New Jersey’s Struggle After Bringing in the Biggest Online Casino Revenue in May

Nevada has always been on top when it comes to the amount of sports bets they accept each month. It was in May 2019 when New Jersey finally triumphed the monthly amount they have received from sports bets.

Gambling regulators released the information that New Jersey got a whopping amount of $318.9 million from sports bets. Meanwhile, Nevada was able to get a total of $317.4 million. Surely, the gap is close when it comes to the amount they brought in for sports betting.

However, in general, New Jersey casinos and race tracks came in with $15.5 million while Nevada had $11.6 million for that month. Head of Westgate Superbook in Las Vegas, Jay Kornegay, was actually expecting this to happen, and this was according to his interview.

They pointed out that states with higher population than Nevada will definitely bring in more gambling revenue once they have it completely legal. After all, New Jersey’s population is at 9 million, while Nevada only has 2.5 million.

Another aspect that has affected this happening is that Nevada only had fewer NBA playoff games this year. After New Jersey’s triumph with this, people are surely looking after their earnings. So how are they doing exactly?

It only has been a year since the Supreme Court repealed PASPA or the Professional and Amateur Protection Act of 1992 and currently, New Jersey has 23 online casinos and sportsbooks that are licensed to operate.

Monmouth Park was the first to operate in New Jersey after the court’s decision. Soon enough, Borgata in the Atlantic City followed. The first-ever online sportsbook app in there was DraftKings Sportsbook as it was launched statewide. This was actually the first online bookie outside Nevada.

Each month, New Jersey’s Gaming Enforcement Division would release the previous month’s legal sports betting handle and revenue and last month wasn’t looking as victorious as what they had in May.

When it comes to the casino revenues for the month of June, Borgata had 25% of the total casino revenues. That accounts to $70.9 million. Hard Rock came in second with $32.6 million. Five more casinos earned $20-$30 million each.

What really improved in New Jersey is the revenue coming from online casinos. It quickly became a routine to many, and so 67.8% of the jump from this avenue did not come as a surprise. Online casinos that topped the list are Golden Nugget, Resorts Digital, and DraftKings.

Golden Nugget has realized solid revenue from NJ online gambling, though mostly from its casino

The revenue for online poker didn’t really change much for last month. It may be considered stagnant for June alone, but it still showed improvement from last year. What they are waiting for is to have Pennsylvania roll out online gambling. They find that this may positively impact this market’s revenue.

What they know is that online poker may still not get the popularity it deserves for a while. A sort of jumpstart may be needed to get the punters’ attention. After all, what online poker made in New Jersey way back in 2015 is still a lot similar to what this market is making today.

For sports betting, Resorts Digital produced $2.7 million in revenue. This makes them second to the Meadowlands Racetrack as they gained $4.4 million for the month of June.

The gross gaming revenue reported for the month of June from sports betting may not really be what others would consider great. It is reported that June has been quite a slow month for New Jersey. Gaming revenues for June was found around 13% lower.

NJ sports betting revenues this past month lowest they've been yet

The report from New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement found that the main reason for this decline is the deceleration of the cash amount that bettors spent on online sports betting. In fact, this really made a huge impact as June’s figure dropped by almost half. It’s even the lowest figure since August of last year.

Since this result was a bit expected after the seasons of popular sports like the NBA, people are still looking forward to seeing how the sports betting revenue thrive in New Jersey. It just seems right to show such optimism since the collegiate and professional gridiron football seasons are about to come.

A dry spell is still bound to happen from time to time, but New Jersey and the majority of the states love placing their bets on football games. The coming of the football season will just do this industry well. NFL is set to start in September and they could only expect growth from there.

- Payton O'Brien, Gambling911.com Senior Editor