New Jersey Online Gambling Legislation Begins Working Through Stock Prices
The intention of new online casino regulations is to help boost an ailing Atlantic City gaming industry. On Wednesday, the effects of the legislation signed by Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday were already being seen in AC.
Stock prices for gaming companies with facilities in New Jersey rose Wednesday after news of the new regulatory framework for Internet gambling was in place. Among the companies that saw stock increases were Boyd Gaming Corp and Caesars Entertainment Corp.
The Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City is run by Boyd Gaming. The stock price for Boyd was up to $6.74 Wednesday afternoon, an increase of four percent. Boyd Gaming is one of the companies expected to be licensed to offer online casinos in New Jersey.
Caesars Entertainment is in a position to gain a license not only in New Jersey, but in Nevada as well. Nevada passed online casino legislation late last year, and Caesars has properties in both US gambling meccas.
The stock for Caesars jumped as high as six percent early Wednesday. It leveled off a bit in the afternoon trading hours, and currently sits at $12.37 a share.
The gaming companies believe that not only will the groundbreaking laws in Nevada and New Jersey help the Internet business, it will revive the land-based casinos as well. Analysts predict that online casinos will open non-gamblers to new games, thus bringing more customers into the land-based casinos.
The issue now for the states that have authorized online gambling is how quickly they can get regulations and licenses in place to open online casinos. Delaware is expected to open their first online casino by September, with Nevada is shooting for the Fall as well. Late summer is the target date in New Jersey, although that is a rough estimate, according to state Senator Raymond Lesniak.
Even with the stock increases on Wednesday, gaming companies understand that a full recovery from the economic recession of 2008 is still a few years away. Analysts predict it will take around two years of online casino operations before stock prices rise and stay up on a consistent basis.
