The gambling industry in New Jersey witnessed what turned out to be its best month as it ended August with a total revenue of $531.6 million. As expected, online casinos contributed a huge chunk to the gross receipts, clinching their best month since a new revenue record was set in May.
August also proved to be the second consecutive month that New Jersey online casinos crossed $150 million in revenue. Not only was it a good month given records for the year so far, but stats also show that the iGaming sector outclassed last year’s figures.
For instance, cumulative gambling revenue was up 13% year-on-year from 2022. Internet gaming receipts also saw an 18% jump from August last year.
Nevertheless, according to data from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, sportsbooks emerged the biggest winners of the month with a year-over-year increase of 47%. All of these stats leave July 2023 as the only month to have seen an annual downturn across gambling financial indicators in the state.
Resorts Digital Outpaces Golden Nugget and Borgata
Topping the iGaming revenue charts in Atlantic City had always been a tussle between Borgata and Golden Nugget Casino. However, a new winner emerged in Resorts Digital, blowing both competition out the water in August.
The casino’s $42 million worth of revenue accounted for 27% of the state’s total. Coming close second and third were Golden Nugget and Borgata with $40.8 million and $40.2 million, respectively.
Bally’s AC recorded the biggest year-over-year improvement with a whopping 81.3% boost, which saw its monthly revenue total $8.2 million. Caesars Interactive and Tropicana ended the month on a negative trajectory compared to last year, despite the latter growing its revenue by 17.3% from July 2023.
Caesars Interactive was down 15.1% while Tropicana declined 14.5%, both from August 2022. As it stands, iGaming represents 31% of the total gaming revenue from Atlantic City.
Land-based casinos nosedived slightly in July but got back up in August. Atlantic City brick-and-mortar casinos posted a revenue of $280.2 million, a 2.3% increase from August 2022. Slot machines accounted for $210.5 million of this revenue while the rest came from table games.
Year-to-date figures for the nine physical outlets came to a total of $1.93 billion, another 2.3% growth from $1.88 billion recorded in the same period for 2022. For iGaming, year-to-date figures stood at $1.24 billion, indicating a 14.6% increase from the prior year-to-date period.
Sports Betting Year-to-Date Revenue Up 43% From 2022
In New Jersey, sports betting revenue covers casino wagering and racetracks. For August 2023, the revenue stood at $96.0 million. And when compared to the $65.3 million pooled in August 2022, the state saw a year-over-year increase of 47.1%.
From the start of the year till August, the gross sports betting revenue reported stood at $597.9 million. This indicated a 42.7% increase from $418.9 million in revenue generated from the same period in 2022.
Resorts Atlantic City, operators of DraftKings, Fox Bet and Resorts, also topped this category with a total online revenue of $56.9 million. Meadowlands and Borgata came distant second and third with online receipts of $24.1 million and $4.4 million, respectively.
New Jersey accumulated taxes worth $23.2 million from online casinos and $8.5 million from internet sports wagering platforms in August. The overall total taxes from casinos and sports betting collected in August stood at $49.6 million while year-to-date taxes were a whopping $344.8 million.
