New Jersey iPoker Revenues Hit New Low In June 2015

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Thursday, July 16th, 2015 | Written by Stephen Smith

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has released its latest online gambling results for June, and while overall revenues were up an impressive 22.8% to $11.7 million year-on-year, online poker revenues, on the other hand, fell by 11.6% to $1,835,576, representing their lowest monthly tally since the industry was first regulated in 2013. Taken together with the $204.9 million generated by Atlantic City’s eight casinos, a total of $216.5 million was generated in June compared to $236 million for the same month last year, an 8.2% decrease year-on-year.

iPoker Lowest Figure Yet

Online poker revenues fell to $1,835,576 in June, which was 5% lower than the $1,928,106 collected in May, and 11.6% down on the $2,048,087 generated in the same month in 2014. Leading the market in June was Borgata/Partypoker with $950,907 in revenues, followed by WSOP/888poker with $884,669, representing a 5% fall in market share to 51.8% for Borgata compared to WSOP (48.2%). For the first six months of 2015, New Jersey’s online poker revenues are currently lower by 28.1% compared to the same period of time last year.

In the meantime, New Jersey’s ailing iPoker industry is eagerly awaiting PokerStars being granted an online license, with October touted as a possible date for the site’s return. The marketing, promotional, and educational activities PokerStars is expected to undertake should help provide a much-needed boost to traffic and persuade players who have abandoned the game to come back and check out PokerStars’ superior product.

Online Casinos Up 32% In June

While online casino revenues fell by 6.7% to $9.865m compared to the $10.54 million taken in May, year-over-year revenues were higher by an impressive 32%. Combining casino games and poker, Borgata/Partypoker lead New Jersey’s market with a 29.6% share worth $3.55 million, followed by Caesars Interactive with a 22.6% share ($2.64 million). Next was the state’s casino games-only operations, namely Tropicana with 21.9% of revenues worth $2.56 million, then the Golden Nugget with 21.6%, or $2.53 million. Finally, Resorts Casino Hotel, which only launched its site in February, generated $400k in revenue last month, an improvement on the $325k taken in May.

For the first six months of 2015, overall online gambling revenues currently stand at $72 million, representing a 14.2% increase year-on-year.

Land Casino Revenues Down 8.2%

In June, Atlantic City’s 8 land based casinos generated $204.9 million in revenues, which combined with iGaming totaled $216.5 million. That figure is still lower by 8.2% compared to the $236 million collected in June 2014 when Atlantic City had 12 gambling venues, including the Atlantic Club, Showboat, Revel, and Trump Plaza. Not including the now defunct casinos, however, revenues were actually 5.5% higher. Likewise, whilst total gaming revenues for the first half of 2015 is currently down by 10.1% at $1.2 billion, not including operators no longer active that amount actually represents an improvement of 4.2% compared to H1 last year.

Breaking last month’s casino results down further as compared to June 2014, the Golden Nugget reported a 30.8% improvement in revenues to $19.7 million, followed by Resorts up 22.75% to $14.1 million, the Borgata up 16.8% to $60.3 million, and Harrah’s up 7.3% to $31.8 million. Conversely, the Trump Taj Mahal was down 23.5% to $15.3 million, Bally’s was down 3% to $17.4 million, Caesars was down 2.4% to $28.2 million, and Tropicana was down by 1.5% to $27.2 million.

Non-Gambling Products 28.5% Of Revenue

For 30 years, Atlantic City could rely upon its novelty as a casino resort to attract thousands of tourists to the resort each month, and as Tropicana casino president Tony Rodio explains:

“All we really needed was gaming. We were the convenience option for the entire Northeast. We had more demand than we had supply. We didn’t need conventions.”

That all changed after neighboring states opened up their own casino markets and over the past few years Atlantic City has had to develop other attractions in order to adapt to this new reality. In fact, a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll discovered 40% of respondents now considered non-gambling attractions as a main priority in choosing a casino to visit, and as Brandon Ferguson from Oaklyn, explains:

“I’m not really a gambler. I don’t like to give my money away; I like it to work for me. I like to chill on the beach, enjoy some good food, do some sightseeing and people-watching.”

In order to keep up with changing demands, Atlantic City has subsequently invested heavily in a whole host of tourist attractions designed to have a more diverse appeal to visitors, including hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, nightclubs, swimming pools, and spas. Highlighting the importance of this approach, a study conducted by consulting firm Tourism Economics estimates that the non-gambling parts of New Jersey’s casino operations currently accounts for 28.5% of revenue, up from 22.3% two years earlier.