New Jersey Online Gambling Soars while Traditional Casinos Struggle

Atlantic City, NJ – New Jersey’ online gambling numbers have been soaring since last year, while the conventional brick and mortar casinos aren’t faring as well and have accrued earnings lower than pre-pandemic numbers.

According to a recent report from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, casinos and their online arms won over $197 million from online casino games in March, setting another monthly record.

Sports betting raked in a good amount of betting numbers with almost $1.33 billion worth of bets taken in March. These numbers were fueled by the March Madness college basketball tournament. It was the fourth-highest amount since sports betting became legal in 2018 following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case brought by New Jersey.

Casinos, their online partners and horse tracks that accept sports bets won over $526 million in March, up 8.1% from March 2023. This includes in-person casino winnings, internet gambling and sports betting revenue. 

Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the Atlantic City gambling market, said total gambling revenue for 2024 is “off to a solid start” over the first three months of this year, up 11% compared to the same three months last year.

New Jersey Casinos and their In-Person Players

However, while March 2024 seems to be a boom month for gambling in the state, the casinos’ key metric, the amount of money won from in-person gamblers, continues to hit below their expected numbers. 

The $239 million the nine casinos collectively won from in-person gamblers was up nearly 5% from a year earlier, and narrowly exceeded the total that all nine won in March 2019, before the pandemic hit. But only two of the nine casinos individually won more in person last month than they did pre-COVID.

The same report listed down the earnings of the more prominent casinos in the state:

Adding the internet and sports betting revenue results in the following: 

This record-breaking figure represents a 65% increase from the same month last year, when internet gambling revenue was just under $61 million. Rising online gambling revenue can be attributed to several factors, including the closure of in-person casinos and the increasing popularity of online gambling platforms.

However, casinos still depend on in-person winnings because they can keep all that money. By contrast, money won from internet gambling or sports betting must be shared with outside parties. Many casinos have been forced to cut their operations which has led to a decline in revenue. However, experts believe that the rise of online gambling could help to offset some of these losses.

That said, New Jersey is also battling in-person casino issues, specifically regarding the recent smoking ban that excluded casinos within the state, and the introduction of the bill to significantly increase the tax of online gambling.

But even with some of those issues, New Jersey continues to be in the forefront when it comes to developments in gambling and the online casino industry. Strong regulatory framework allowed the sector to flourish, which led them to be the first to legalize online gambling back in 2013. They have since become the central hub for online gambling where players from across the country flock to.

Other states have been following the way New Jersey has in terms of legalizing online gambling. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia have already legalized online gambling, and more are expected to follow suit in the coming years.

Last Updated on April 18, 2024 by jonathan r