New Jersey iGaming Revenues Hit Record $15.5M in March

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Friday, April 15th, 2016 | Written by Adam Brown

New Jersey’s online gambling market keeps on going from strength to strength, and in March generated an impressive $15.5 million in revenues, which was 18% higher than the same month last year. Not only was March’s tally a new all-time high for the state, but it also represents five consecutive months in which record revenues have been set. Once the $187.5 million generated by Atlantic City’s eight land-based casinos are included, the Garden State’s total gambling revenues of $202.97 million in March was actually 0.4% lower than the $203.9 million collected in the same month last year.

iPoker Up 18.3% y-o-y

In March, New Jersey online poker revenues came in at $2.46 million, representing a 23.6% improvement compared to the previous month, and up 10.5% versus the $2.22 million taken in March 2015. Last month, Borgata/BwinParty produced revenues of $1.03 million, giving it a 42% share of New Jersey’s iPoker market, while Caesars/Harrah/888 had a 34% market share with $830,007 in revenues, and Resorts/PokerStars a 24% share with $597,677 in revenues.

PokerStars Provides a Major Boost

On March 21st, the state’s online poker market received a major boost from the launch of PokerStars NJ, which despite operating for just 11 days still managed to boost iPoker traffic in New Jersey by more than a third. When PokerStars entered the market there was an average of 320 cash game players, but soon after that figure shot up to more than 400 players. The biggest iPoker haul ever reported was the $3.4 million generated in January 2014, just a couple of months after the regulated market launched. March 2016’s tally, however, is the largest amount since the $2.6 million generated in April 2014, with analysts now eagerly looking forward to April’s results, and seeing what a full month with PokerStars in New Jersey will produce.

PokerStars Honeymoon Now Over?

However, there are now signs that PokerStars’ initial honeymoon period in New Jersey is officially over, and after its cash game traffic peaked at around 180 cash players in March, that figure has now dropped to its current level of 140 players, according to PokerScout. That puts the site on par with Caesars/WSOP/888, and ahead of Borgata/BwinParty which is currently showing an average of 95 cash game players over a 7-day period.

iCasino Up 20% y-o-y

New Jersey’s online casinos contributed $13.04 million to online gambling revenues in March, higher by 1.9% versus February, and 20% higher year-on-year. Leading the market in terms of revenues was the Borgata ($3.19m), followed by Tropicana ($3.17m), Golden Nugget ($3.07m), Caesar’s ($2.33m), and Resorts ($1.28m). Interestingly, the Resorts’ iCasino revenues were virtual flat compared to the previous month, despite PokerStars’ entry, although it was higher by $154,071 from March of 2015.

Online casinos now represent 84.1% of overall iGaming revenues, up from the 80.9% share reported for March 2015. On the other hand, online poker has seen its market share shrink from 19.1% in March 2015, to its present level of just 15.9%.

Land Casino Revenues Mostly Flat

Atlantic City’s eight land based casinos generated $187.5 million in March, which once added to the state’s online gambling business resulted in $202.97 million in revenues, slightly down by 0.4% from March 2015. From that overall total, slot machines produced $132.8 million, and table games a further $54.6 million. Commenting on the figures, NJ Casino Control Commission chairman, Matt Levinson, said that the revenues generated by the state’s slots (+0.2%) and online gambling products helped lift most of the declines reported for its table games offerings. As he stated:

“Gamblers did play more at the table games, but they won more, too.”

Amongst the casinos reporting growth in revenues was the Resorts up by 17.8% to $13 million, followed by Bally’s up 9.6% to $17.4 million, Tropicana up 6% to $25.6 million, and the Golden Nugget up 3.6% to $19.8 million. On the other side of the coin, Harrah’s saw its revenues fall by 11.8% to $28.5 million, the Taj Mahal was down 10.3% to $13.2 million, Caesars was down 4.6% to $22.2 million, and the Borgata was down by almost 4% to $57.9 million.

Q3 Revenues 3.1% Higher

For the first three months of 2016, Atlantic City’s eight casinos have now collected $597 million in total gambling revenues, which is 3.1% higher than the same period of time last year. While casino revenues of $552.9 million are currently 1.5% more than the $544.7 million taken in Q1 2015, online gambling is showing an impressive
27.7% improvement from the $44.9 million it generated in Q1 ending March 31, 2016.