Former Revel casino launches for-fun site

bling regulators, arguing he doesn’t need a casino license because he has hired Connecticut developer Robert Landino to run the casino.

The state Casino Control Commission last month ruled that Straub retains sufficient control over the property that he needs to obtain a casino license. Straub says he is simply a landlord renting out property to a business that will conduct gambling, but state regulators don’t see it that way. An appeals court will weigh in later this year.

Neither man has applied for an internet gambling license. But Straub says he expects Landino will do so.

“It’s going to be a full-blown casino,” Straub said late Monday. “If everyone else is doing (internet gambling), he’ll do it.”

There are two ways a company can become licensed to offer internet gambling in New Jersey: obtain- ing a license for a physical, brickand-mortar casino and then applying to offer online gambling, or partnering with an existing casino license. Only people physically within New Jersey’s borders can legally use the online gambling sites.

Asked if he could see himself applying for a license to conduct internet gambling, either on his own or in connection with another casino’s license, Straub replied, “Hell no.”

Landino would not comment beyond saying, “We are simply trying to make progress where we can.”

Most of New Jersey’s licensed internet gambling providers set up free-play sites before they launched in order to recruit potential customers and get them interested in the site and the casino’s brand, including the Borgata, Caesars Entertainment, Tropicana, Golden Nugget and Resorts.