While online gambling is picking up steam in New Jersey, it's also building a solid following from out-of-state players who would rather just cross the border into North Jersey to play.

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New Jersey is one of only three states in the country to allow Internet betting and the only one on the eastern seaboard to have full-fledged online gaming, so that makes it a popular draw across the tri-state area according to Seth Palansky, spokesperson for Caesars Entertainment.

"It looks like 60 percent of (Caesars signups) are coming from inside New Jersey borders, residents, and 40 percent coming from elsewhere in the United States," Palansky said.

He said online gambling lets gamers, who might not always be able to make a trip to Atlantic City, accrue and keep points active on a popular rewards program.

Online poker, however, is one of the bigger draws in the "gambling tourism" community, since players can simply cross the border to compete in high stakes tournaments. Additionally, Palansky said poker enthusiasts tend to prefer online poker because the digital version allows them to play more hands.

"A lot of people prefer to play that way and log in a lot of hours," he said. "It's a game that requires a lot of practice since it's skill-based."

This week is the first time the World Poker Tournament will be held in Atlantic City, at the Borgata Casino. The online portion of the tournament is expected to draw significant interest.

"This is an area that we've seen, with our Las Vegas World Series of Poker event, that we've been able to grow both the land-based and the online business tenfold in the past decade by having the online option," Palansky said. "So it creates new players; it creates a quicker entrance point."

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