New Jersey’s iGaming Market Jumps 21% in 2015

The Division of Gaming Enforcement has released its final set of results for 2015, and the news was once more positive with the state’s iGaming market increasing for a third consecutive month in December. Following gains in October (+35%), and November (+2.3%), New Jersey generated a total of $14.04 million in December, higher by 30.8% compared to the same month in 2014, and representing a new monthly record for the Garden State.

While online casinos reported an impressive 39% growth in revenues to $12 million last month, unfortunately the same cannot be said about online poker, which saw its revenues tumble 3.6% to $1.98 million compared to December 2014’s tally of $2.06 million. From the state’s two iPoker operators, the Borgata/Party Poker/Pala partnership produced $1.11 million in revenues, which was mostly flat year-over-year, while Caesar/888/WSOP generated $874,339 in revenues, down 8% from the same month last year.

With December’s result now released, a more complete view of New Jersey’s overall iGaming market in 2015 is possible, with the statistics revealing a huge 21% rise in revenues to $148.8 million, compared to the $122 million taken for the whole of the previous year. Once again, iCasinos were the star of the operation with revenues soaring by 33% to $125 million in 2015, while iPoker plummeted by 18% to $23.8 million.

Leading the way in terms of iGaming revenues was the Borgata ($45.7m), followed by the Tropicana ($32.8m), Caesars ($32.7m), Golden Nugget ($31m), and lastly Resorts ($6.8m), although the latter only launched its iGaming website at the end of February 2015. The Resort’s fortunes are expected to experience a dramatic reversal in 2016, however, after its partner PokerStars eventually enters the New Jersey iGaming market.

Finally, Atlantic City’s eight land-based casinos generated $2.56 billion in 2015, down 6.5% on the $2.7 billion collected in 2014. The gambling resort has suffered declining revenues since reaching a peak of $5.2 billion in 2006, and commenting on the present situation, Mayor Don Guardian explained:

“We had a monopoly and 12 casinos. Now there are 30-something casinos in the northeast, and we’re about to have gambling in the northern part of the state. There are more gambling places than there are gamblers willing to gamble.”