New Jersey iGaming Continues Decline In November

In November, New Jersey’s online gambling market shrank further with revenues falling by 8.42% to $8.7 million compared to the $9.5 million generated in the previous month. That figure marks a new low for the Garden State with online poker accounting for just $1.87 million in revenues, and casino games adding a further $6.87 million to the tally.
The disappointing figures came despite the fact analysts were expecting an uptick in online poker activity in the colder winter season, with Roger Gros from Global Gaming Business Magazine stating last month that “we might expect to see some better internet gambling figures in the winter, especially if it is cold or there is bad weather, because people will be looking for something to do while they are shut in.”
Nevertheless, analysts did see a glimmer of hope in the fact November had one less day than the previous month, without which the decline in growth would have been reduced to just 1.4%.
New Jersey launched its first online gambling website on November 26, 2013, and one year later the state has now generated revenues of $119.5 million, 75.9% of which came from casino games, and 24.1%  from poker. A total of 506,172 accounts have also been created over the past twelve months. Pre-regulation, online gambling had been touted as a possible cure for New Jersey’s ailing gambling industry, but commenting on NJ’s first yearly tally, casino analyst Chad Beynon from Macquarie Securities said:
“We continue to view I-gaming as another amenity for N.J. gamblers, but certainly not the panacea to save the market.”
Including land-based casinos, New Jersey generated a total of  $202.5 million from its gambling industry in November, down 10.3% compared to the $225 million taken in the same month last year. However, Atlantic City now has two-thirds of the casinos it had back then, and excluding the four which have since closed, revenues would actually have been higher by 11.5%. This reflects positively on an industry moving towards greater competitiveness, and as Matt Levinson from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, explains:
“While these are difficult times and a lot of casino employees are out of work, several of the current operators have increased staff over last November’s levels. These results show that the market is absorbing the impact of recent casino closures, and most of the current operators are improving. In addition, Internet gambling continues to provide an additional boost to several of the operators”