantic City.
Many had expected poker to be a major part of online gambling in New Jersey when it was legalized in February, and their hopes are seemingly coming into fruition.
In April, the World Poker Tour championship will be held at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Bwin.party, the tour’s parent company, is partnering with Borgata to offer online gambling once it launches, possibly near the end of November.
The World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open has begun, with a prize pool of close to $4 million, published reports confirm.
Spokesperson for bwin.party, John Shepherd, said that online poker can help land-based casinos fill up their poker rooms and casino floors.
“I came in here [Borgata] Monday night and there were 1,200 people playing poker,” Shepherd reveals.
The end of November is still the target launch date for online gambling in New Jersey. But the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement says that some casino applications remain incomplete and request that the pertinent information is filled in.
Since 2010, bwin.party has been hard at work in preparation for online gambling in the U.S. Dedicated to allocating resources to the server room at the Borgata, the company can have as many as 200 of its software engineers working on the project.
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