New Jersey Online Gambling Results Released For 2013

On November 21st, 2013, New Jersey launched its first authorized online gambling site and by the end of the year seven of Atlantic City’s 12 licensed casinos were offering online poker to residents within the state. Now, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has released its online figures for the six weeks to the end of 2013, revealing gambling sites generated $8.4 million in revenue during an initial roll out period hit by technical and payment problems.
Claiming the lion’s share was the Borgata Hotel Casino with $3.75 million in revenues, followed by Caesars Entertainment Corp. with $2.38 million. Lagging a way behind was the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort on $883k; The Tropicana Casino on $748k, Trump Plaza Hotel Casino on $427k and the Golden Nugget on $179k,
Before New Jersey’s online gambling bill was legalized, Gov. Chris Christie said he was hoping for around $1 billion in annual revenues, which was subsequently revised downwards to around $300 million by analysts. According to the latest DGE figures, however, New Jersey can expect to generate around $100 million for the year, although experts are warning against trying to extrapolate too much information from these initial numbers.
As senior VP of Moody’s Investors Service, Peggy Holloway, explained in a report last week: “While internet gaming is starting off slowly, the pace of growth will accelerate as issues with payment processing and geo-location technology are ironed out and operators ramp-up their marketing spending to educate consumers that online gaming is available.”
Consequently, Holloway is still anticipating New Jersey’s online gambling market to generate between $250 million and $500 million in revenue each year, although Atlantic City’s beleaguered bricks-and-mortar casinos may end up losing up to $50 million of their revenues as a result. Nevertheless, as the casinos are partnered with online gambling operators and thus share in the revenues, optimism exists that the addition of internet gambling may just be enough to put and end to Atlantic City’s seven-year losing streak.
Since 2006, Atlantic City’s casinos have gone from generating $5.2 billion in revenue to just $2.86 billion last year. As of January, 12th, 2014, however, over 150,000 online gambling accounts have been created in New Jersey, and as president of the Tropicana Casino, Tony Rodio, explains:
“I’m encouraged by how many user accounts that people have signed up for and that there’s interest in it. You’ll see this grow quickly.”