New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market failed to set a new revenue record in June, despite the late entrance of a new player.
On Thursday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Revenue (DGE) reported that the state’s licensed online gambling operators generated revenue of just under $22.7m in June, 12.1% higher than the same month last year but a modest decline from the record sums generated this spring.
The online casino vertical did its usual heavy lifting, improving 13.1% to $20.9m, while the beleaguered online poker vertical generated $1.757m, barely ahead of its all-time market low of $1.735m set in June 2017. The poker total was also down from May’s $1.9m, suggesting the shared interstate liquidity with Nevada and Delaware is an ineffective tonic for the poker vertical’s ills.
For the year-to-date, the market is up nearly 15% to $139.5m, with casino up 18% to $128.4m and poker down 11.5% to $11.1m.
The Golden Nugget’s casino-only sites continued their dominant ways, reporting revenue of $8.37m in June. That’s a remarkable 50.1% year-on-year improvement, yet still below the operator’s high-water mark of over $8.65m in March 2018.
The Borgata family of sites ranked second with just over $4m, of which a mere $378k came via poker. The poker number is down $64k from the previous month and marks the third straight monthly decline since March, when the Borgata’s poker sites earned a comparatively gaudy $622k.
The Tropicana’s casino-only site posted only a modest 3.7% year-on-year gain but its $3.6m was good enough for third place on the state’s revenue chart. Fourth place went to Resorts Digital, which reported $3.35m, of which $565k came via poker.
June’s cellar-dweller was Caesars Interactive Entertainment New Jersey, which reported a combined $3.31m, of which $815k came via poker. The poker figure is $45k higher than May’s total and nearly twice the $449k earned in April, before the WSOP/888 poker sites began sharing liquidity across state lines.
The new Hard Rock Atlantic City online casino had a soft launch on June 28, and generated only $5,569 in revenue from its limited hours of operation. The new Ocean Resort Casino soft-launched its GAN-powered online casino this week, so we’ll have to wait and see whether these new options can push the market to new heights in July.
The DGE has yet to indicate when it will commence licensing online sports betting operations to complement the land-based wagering that got underway on June 14. Those land-based results were somewhat underwhelming given the hype that surrounded their arrival, but from tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow, yada yada yada…
