Online gambling may be a roll of the dice

The recent launch of online gambling represented a chance for Atlantic City to reclaim its top-dog status after attacks on the city’s revenues by an influx of new casinos in the region. A law signed earlier this year allowed New Jersey casinos to team up with Internet-gaming providers to offer poker, slots and table games to of-age individuals within the state’s borders.

The move proved popular for Garden State gamblers, who created 91,531 accounts as of Dec. 15 — up from 54,852 in less than two weeks, according to the state. I joined their ranks on Thanksgiving night, when I plunked $70 into an account with Party- Poker, a partner of the Borgata.

Casual entertainment spawns few moments tenser than during the spin of the roulette wheel. As the tiny white ball darts across the field, impishly grazing those elusive winning numbers, my muscles tighten and my eyes zip between the table and the floor. All the while, a pile of chips hangs in limbo.

But during one afternoon early last month, the wheel failed to halt and the ball didn’t drop. Instead, my entire balance — the initial $70 and nearly $480 in profits — vanished into an electronic wasteland.

PartyPoker booted me because its system detected that I was not in New Jersey, according to a midspin notification that froze the game. That came as a surprise, considering how I was in my parents’ home in Brick Township, Ocean County.

I called the website’s customer-service department several times, to no avail. I emailed the office, and about 24 hours later I received a response from a representative who pinned the problem on a “temporary glitch.”

The culprit turned out to be a geo-location plug-in. Online gambling websites use these tools to identify the exact location of a player so that out-of-state individuals cannot illegally pony up to the poker table. During my game, the plug-in mistakenly took me for an intruder.

The technical hiccup locked my $550 into the roulette game, according to the Party- Poker customer-service representative, who then credited $20 to my account for the headache. He suggested I roll the dice with a few self-administered fixes to process the payment, but I didn’t succeed.

PartyPoker added the missing $550 to my coffers about two days later. I was pleased with the end result, but bothered that hundreds of dollars could idle in the unknown for three days.

Statistics on the number of players who landed in the same unsettling conundrum are tough to come by. Still, I learned of similar mix-ups from friends and scattered Internet posts and news reports.

Lisa Spengler, a spokesperson for the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, said her office has not encountered any “significant regulatory issues” that stemmed from the new online casinos. But the state regards geo-location and payment-processing hitches as customer-service matters, rather than regulatory concerns, she said. “With that said, the division remains in constant contact with the operators, and we encourage the customer to contact the site operator,” Spengler added. “… The division works directly with all of the operators on all customer-service issues, including geo-location settings.”

Although I overcame my setback by contacting PartyPoker, I wondered if people who remain quiet about technical dilemmas ever recover their cash.

Joe Lupo, Borgata’s senior vice president of operations in Atlantic City, said his team has repaired some technical issues that casino executives “fully expected this short in the game.” That led to a better understanding of how to quell geo-location problems when they arise, he said.

“We have installed extensive reporting that allows us to learn of the deficiencies and therefore act upon them immediately, [and] we see geo-location is working accurately and with less intrusion,” Lupo said.

After I recouped my money, I risked my luck at the roulette table again. The geo-location component soon freaked out, and my funds disappeared. “Shame on me,” I thought, in a less-wholesome vein. But, like Lupo said, the system quickly noticed and reversed the error.

Stay-at-home gamblers can also fiddle with their connectivity to discover which rooms best satisfy the geo-location ping, Lupo said.

Borgata’s tech gurus plan to continue to gather user feedback and wipe out any snags, he said, adding that disheartened early birds should take another tour of the revamped virtual casino floor.

Truly unlucky customers with lingering technical troubles — who probably should stick to playing 52 Card Pickup — should first reach out to the operator’s customer-service department. Spengler said each casino boasts effective means to handle complaints.

“Additionally, the division performs a thorough regulatory review and investigation of all matters pertaining to the integrity of casino operations, both for land-based and Internet game play. If we receive a patron complaint [that] a casino cannot resolve, we would examine the issue,” she said. “… We are all committed to making Internet gaming work in New Jersey.”

It’s comforting to hear that hope for distressed gamblers exists at the state level. With Gov. Chris Christie’s talk of $1 billion in revenue for online casinos by next summer and $160 million slated to support the state budget, there better be strong protections in place for the people who actually foot the bill.

Officials from the governor’s press office did not return multiple requests for comment on this story.

Jack Murtha is a Greater Media Newspapers staff writer. He may be reached via email at [email protected].