Mohegan Sun Online Casino Launched In New Jersey

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Friday, July 24th, 2015 | Written by Adam Brown

While New Jersey’s online poker market continues to disappoint, the state’s online casinos are doing rather nicely and on Monday their numbers grew further after MoheganSunCasino.com launched under the iGaming license of Resorts Casino Hotel. The new online casino has currently moved into a soft-launch phase while a number of services are tested, including geo-location, payment processing, and player verification, after which final approval is expected to be granted by the Division of Gaming Enforcement. Commenting on the development, Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA) President Bobby Soper, said:

“We are a growing company and the online gaming platform is a progression of where gaming, or at least a segment of gaming, is going. The online gaming opportunity is significant in the United States. While only a $100 million dollar industry within the United States, it is a $40 billion market worldwide, and growing at a pace of almost 30 percent. We want to be in early and take advantage of all the opportunities.”

Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority

The bulk of revenues generated by the MTGA derives from the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut (photo), one of the biggest casinos in the US with 6,500 slots and 377 table games. The tribe also operates other land-based casinos in Pennsylvania, and is also in the process of expanding into Washington state and as part of an international expansion project is planning to develop an integrated casino resort near Incheon International Airport in South Korea. In addition, the Mohegan tribe manages one of New Jersey’s smallest casinos, the Morris Bailey owned Resorts Atlantic City.

Resorts Casino License

The Resorts already runs an online casino on its Resortscasino.com website, and MoheganSunCasino.com is a virtual clone of that product, which has thus far managed to capture a 4% share of New Jersey iGaming market. Moreover, the Mohegan Sun Casino’s latest online casino launch sheds a positive light on the industry as it shows a willingness of major casino operators to move into the online gaming space, and take advantage of the customer loyalty built up from their land-based enterprises. Elaborating further, Resorts owner Morris Bailey said:

“MoheganSunCasino.com will be the latest example of our commitment to partnering with the world’s most trusted and respected brands to deliver the best gaming experience possible to our players.”

While Resorts, Borgata, Caesars, Tropicana, and Golden Nugget all offer products in The Garden State’s regulated internet gambling market, Trump Entertainment is the sole Atlantic City casino owner currently without an online gaming presence. At one stage Trump Entertainment had entered into agreements with Ultimate Gaming and Betfair, but both partnerships never took off the ground due to the Trump Entertainment’s financial problems, with the company in September 2014 filing for bankruptcy for a fourth time.

No Poker

Commenting on the new site and its 140 slots, video poker and table games, 44 of which are for mobile devices, MTGA president Bobby Soper, said:

“Our goal is for MoheganSunCasino.com to become the premier online destination for both serious gamers and those who simply want to relax and have fun. We look forward to the site going live and bringing players in New Jersey the very latest that online gaming has to offer.”

One game which will be missing, however, is poker as Resorts already has an agreement in place with the world’s biggest poker room, PokerStars, which should more effectively spread online poker once the operator receives its much anticipated online gambling license come November.

Online Casinos v Poker

New Jersey launched its online gambling industry in November 2013, and last year around $122.9 million was generated in revenues. Currently there are 17 sites operating in the state, but whilst online casinos continue to see an improvement in their numbers, the poker market, on the other hand, has contracted and currently accounts for less than a fifth of overall iGaming revenues. In June, for instance, just $1.83 million from the $11.7 million revenues generated were accounted for by online poker, with that tally representing the lowest amount collected since the start of regulation.

Therefore, while online poker’s expansion potential has to await the arrival of its ‘savior’ PokerStars, online table game revenues are showing a 30% improvement compared to the same period of time in 2014. As to how much Mohegan Sun can now expect to make from its site, Online Poker Report’s Robert DellaFave has estimated that it could earn between $500,000 and $800,000 by the end of 2015. Nevertheless, this prediction may be overly optimistic considering Resorts Casino has still to achieve $500,000 in revenues, and ultimately with the increasing saturation of New Jersey’s online gambling market the state may be advised to consider slowing the industry down following the return of PokerStars, as the market is unlikely to be able to support to many more online casinos.