Atlantic City Internet Gambling Up 28% To $9.5m In January
February 13, 2014 12:32 pmAtlantic City’s state Division of Gaming Enforcement has released its online gambling figures for January, revealing a 28% increase in revenues to $9.5 million, compared to the $7.4 million taken in December.
Originally, Gov. Chris Christie predicted online gambling revenues would surpass $1 billion for the whole of the fiscal year, with around $180 million, equal to 15% of internet gross revenue tax, then flowing into state coffers. Although the latest results are significantly lower than initial estimates, they do, at least, show that increased marketing campaigns by the sites are beginning to attract new gamblers. Highlighting this point, a gambling research survey carried out last month of 505 New Jersey online gamblers revealed 35% of them were new to internet gambling, while 37% had switched from playing on illegal sites.
In January, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, and its online partner Partypoker, was the state’s leading site with $3.9 million in revenues, or 40% of the market share, followed by Caesars Interactive with just over $3 million in revenues. Lagging way behind was Trump Taj Mahal’s Ultimate Casino brand with $858,351, the Tropicana Casino and Resort with $841,065, Trump Plaza Hotel’s Betfair brand with $557,007, and the Golden Nugget Atlantic City with $286,922 in revenues last month.
Commenting on previous concerns in the Atlantic City casino industry that online gambling would cannibalize existing gambling businesses, Boyd Gaming president Keith Smith, which jointly owns the Borgata Hotel Casino, said online gambling had actually added to existing business, explaining:
“These results also once again demonstrate online gaming’s potential to expand our business. About 85 percent of our online players have not had rated play at Borgata in at least two years, showing there is little overlap with our land-based business. Online gaming is growing our database, creating a long-term opportunity to market Borgata to an entirely new group of customers.”
In addition, Atlantic City’s land-based casino generated $186 million in revenue for January, 9% lower than the $205 million taken in the same month last year. When combined with the state’s online gambling earnings, New Jersey’s gambling industry was down by 5% overall compared to January 2013.