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For 2025, the report from the New Jersey Governor’s Task Force on Responsible Gambling’s recommendations for improving public health in of responsible gambling prioritizes making available resources easier to access and enhancing ongoing efforts. Access improvement suggestions emphasize standardizing resources for gamblers like tools for setting limits, generation of data for policymakers, and requirements for gambling licensees in New Jersey.
To build on existing aid, the task force has recommended increases in resources both educational and financial. Should responsible gambling programs receive new resources in New Jersey, the task force itself could be part of the allocation and governance of those resources.
New Jersey Responsible Gambling Task Force issues 2025 report
The 2025 edition of the task force’s report released on April 21 and the document covers a wide array of topics related to responsible gambling in New Jersey. That array includes assessments of available resources, extant funding, efficacy of awareness campaigns, and the state of treatment programs in New Jersey.
To make regulated gambling in New Jersey safer for residents, the report begins with addressing disparities between the several forms of legal gaming in the state. As an example, the report points out that casino and sports wagering licensees are required to commission annual studies on the impact of their businesses on the state’s population but licensees in other forms of gaming do not face the same mandate.
The report also points out differences in Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements between various forms of gaming along with gambling age minimums. That leads the task force to its main emphasis for its requests from the governor and legislature for 2025; uniformity.
Recommendations stress standardization for utility
The report stresses consolidation and standardization of programs and resources for people living in New Jersey related to gambling. The task force states that “some resources can be accessed online, while others require customer service intervention, creating inconsistencies in experience and tool accessibility.”
To improve access, the recommendations stress that New Jersey should develop a maintain one online home for responsible gambling information pertaining to all forms of gaming. Additionally, the task force requests that the state enact legislation to standardize rules for advertising across all forms.
The report shares the task force’s desire to see a universal self-exclusion program in New Jersey as well, consolidating all the disparate programs into a single structure that would enable people to bar themselves from all legal gambling in the state with one registration. On that topic, the task force also recommends a new regulation requiring counseling sessions for people who want to end their self-exclusion.
To help ensure compliance with new regulations and laws, the task force also urges the state to morph itself into a permanent body called URGE (Unified Responsible Gambling Evaluation Board). According to the report, URGE would:
- Determine regulatory reforms
- Evaluate effectiveness of funding for responsible gambling programs
- Make further recommendations to the legislature
- Set policies that warrant funding
- Study responsible gambling in the state
The final point of emphasis for the task force is an increase in resources to prevent and treat problem gambling. That includes along new funding for that escalation. As partial changes that the legislature could make to increase funding, the report suggests re-allocating current gambling assessments that are earmarked for New Jersey’s General Fund. It also calls for increasing fines for violations of regulations concerning “amusements games.”
With these recommendations delivered to New Jersey’s current governor Phil Murphy, the onus falls on the legislature and Murphy to implement all and any of the suggestions. Such implementation could make gamblers’ experiences more uniform and improve access to responsible gambling tools in the state.
