New Jersey iGaming Surges 30% to $16.7M in October

New Jersey’s online gambling websites generated revenues of $16.7 million in October, an impressive 30% improvement on October 2015’s figure of $12.9 million. Online poker accounted for $2.4 million of that total, up 25% year-over-year, while online casino games also noted a more than a 30% gain to $14.3 million.
Having launched in 2011, the Garden State’s online gambling market has taken a while to gain momentum, but 2016 has proved to be a break-out year for the industry. For the first 10 months of this year, revenues currently stand at $161.2 million compared to the $149 million that was collected for the whole of 2015.
Including business from Atlantic City’s land-based casinos, revenues totalled $203 million in October, lower by 0.7% versus the same month last year. Following the Trump Taj Mahal’s closure on October 10th, however, the number of state casinos has now been reduced to seven venues, and including just these surviving properties revenues actually increased by 5.9% year-on-year. Commenting on the year to date figures, Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, stated:
“For the year, the seven operating casinos are up by 3.1 percent. I anticipate the operators will continue to focus on improving their business in Atlantic City.”
In October, the Borgata generated $64.2 million in revenues, more than any other casino, while posting the largest monthly gain last month was the Golden Nugget up 16.7% to $20.6 million, followed by The Tropicana up 13.5% to $27.9 million. In fact, just two Atlantic City casinos saw their month-on-month revenues decline in October, namely Resorts down 3.5% to $14.2 million; and Bally’s, down 2.9% to $16.5 million. Nevertheless, Resorts together with its partner PokerStars saw its online gambling revenues soar by an incredible 204% versus the same month a year earlier.
Gross gaming revenues generated by Atlantic City’s casinos are taxed at a rate of 8% for their land-based operations, and 15% on their online gaming business. In October, the state subsequently collected $16 million by way of taxes.