The New Jersey online gaming market entered record territory — again. When 2018 is over, it may very well be known as the year NJ online gambling kept one-upping itself.
Not surprisingly, it is the online casinos that carried internet gaming to produce the record-setting revenue while online poker continues to head in the wrong direction.
According to the latest revenue report from the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement, Atlantic City casinos brought in $26.9 million from its online activity in November 2018.
November’s figure represents an impressive 30.7 percent increase over November 2017. It is, however, only a modest gain from October 2018, which brought in $ 26.7 million.
Specifically, the casinos brought in $25.4 million, good for a 35 percent increase year over year.
Poker made up the difference with revenue of $1.5 million for the month. Compared to November 2017, its revenue decreased by 13.7 percent.
The highs and the lows of NJ online gambling
Even though all operators posted gains this month, Golden Nugget continues to carry the industry.
In fact, it keeps knocking on the door to reach $10 million. It has been north of $9 million in revenue four times this year. It did, however, take a slight step backward in November to $9.2 million.
While that figure is good for a massive 48.7 percent increase year over year, it did slip slightly from its October revenue of $9.7 million.
On the flip side is Resorts. It earned $3.6 million for November, representing a meager 1.3 percent year-over-year increase.
While Golden Nugget had a slight decrease in month-over-month revenue, Resorts was able to show a modest gain of 5.8 percent.
Hard Rock and Ocean Resort still climbing
Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Resort Casino continue to grow. In the five full months of operation, both NJ online casinos have seen a triple-digit percentage growth from their first month to now.
For November, Hard Rock posted $1.3 million in revenue, its second seven-figure month in a row. That figure represents a 33.6 percent increase over October when normalized for the additional day.
Ocean Online Casino may not be growing as fast as Hard Rock online casino, but it posted an impressive 27.1 percent month-over-month increase with a November revenue figure of $731,887.
And then there’s the rest
Borgata once again sits solidly in second place behind Golden Nugget. It looked like Caesars was trying to make a run for Borgata’s position, but it took a few steps back during the last few months.
Borgata contributed $4.87 million to the overall online gaming revenue picture. That is a healthy 12.4 percent increase over last year’s number and 13.5 percent over last month’s.
Caesars after breaking into the $4-million club in September, brought in $3.9 million. It improved its November 2017 performance by 16.9 percent. At the same time, it only posted a slight gain of 3.8 percent compared to last month.
Besides Golden Nugget, Tropicana is the only NJ online casino to post a decline in November revenue when compared to October.
This month, Tropicana earned $3.4 million, a 5.4 percent decline from October’s figure of $ 3.7 million when normalized for the extra day. On the other hand, Tropicana did grow by four percent year over year.
NJ gaming, as a whole, also soared
NJ online gambling isn’t the only market posting stellar numbers.
The New Jersey gaming industry keeps proving its strength with solid overall revenue numbers.
In November, total gaming revenue was $257.4 million, a 24.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
Total gaming revenue for NJ includes:
- Land-based casinos ($209.2 million, +12.6 percent)
- Online gambling ($26.9 million, +30.7 percent)
- Sports betting ($21.2 million)
Year-to-date, the NJ gaming industry brought in $2.645 billion.
That is a nearly eight percent increase when comparing it to the $2.452 billion from the same period in 2017. And we aren’t even done with 2018 yet.
While NJ sports betting is the talk of the town, it is hard to overlook the more than 30 percent growth of NJ online casinos and the strength of the industry as a whole.