Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City is leading the way in merging online and in-person gambling with its innovative dual-play baccarat and roulette games
Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is just one of the many casinos that have expressed optimism regarding the possibility of online gambling and traditional in-person casino experiences thriving together.
Borgata VP of Casino Operations: “This Is the Future”
The venue has been actively testing its theory by introducing a series of new baccarat and roulette games that enable both in-person players and online gamblers to participate in the same game simultaneously.
Borgata’s dual-play baccarat is making waves, being touted as the first of its kind to operate in a licensed gambling jurisdiction in the United States.
“This is the future,” said James Bruno, Borgata’s vice president of casino operations. “When you have people sitting here playing, and people playing online, that’s how you bridge that gap,” he explained.
For online gaming companies like BetMGM, this initiative is seen as an opportunity to merge the worlds of online and live dealer games.
Oliver Bartlett, BetMGM’s vice president of gaming product and content, explained, “It’s an excellent way to bring people into the world of live dealer, which is a critically important vertical for us.”
The Success of Dual-Play Games
Borgata’s foray into this dual-play concept began in August with a dual-play roulette game, which has since become one of the casino’s most popular table games.
The game has consistently performed well online, according to the casino. “It continues to deliver impressive numbers online,” a Borgata spokesperson said.
Just a few months later, in February, Borgata rolled out its dual-play baccarat. The game, powered by Evolution’s technology, is designed to let players inside the casino sit at physical tables while interacting with others who are betting online.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, all the seats at three baccarat tables in Borgata’s Asian games section were filled while additional players participated remotely.
Bruno also emphasized the potential of dual-play games boosting the player pool by bringing in online players despite the limited number of physical seats.
“Say we have six chairs here, and we could have 100 people playing online,” Bruno said. “It’s an untapped source of revenue,” he noted.
Interestingly, while the technology behind the dual-play games is advanced, it doesn’t appear to be influencing the way traditional players engage with the game.
Four gamblers interviewed by The Press of Atlantic City said they were either unaware of the online participants or didn’t find it to be a concern.
No Impact on Land Venues
Borgata has also found that internet gambling has not had a negative impact on its land-based casino operations.
“We have not seen it impact our land-based results,” Bruno said. “I believe these are well-received. You can see it on our floor, you can touch it, play it. And you can take that game and stream it to the website. The ask is to get to that omnichannel experience.”
This integration of online and in-person gambling comes at a time when internet gambling is booming in New Jersey, where it has become the fastest-growing segment of the state’s gaming market.
Last year, internet gambling in New Jersey brought in nearly $2.4 billion, marking an impressive 24% increase from the previous year, closing in on the $2.8 billion in revenue generated by traditional casino visitors.
In September, New Jersey’s gambling regulators said Borgata underpaid its iGaming taxes twice, taking roughly $15 million more in credits than it was entitled to.
