New Jersey: Deadline for job creation looms

The first deadlines for creating jobs in New Jersey are looming for the nascent intrastate online gambling industry, the Press of Atlantic City reported over the weekend.

“Regulators are requiring that by May 1, all platform providers base their teams working on customer service, fraud detection and accounting in New Jersey,” the newspaper reports, noting that unlike land gambling industry jobs of the past, which included cocktail servers, dealers and other service and hospitality positions, the jobs of the future will be more technical, dealing with activity from behind computer screens.

It appears that operators have not been given specific quotas, although the expectation in many quarters is that thousands of jobs will ultimately be generated as the industry grows, particularly if lawmakers pass measures currently in the state legislature that encourage foreign firms to licence and be regulated in New Jersey for operations outside the United States .

For this year, analysts are talking in hundreds, rather than thousands of jobs however.

“It’s still so early that no one has really taken a tally of jobs to date,” William J. Pascrell III, a New Jersey lobbyist who advocated for Internet gambling told the Press of Atlantic City.

“New Jersey has already eclipsed the Nevada and Delaware markets, and we’re just scratching the surface. If New Jersey becomes a hub, the numbers will go up exponentially.”

The land industry in Atlantic City has fallen on hard times in recent years due to the recession and competition from neighbouring states, with casino employment down from around 45,000 workers in 2005 to just more than 30,000 in February 2014; in January alone 1,600 jobs were lost due to the Atlantic Club collapse…and that could have been avoided if the partnership with Pokerstars had been allowed to reach fruition.

Regulators have been working with providers since the November launch of intrastate online gambling to ensure teams will be in New Jersey by May 1, according to New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement spokeswoman Kerry Langan.

“The division has placed a high priority on customer service requirements and has informed all Internet gaming platform providers that they must have all of their customer service personnel located in New Jersey by May 1,” Langan said.

“The requirement … extends beyond customer service representatives and also includes personnel working to combat fraud, collusion and money laundering. It also includes accounting personnel.”

For Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which holds permits for Bally’s Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City, that’s going to mean 47 jobs in two offices by May, Caesars Interactive spokesman Seth Palansky told the newspaper.

Those jobs include both of Caesars Interactive’s online gambling partners, 888 Holdings and Amaya Gaming Group, and will mean offices opening in Northfield and Secaucus, Hudson County.

After the May deadline, a few more positions may be added in the immediate future, but Palansky said there are specific thresholds they’re hoping to meet. The 47 jobs, Palansky noted, are dedicated solely to New Jersey Internet gambling and do not include shared-service employees through other Caesars properties, either locally, nationally or internationally.

“We’re optimistic that there’s plenty of opportunity in New Jersey,” Palansky said. “As the industry grows it’s likely that we will need more folks, particularly on the customer service side.”

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