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Ultimate Gaming, blaming Trump Taj, leaving N.J. online gambling

ATLANTIC CITY - New Jersey's fledgling Internet gambling market lost a provider for the first time Friday when Ultimate Gaming accused its partner, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, of multiple contract breaches and said it was pulling out of New Jersey.

ATLANTIC CITY - New Jersey's fledgling Internet gambling market lost a provider for the first time Friday when Ultimate Gaming accused its partner, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, of multiple contract breaches and said it was pulling out of New Jersey.

Ultimate said it was owned $1.5 million by the casino's parent company and had not been paid in more than two months.

"We wish things would have turned out differently for us," said Marc Falcone, Ultimate's senior vice president. "Unfortunately, as they say in poker, we were not dealt a good hand."

Falcone said that the company had not yet determined when it would cease its New Jersey operations, but that a decision should be made fairly quickly.

Ultimate was ranked last out of New Jersey's six Internet gambling operations, taking in $4.9 million from online customers so far this year. The market leader, Borgata and PartyPoker, have won $30 million online so far this year.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, the Taj Mahal's parent company, declined to comment on Ultimate's withdrawal. Trump Entertainment closed the Trump Plaza on Tuesday and is threatening to shutter the Taj Mahal on Nov. 13 unless it wrests major concessions from its union.

Ultimate said customers seeking information about their accounts can go online at ucasino.com or ultimatepoker.com. Falcone would not say how much money the company has on deposit from New Jersey players.

"We are owed about $1.5 million from Trump Entertainment," Falcone said. "We in effect haven't been paid for more than two months. Money that the site generated and that we are owed, we were never given."

Ultimate is based in Las Vegas and mostly owned by Station Casinos.

New Jersey legalized Internet gambling last November as a way to help its struggling casinos. But online gambling has not taken off the way industry and political leaders expected, bringing in less than $87 million so far this year. Initial estimates of New Jersey's online gambling market ranged to 10 times that figure.