Land-based generates best-ever January figures in Atlantic City
Online outperforms land-based for third consecutive month in Atlantic City
Despite some brutally cold weather, Atlantic City’s nine casinos produced their best-ever January, bringing in $213.3m in revenue last month. It was the third consecutive month, however, when land-based revenues were outpaced by online. New Jersey online casinos generated $258.9m in January, a 16.8 per cent increase from $221.6m in January 2025.
The land-based results were up 1.6 per cent from last January but down sequentially from December 2025 by 1.3 per cent. Borgata led the way with revenues of $56.7m although this total was actually down by over six per cent.
Second place Hard Rock Atlantic City saw the biggest with an improvement of 20.9 per cent, taking it to $56.9m, while Caesars Atlantic City improved by 7.9 per cent to reach $14.7m. The biggest decline came at Tropicana who slumped by 13.8 per cent to come in fifth place with $15m.
“In a volatile month impacted by unusual winter weather, Atlantic City saw modest growth in its monthly casino win, narrowly achieving its best January in 14 years,” said New Jersey Casino Control Commission Chairman James Plousis. “Internet gaming win recorded double-digit growth, eclipsing $250 million for the fourth consecutive month. State-wide total gaming revenue has exceeded one-half billion dollars in eleven consecutive months. Atlantic City is enjoying momentum from record results in 2025, and the ongoing success of online casinos provides competitive advantage to operators even during Atlantic City’s traditional off-season.”
Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director at Stockton University School of Business, said: “For the third consecutive month (and the eighth time since inception) internet gaming gross revenue surpassed brick-and-mortar revenue to claim 48.1 per cent of total revenue share. Sportsbooks (online and retail) represented 12.2 per cent of revenue while traditional land-based gaming accounted for just 39.7 per cent.”
She added: “Despite a span of brutal cold and severe winter weather across the region, Atlantic City casino operators realised a fairly strong month of brick-and-mortar gaming revenue for January 2026. Operators’ total Gross Gaming Revenue for the month also continued a growth trend propelled by internet gaming revenues.”
“For the first time we are getting a clearer (more accessible) view of the business dynamics of different online-based brands,” she added. “Statewide, there are only two ‘Casino Brands’ (Bally Bet and Ocean) – operations where the casino recognises all of the gross revenues – and these brands accounted for just 2.3 per cent of the total market share.
“The majority of online-generated revenue in the state (67.6 per cent) was realised by ‘Third-Party Brands’ – entities that contract with casino or racetrack licensees for market access.”
FanDuel and DraftKings dominate the market, with FanDuel taking a share of 28.2 per cent of the market or $104.6m and DraftKings taking 21.3 per cent of the market or $79.2m. With just $22.9m BetFanatics takes 6.2 per cent of the market.
“Internet gaming continues to grow in popularity among gamblers, and as it more frequently surpasses brick-and-mortar gaming revenues on a monthly basis it becomes more important than ever as a revenue stream,” Bokunewicz added. “With casinos often relying on third-party operators to manage their internet gaming sites, it seems that much of the benefit of this growing segment is experienced outside of Atlantic City.”
