New Jersey’s online casinos and poker rooms fell short of a first $100m revenue month, as the Garden State’s sportsbooks set their sights on topping the $1bn barrier in handle.
Online casinos and poker rooms secured $91.8m in revenue for the month, falling a fraction shy of October’s $93.5m but soaring 86.9 per cent year-on-year from $49.1m. The figure produced $13.8m in state taxes.
The pair have generated a record $870.9m in operator revenue during the year, putting the industry just short of the pace to reach $1bn for the year. This has injected $130.8m into state coffers.
“With Atlantic City casinos struggling to remain open during the pandemic, the tax revenue generated by online casino games in particular has never been more needed,” stated Eric Ramsey, analyst for PlayNJ.com.
“New Jersey’s online casinos are the envy of every state with legalised online gaming and a model for any state looking to pass legislation in the coming year.”
New Jersey has also become the first state in history to post a legal sports betting handle of more than $900m, with the $1bn mark now in sight for the region’s online and retail sportsbooks.
New Jersey sportsbooks generated $931m in wagers in November, surpassing the previous record of $803.1m set a month earlier and marking the fourth consecutive month the state has set an all-jurisdiction record for handle. November’s bets produced $6.2m in state taxes on $50.6m in revenue.
“Even if New Jersey can’t quite reach $1bn in a month before the end of the NFL season, the mere possibility so soon after the industry launched in 2018 would have been close to inconceivable until just a few months ago,” noted Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayNJ.com.
“The restart of the US sports world after the shutdowns of spring and early summer has fuelled online sports betting in ways that would have been hard to predict before this year.”
Online betting generated 93.6 per cent, or $872.1m, of the state’s total handle, which was up from 92.6 per cent in October. FanDuel Sportsbook/PointsBet topped online operators with $21.2m in gross revenue, down from the $29.3m recorded a month earlier.
Retail sportsbooks generated $59.5m in bets, up from $59.2m month-on-month, with Meadowlands/FanDuel topping the charts with $3.6m in revenue.
“As good as the online market has been, Atlantic City has been hit hard this year by the pandemic,” Gouker added. “The state’s growth overall over the last few months is almost entirely the product of online sportsbooks. That will continue for the foreseeable future.”