NJ and Delaware iGaming Post Record Revenues in April

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Monday, May 16th, 2016 | Written by Lucy Brown

The USA’s online gambling industry seems to be on somewhat of a roll of late, and each month seems to be outdoing the record revenues set only the previous month. April was no exception, too, with New Jersey extending its record-breaking streak to six consecutive months, and Delaware to two straight months of all-time revenues.

NJ iGaming Up 34% to $16.9

Last month, New Jersey’s iGaming market generated $16.9 million in revenues, soaring by 34% versus the $12.7 million that was taken in April 2015. Providing the bulk of that total was online casino games with $14.39 million in revenues, or 84.8% of the overall market, while online poker contributed a further $2.58 million, and now makes up just 15.6% of New Jersey’s iGaming industry.

Leading the NJ market in terms of revenues was the Borgata ($4m), followed by Resorts ($3.5m), Golden Nugget ($3.3m), Caesars Interactive NJ ($3.2m) and finally Tropicana ($3.1m). Impressively, the Resorts saw its revenues surge by 175% in April compared to the $212,739 that was collected in April 2015, thanks to the partnership agreement that it now has in place with PokerStars.

NJ Casinos Up 8.1% Overall

When New Jersey’s iGaming revenues are added to that of Atlantic City’s land-based casino revenues of $186.3 million, the overall result is an 8.1% increase in business to $215 million. Commenting on the positive figure, Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, explained:

“Part of the increase was the result of a favorable calendar, but part of it is also the result of casinos doing a better job of attracting new customers in a challenging business environment.”

Leading the way in terms of revenues was the Borgata with $60m, up by 4.2% year-over-year, followed by Harrah’s with $29m (-1.1%), Tropicana with $27.6m (+9.5%), Caesars with $24.7m (+9.7%), Golden Nugget with $20m (+13.3%), Bally’s with $18.1m (+12.2%), Trump Taj Mahal with $14.9m (-4%), and Resorts with $13.8m (+14%) in April.

Delaware Up 67.8% to $260,539

The regulated market of Delaware, despite sharing a state border with New Jersey, has an online poker player sharing agreement in place with the country’s only other regulated market of Nevada, located on the other side of the USA. That is more to do with New Jersey wanting to retain complete control of its own iGaming industry, and not wanting to share its players with those of its so-called competitors.

In any case, Delaware, too, reported a 67.8% surge in its iGaming revenues to $267,801 in April, beating the previous all-time record set in March 2016 of $260,539, and representing four consecutive months of y-o-y growth for the First State. Similar to New Jersey, online poker represents just a minor part of the state’s overall iGaming revenues, and contributed just $34,751 last month, lower by 28.4% from the $48,552 generated in April 2015. Meanwhile, video lottery terminal (VLT) products produced $142,735 in revenues, up 7.8% from April 2015’s tally of $68,038, while table games added another $90,313, representing its second highest tally ever, and only slightly behind the $97,899 that was taken a few months earlier in February.

Some Further Statistics

As a result, VLT’s commanded a 53% share of Delaware’s online gambling revenues last month, followed by table games with 34%, and poker with a 13% slice of revenues. From Delaware’s three licensed iGaming operators, Delaware Park led the market with $154,926 in April, followed by Dover Downs ($89,498), and Harrington ($43,606).

Taking a slight sheen of the impressive numbers, however, was the fact new player signups fell for the third straight month in April, with registrations coming in at 268. That figure is significantly down on the 456 who joined in January, or the 378 in February, and 320 players registering for new accounts in March. A grand total of 15,000 players have now opened up new accounts in Delaware since the state first regulated online gambling back in November 2013.

NJ and Delaware’s Financial Burdens

New Jersey and Delaware introduced online gambling in order to help alleviate some of the burden placed on their respective state budgets. While revenues have been improving of late, the two states grossly overestimated the impact iGaming revenues would generate and both states continue to face challenging financial times. Last year, Dealware’s three racinos which run the state’s online gambling sites were handed $8 million in emergency funding, while Atlantic City is currently facing potential bankruptcy, and is hoping for a New Jersey hand out to prevent it from going under.