New Jersey iPoker Returns To Growth In July

After suffering declines over the past three months, New Jersey’s online gambling industry returned to growth in July, with revenues higher by 5.6% at $10.07 million compared to the $9.51 million generated in the previous month. From that tally, online casino games reported a 5.9% improvement in revenues to $7.923 million, while iPoker was also up by 4.6% to $2.146 million compared to June.
Leading the overall New Jersey iGaming market in July was Borgata (bwin.party) with $3.18m in internet revenues, followed by Caesars Interactive (888/WSOP) with $2.71m, Tropicana (Virgin/Gamesys)  with $1.96m, the Golden Nugget with $944,840, Trump Plaza (Betfair) with $676,607, and the Trump Taj Mahal (Ultimate Gaming) with $346,346 in revenues.
In terms of iPoker alone, the NJ market continues to be led by the Borgata whose revenues increased by 3.1% to $1.109 million last month, followed by Caesars Interactive up 7.2% to $1.010, and a way behind in third spot was the Trump Taj Mahal whose revenues dropped by 14.4% in July to just $26,043.
Also in positive territory was account sign-up numbers, which rose by 7.1% to 26,826 last month, bringing the number of new accounts opened since regulation started in November 2013 to 405,390.
Whilst iGaming results were higher, New Jersey’s beleaguered land-based casino industry continued to head south and according to the  Division of Gaming Enforcement’s (DGE) Atlantic City casinos generated $274 million in July, down 11% compared to the $297.1 million taken in the same month last year. This figure also includes iGaming revenues.
Posting the biggest revenue growth in July was the Golden Nugget up 40.5%, followed by the Tropicana up 34.2%. On the other side of the coin, all three AC casino due to shut this year posted negative results, with Revel down 36% to $14.8m, the Trump Plaza down 34% to $5.4m, and the Showboat down 19% to $15m.
In further bad news for the Garden State’s gambling industry, the loss of these three casinos, along with the Atlantic Club’s closure  in January, means an extra 7,000 people would have lost their jobs come the end of the year. In addition, Fitch Ratings estimates the properties’ closure to strip around $1.9 billion (17%) from Atlantic City’s taxable property values.