NJ iGaming Revenues Hits Record $25.6m in March

New Jersey’s online gambling market generated gross revenues of $25.6 million in March, marking a huge 17.6% increased compared to the same month last year. Furthermore, the state has now returned successive revenue highs for all three months of the first quarter, with March’s result smashing February’s record by a massive $3.6 million.
Record Revenues
March’s figure was the highest ever recorded in the industry’s five-year history, and represents the first time gross revenues have ever surpassed the $22 million mark. It was also only the sixth time that revenue has topped $21 million, with that amount now having been hit in three consecutive months. As a result, the Garden State has already generated $69.5 million this year, or 17.3% more than the $59.3 million collected in Q1 of 2017, and commenting upon the remarkable trend, gaming analyst Steve Ruddock said:
“Online casinos were able to produce another incredible month of revenue as the market for these games continues to grow. Few obvious signs of a slow down exist.”
March Highlights
Last month, New Jersey’s iGaming revenue of $25.6 million was predominantly accounted for by its online casino vertical which produced $23.6 million, or 5.5% higher than the previous month, and up by 21.1% compared to a year earlier. Illustrating how far the industry has come over the past couple of years, back in March 2016 the state’s online casinos only collected $13 million in revenues.
One segment that has continues to wallow in the mire, however, is online poker which contributed just $2 million toward the overall iGaming market, with that figure fairly flat versus February, but lower by a significant -12.7% year-over-year.
Market Leaders
The Golden Nugget’s casino-only gambling sites (Golden Nugget, Betfair, SugarHouse) once more dominated its competitors, with the $8.65 million it generated in March besting the previous record of $7.88m set the previous month, and marking a 40% improvement versus March of 2017.
The state’s other iGaming operators also enjoyed impressive gains, too, including the Borgata (Borgata, PartyPoker, Pala, MGM) whose casino experienced their best ever month with more than $3.9 million in revenues. Even poker managed to post a small improvement over February, with revenue reaching $622k, bringing the brand’s online earnings to $4.6 million for the month.
Meanwhile, Caesars (888, Caesars, Harrah’s, WSOP) was in third place on $4.5 million, $565k of which came from online poker, and $3.8 million via its casinos, representing a new record for the vertical with revenue up by 40% year-on-year. Not far behind was Resorts AC (Resorts, Mohegan Sun, PokerStars NJ) with a record $3.5 million in casino revenue, and $779k from its poker operation; while bringing up the rear was Tropicana (Tropicana, Virgin), which appears to have bucked the positive trend with its casino-only revenue of around $3.7 million flat compared to the previous month, but lower by 4% year-over-year.
Land Casinos Down 1.5%
Once land based casinos are included, New Jersey gambling revenues actually fell by 1.5% to $218.5 million in March, compared to the $221.9 million collected a year earlier. Consequently, overall revenues have now fallen for the third consecutive month, with January’s y-o-y decrease 9.9%, and February’s down by 6.5%.
Commenting upon the overall results, Casino Control Commission Chairman James Plousis said that having four nor’easters (macro-scale cyclones) in March didn’t help the plight of Atlantic City’s casinos, but that he was expecting things to improve once the Hard Rock and Ocean Resort Casino open this summer.
iGaming Importance
New Jersey’s gambling industry has produced total gaming revenue of $594.9 million for the first quarter of 2018, marking a 5.9% decline compared to the same period of time in 2017. From that tally, the state’s casino revenue of $525.3 million is 8.3% down on last year, while internet gaming revenue of $69.5 million is 17.3% higher. Highlighting the significance of the results, Steve Ruddock explained:
“Online gaming is increasingly important to the bottom line of every casino operator in New Jersey. It was a key factor in the gaming industry’s 23.7 percent increase in gross operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2017.”