KATE ZERNIKE, NY Times
TRENTON — A generation ago, New Jersey introduced casino gambling to Atlantic City to boost the sagging fortunes of the nation’s most famous boardwalk resort. ow, with the casinos themselves ailing — a shimmering $2.6 billion resort built with tax incentives announced last week that it was entering bankruptcy less than a year after it opened — the state is doubling down.
Having grown accustomed to the boost that gambling dollars provides its budget, the state is leading the race to embrace increasingly popular but still controversial models that would extend betting well beyond the destination casino approach.
Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill on Tuesday authorizing Internet gambling, which would allow people to play casino games from their mobile phones or laptops. He is also in court fighting a federal ban on sports betting, having signed a law last year that would legalize it.
At the same time, hotels in Atlantic City are experimenting with in-room gambling, as accessible and private as a minibar or on-demand movies. And lawmakers on the opposite side of the state envision pop-up casinos — one legislator likened them to county fairs — at concerts or sporting events.
Much as Atlantic City set the model for the explosion of casinos across the country over the last 20 years, New Jersey’s move signals the future of gambling, as states try to tap into the money already flowing to the black market or offshore betting companies, and entice a new generation of gamblers who might graduate from FarmVille to online blackjack, and ideally to an actual casino.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/nyregion/new-jersey-tries-different-gambling-forms-as-casinos-fail.html?pagewanted=all&goback=.gde_100380_member_230805553&_r=0