- BetMGM and Borgata Online players in New Jersey can now play real slot machines remotely by live video.
- The launch opens with 50 cabinets running more than 30 titles, including Lightning Link and Buffalo Ascension.
- Neither Aristocrat nor BetMGM published a theoretical return-to-player figure for any of the streamed titles.
- New Jersey’s legal floor is a theoretical return of 83 percent, which keeps about $17 of every $100 wagered.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – BetMGM and Borgata Online players in New Jersey can now play real, physical slot machines remotely over a live video stream, under a partnership with Awager, whose parent company Aristocrat announced the launch Friday.
Real Reels, Streamed In 4K To A Phone
Awager pipes each cabinet out in 4K video with the machine’s own audio and a control layer the company says responds in real time, so a spin triggered on a phone turns a real reel set somewhere else. The opening lineup runs more than 30 titles, among them Aristocrat’s Lightning Link and Buffalo Ascension franchises.
“Bringing land-based play online is at the heart of our mission to deliver a truly authentic casino experience straight to players’ devices,” Superna Kalle, chief strategy officer at Aristocrat, said in Aristocrat’s announcement. BetMGM director of gaming Rob Passerino called the launch an exciting new way for players to engage with slot machines digitally and said the partnership was just beginning.
The category is genuinely different from an online slot. A standard iGaming title is software, and the random number generator that decides its outcomes runs on the operator’s platform. A streamed cabinet is a licensed piece of hardware approved under New Jersey’s slot machine standards, which carry their own random number generator rules, and its return is locked into the par sheet approved for that machine. The stream is only the window onto it.
That distinction runs to the core of how slot machines work, because the machine, not the website, is the thing that decides the outcome.
The Machines Sit In A Slot Studio, Not On A Public Casino Floor
The cabinets are not on an Atlantic City floor a player could walk up to. Aristocrat says the machines run in regulated studio environments, and New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement calls the location a “slot studio site” in its orders.
A November 2025 order signed by Interim Director Mary Jo Flaherty requires the parties to file a list of every gaming machine at the slot studio site within five business days, and every six months after that, with serial numbers for each one. The same order authorizes Awager to store gaming machines in leased space at the Sheraton Atlantic City, and to store, maintain and repair them on the second floor of the building formerly known as the Claridge Hotel and Casino.
The regulatory groundwork predates the launch by more than a year. That order records operational approvals the Division granted Awager in March and June 2025 and left in full force, plus four transactional waivers issued between May and September 2025 that it voided and replaced because Aristocrat’s purchase changed the company’s ownership.
No Payback Number Came With The Launch
Neither Aristocrat nor BetMGM disclosed a theoretical return to player for any of the more than 30 titles, and that is the number that decides what the games cost to play. A cabinet’s return is fixed in the manufacturer’s par sheet approved for that machine, and nothing on the glass tells a player which figure the cabinet in front of them is running.
New Jersey does set a floor. Under N.J.A.C. 13:69E-1.28A, every slot machine game that requires a wager has to carry a theoretical return to player of at least 83 percent.
A game sitting on that floor keeps about $17 of every $100 cycled through it over the long run, a hard number to outrun on a machine that resolves a spin every few seconds.
The floor is also softer than it reads. The same rule lets the projected contribution from a progressive award count toward the minimum, so part of that 83 percent can sit in a jackpot rather than in ordinary paylines. It is a legal minimum rather than a typical setting, and it is the only payback figure attached to this launch that is public.
New Jersey Only, And BetMGM Is Not The First Operator
The rollout reaches New Jersey accounts only, and Aristocrat’s announcement names no other state. Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are among the other states with slots running regulated online casinos, and the streamed format has not launched in any of them.
For New Jersey online slots players, the streamed cabinets are an addition to the software titles already in the lobby rather than a replacement for them.
BetMGM is also not the first operator group cleared to work with Awager in the state. The November order records authorizations for Awager to transact internet gaming business with Caesars Interactive Entertainment New Jersey and William Hill New Jersey, and with Golden Nugget Atlantic City and Betfair Interactive US, which does business as FanDuel.
What Happens Next
Awager Inc. and Awager Ltd. are still applicants for casino service industry enterprise licensure in New Jersey rather than full licensees, and the Division has been clearing their business in six-month terms that require renewal. Aristocrat completed its purchase of the company after the Division found the parties had met their filing obligations.
Each new product submission still has to clear the Division’s Technical Services Bureau before it can be streamed to a New Jersey account.
