Until now, residents of New Jersey who wanted to prevent themselves from gambling , would need to place their names onto a list and admit that they have a gambling problem . From today, this has changed.
Under legislation approved by a Senate panel, New Jersey residents will now be able to stop themselves from being able to gamble without admitting a gambling problem. Under new legislation which was approved by a Senate panel, NJ residents can now self-exclude themselves from gambling without admitting a gambling problem. The state of New Jersey maintains a full list of residents who have self-excluded themselves from any gaming activity . This exclusion may be for online gambling and/or at Atlantic land-based casinos .
Under legislation approved by a Senate panel, New Jersey residents will now be able to stop themselves from being able to gamble without admitting a gambling problem.
To date, this list includes 1,800 names of which 366 have self-excluded from online gambling while 1,426 have excluded themselves from both online and casino gambling .
According to Donald Weinbaum , executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey , the need for a person to admit that they have a gambling problem is extreme and until now, it has caused a lot of uncertainty for some who might not have a gambling problem but who would like to self-exclude themselves from gaming .
The new bill (A2444) was passed by the Assembly in March with a 5-0 vote and it will now head to the full state Senate for a vote.
Weinbaum also mentioned that while Pennsylvania also has a self-exclusion list , since they do not require one to admit to a gambling problem , this list had more names in one year than New Jersey did in a decade.
By removing the requirement to admitting that one is a ‘problem gambler’ , more people are likely to now self-exclude themselves in New Jersey.