Tropicana & Hard Rock Turn Towards Sportsbook
The Garden State could be seeing yet another expansion in the New Jersey sportsbook scene.
According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Tropicana Atlantic City and Hard Rock Atlantic City casinos have submitted petitions to open sports betting operations. Tropicana submitted its petition on October 3, while the Hard Rock – through its parent company Boardwalk 1000, LLC – submitted its petition on October 9.
Both casinos are seeking to begin offering sportsbooks in New Jersey immediately. We can assume that they’d offer both in-person and online sports betting options, although the petition does not need to specify that at this time. These petitions are basically applications for temporary licenses to offer sports betting and, if approved, give the operators the right to offer sports betting in New Jersey for six months while the full license process commences.
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If both casino operators are given the go-ahead to offer sports betting in New Jersey, it would bring the state’s grand total of sportsbooks to 10, eight of which would be located in Atlantic City.
If we base the timing of the Tropicana and Hard Rock sportsbook openings on past procedures, then both could be operating both in-person and online sportsbooks in the very near future. According to the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement records, other New Jersey casinos saw a period of as little as one day between the time their petitions were approved and when their in-person online casinos were fully operational to handle sports betting in New Jersey.
Potential Acceptance Date
That could put the timeline on the opening of both Tropicana’s and Hard Rock’s version of in-person and New Jersey online casinos toward the end of October or early November. Either timeline would be great for both the casino operators – who want to capitalize on the NCAA football and NFL seasons – and for NJ sports bettors, who are always looking for new options when it comes to sports wagering.
