New Jersey iPoker Tumbles 15% To $1.93m In May

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has released its latest figures for May, and whilst online casino games noted an impressive 29% jump in revenues to $10.5 million, online poker continued its downward spiral, falling 15% to $1.93 million, compared to the $2.27 million generated in the same month last year. Overall, the Garden State earned $12.5 million from online gambling in May, marking a 19.1% improvement year-over-year, and commenting on the figures John Darr from PlayNJ.com explained:
“While some inaccurately characterize New Jersey’s online casinos as a financial disappointment, nothing about 28 percent growth year-over-year is disappointing. Lawmakers can’t be disappointed in the almost $30 million in new tax revenue online casinos have generated for the state.”
Alternatively, the latest iPoker results highlight the declining popularity of the game in New Jersey, as the $1.93 million generated marks the second-lowest tally since the state’s first regulated site was launched in November 2013. At the heart of the problem would seem to be a number of key issues, including woefully low player liquidity, inadequate online poker marketing, as well as PokerStars’ delayed entry into the New Jersey market. The global online poker leader applied for a licensing application as far back as December 2013, but at least the process seems to be moving closer to completion after Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov recently announced that the company expects “to receive and launch in the [third] quarter of 2015.”
Finally, the Garden State generated a total of $208.6 million from its land based gambling industry in May, down 10.2% from the $232.4 million taken in the same month in 2014. From that figure, slot machine revenues were down by 10.9% to $157 million, while table games were also down by 8.1% to $51.6 million. Including iGaming results, New Jersey’s overall gambling industry contracted by 9% to $221.1 million in May, year-over-year.