Operator News

US – New Jersey’s online gaming and sports betting set new records in January

By Phil - 19 February 2024

New Jersey’s gambling sector was off to a flier in the New Year with four records broken in January with only in-person gambling in casinos down.

New records were set in online gaming revenue, sports betting revenue, the amount bet on sports, and the overall total for gambling and betting.

The total amount won by Atlantic City’s nine casinos, the three horse tracks and their online partners came in at over $559m, up 28 per cent from a year earlier.

Online gaming was up 20 per cent to reach $183m whilst sports betting revenue was up a massive 136 per cent to reach $171m.

Poor winter weather in January affected in-person casino revenue that came in at $205m, a decline of 3.1 per cent from a year earlier.

James Plousis, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said: “The success of online gaming and sports wagering continues to provide competitive advantage to operators even during Atlantic City’s traditional off-season.”

Jane Bokunewicz, Director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, said: “It’s likely brick-and-mortar activity was diverted to online channels, boosting the internet gaming and online sports betting totals.”

Atlantic City’s three newest casinos: the Borgata, Hard Rock and Ocean, were the only three to generate more from in-person revenue in January than they did before the pandemic in 2019.

Borgata won $57.6m, marking a fall of 1.2 per cent, Hard Rock generated $37.3m, an increase of 3.9 per cent whilst Ocean generated $33m, showing an increase of 8.3 per cent. Of the other casinos, only Golden Nugget showed an improvment with an increase of 2.3 per cent to $11.2m. On the downside, Harrah’s slid nearly 21 per cent to $15.9m, Caesars was down nearly eight per cent at $15.5m and Tropicana fell by 18 per cent to $13.3m. Resorts was down 1.4 per cent to $10.9m whilst Bally’s was down 13 per cent at $10m.

Setting a new record, New Jersey’s casinos and tracks generated $1.71bn of sports bets in January, surpassing the previous best of $1.62bn in November 2023.

Meadowlands Racetrack again led the way with $113m in sports bets, an increase of 137 per cent from a year earlier.