NJ iGambling Revenues Soar 32.6% to $16.5M in May

In May, New Jersey saw its online gambling revenues soar by 32.6% to $16.5 million compared to the same month last year. Nevertheless, the tally was $500k less than April’s revenues, and therefore not sufficient to extend the state’s record-breaking four-month streak by an extra month.
Last month, online casinos accounted for $13.98 million of overall iGambling revenues, representing a +32.5% improvement over the same month in 2015. Online poker, too, reported an impressive +33.3% increase to $2.57 million, and while PokerStars NJ continued to lead the iPoker market with $1.15 million in revenues, that figure was still $30k down on the previous month.
Topping NJ’s overall online gambling market in May was the Borgata Hotel Casino with $3.95 million in revenues, an amount fairly flat compared to last May; followed by Caesars Interactive Entertainment ($3.25m); Golden Nugget ($3.2m); the Tropicana ($3.15m); and finally Resorts ($3m).
Including business from land-based operations, Atlantic City’s eight casinos reported an overall 0.6% decline in business to $219.8 million, with table games up by 4.5% to $53.9 million, but slot machines down 4.9% to $149.3 million.
Posting positive year-over-year growth in May was the Borgata (+16%) with $65 million in revenues, followed by Bally’s (+0.2%) with $18.2 million. Conversely, the other six casinos all noted falling revenues, from the Tropicana down by just 2% to $27 million, all the way up to the Trump Taj Mahal down 18.2% to $15.1 million.
Commenting on May’s results, Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said:
“Gaming win fell slightly in May, but a quirk in the calendar masks the continued improvement in the revenue picture. It’s common knowledge that weekends are the busiest time for Atlantic City’s casinos and this year, May had four Fridays and four Saturdays compared to May 2015, which had five Fridays and five Saturdays. That alone is more than enough reason for a relatively flat performance for the month.”
For the first five months of 2016, Atlantic City has now generated more than $1 billion in gambling revenues, representing a 3.3% improvement compared to May of 2015.