Virgin Casino Partners with Bally’s Atlantic City

As of April 5, Virgin Online Casino is no longer operating under the license of Tropicana Atlantic City. Their players received an email early that Tuesday, summarising the switch:

“We are writing to let you know that the Virgin Casino license is updating on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. From this date, we will be operating under the internet gaming permit issued to Premier Entertainment AC LLC d/b/a Bally Atlantic City, NJIGP 22-011.

Your account login, balance, and all your games and account features will continue to be available to you, just as they always have been, at virgincasino.com.” Virgin Casino is the online casino app of the London-based Virgin Group, a company mostly known for its airline Virgin Atlantic. Live in the Garden State since 2014, the operator was the first NJ online casino operator to offer bingo. It partnered with the Tropicana retail casino for its license and Gamesys for its tech. But what may seem as a sudden move eight years later to a different Atlantic City casino license, wasn’t quite as random.

In October 2021, Bally’s Corp. (the parent company of Bally’s Atlantic City) completed the deal with UK-based Gamesys Group plc. With Bally’s and Gamesys now under the same umbrella, it was only a matter of time before Virgin switched licenses. Also thanks to the this deal, Bally Casino which launched in late January, is the newest New Jersey online casino app. While Tropicana online casino is also built with Gamesys technology, the brand still falls under the Tropicana Atlantic City license. It is owned by Caesars Entertainment, a direct competitor and neighbour of Bally’s. Naturally, the brand will no longer be working with Gamesys. Instead, they will be partnering with Light & Wonder (previously known as Scientific Games). According to an email sent to its players, the platform change is scheduled to be completed by May 25. PlayNJ tallies the Tropicana license’s revenue at $398 million since late 2013, putting Tropicana in the middle of the pack at No. 5. Market leaders Golden Nugget Atlantic City Hotel, Casino and Marina brought in three times more revenue to total more than $1.2 billion. However, there are more than half a dozen brands operating on that latter license, while Tropicana will now be on its own following Virgin’s departure.

As for the switch from the players’ perspective, this will mean the differences between the Tropicana and Virgin online casinos are now more obvious. For Virgin players a few would be as below –

· If players want to deposit or withdraw funds at the land-based casino, they must be made at the Bally’s casino cage. Transactions can no longer be completed at the Tropicana.

· When visiting Virgin online casino for the first time, starting on April 5, players need to review and re-accept the terms and conditions. The key changes are the update of the licensed entity, the casino cage location, and an update to self-exclusion facilitation.

· All online bank transfers will still be labelled from Virgin Casino. W2G forms will update automatically with the new information.

· The Virgin and Bally apps are now sharing jackpots, 90 ball Bingo game, and on-site chatroom. All jackpot balances will remain the same as they were previously.

With respect to the revenues, Bally’s AC still has a long way to go. As per the NJ online casino revenue, it currently sits at $2.6 million and is last among the eight license holders (Caesars Interactive is a combination of Caesars and Harrah’s). However, this could be because the playing field isn’t even. PointsBet Casino was the only brand operating under the license through the month of January and revenues from Virgin online casino fall under Tropicana for the first three months of 2022.

However, with an established brand like Virgin under its umbrella, Bally’s AC is now in a much stronger position when it comes to internet gaming. How it leverages on that position will be clear over the next few months.