The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has released the gaming revenue results for April 2018. The state saw an increase in Casino Win, Internet Gaming Win, and Total Gaming Win when compared to the same month last year.
For April, the Casino Win came in at $191.4m (£141.6m), is a 0.3% increase over the $190.9m (£141.2m) earned in April 2017. The Internet Gaming Win saw 10.6% increase, to $23m (£17m) from $20.8m (£15.4m) in the same month last year. Total Gaming Win came in at $214.4m (£158.6m), a 1.3% increase.
Monthly breakdown by operator
Looking at the April totals by operator, Resorts Casino was able to see the biggest increase for the month in Casino Win. With $17.2m (£12.7m) in earnings, the operator was up more than 23% from last year. The Golden Nugget also saw a solid profit increase of 11.6% with $20.1m (£14.9m) in earnings, much higher than the $18m (£13.3m) earned in April 2017. The Golden Nugget enjoyed a huge jump in online earnings, with $8.1m (£6m) in April, 51.2% higher than the April 2017 totals of $5.3m (£3.9m).
While Resorts and the Golden Nugget saw huge increases last month, Bally’s AC and the Borgata were not so fortunate. Bally’s had the largest drop in Casino Win for the month, at just over 11%, dropping from $17.1m (£12.6m) to $15.2m (£11.2m). The Borgata was down just over 9% in April, from $58.4m (£43.2m) to $53.1m (£39.3m). The Borgata did see an increase in the Internet Gaming Win, at $4.5m (£3.3m), a 9% increase from April 2017.
The Golden Nugget continues to dominate online gambling. April was the second month running that the operator earned $8m (£5.9m) for a market share of over 35%. In year-to-date totals, the Golden Nugget has already surpassed its Internet Gaming Win by almost 50%. In April 2017, the operator had reached just over $21.5m (£16m) by this point. This year, the operator is already at $31.9m (£23.6m) and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Sports betting to come
New Jersey continues to prove that they have a gambling industry to be reckoned with as the monthly totals for land-based and online gaming continue to soar. The overall gambling industry is only going to continue to grow after the recent announcement this week that sports betting is now open to states across the US.
The US Supreme Court decided to strike down the PASPA law, which prohibited individual states from offering sports betting. The decision reversed an opinion of a lower court in a case that was brought by New Jersey. With the addition of sports betting, the state should see an even bigger increase in the overall gaming win.
New Jersey has been preparing for this day for some time and one gaming venue of the state could be ready to take sports bets within the next few weeks. Monmouth Park already has a sports bar onsite, thanks to a partnership with William Hill, a top bookmaking company based in London. In 2013, the two spent close to $3m (£2.2m) to create the sports bar, providing the infrastructure needed to take sports bets when the time arrives.
Dennis Drazin, the CEO and chairman of Darby Development LLC, the operating company behind Monmouth Park, said: “This is the culmination of the hard work and dedication of a large group of individuals, all of whom contributed to today’s victory and will undoubtedly contribute to our future success. We started this fight back in 2012 and are grateful that the Supreme Court has recognized that we’ve been right all along. We can now shift our focus on commencing sports betting, which will be off and running at Monmouth Park as soon as possible.”
During a news conference yesterday afternoon, Drazin said that the facility could be ready in two weeks to start offering sports betting.
Money to be made
There is money to be made with sports betting, especially within the United States. New Jersey is sure to see an increase in overall gaming profits once sports betting is fully up and running. A study from last year by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming reported that in 2017, with sports betting being technically illegal in states outside of Nevada, as much as $3b (£2.2b) was earned by offshore bookmakers from individuals living in the US with illegal wagers.
According to the study, if PASPA were struck down, it would result in a significant market for regulated sports betting in a short time frame. It was estimated that a 50-state market of regulated sports betting in the United States would have a value of $7.1b (£5.25b) to $15.8b (£11.7b) in revenues.
The best-case scenario showed that, by 2023, as many as 32 states could offer regulated sports betting, with a market creating $6.03b (£4.46b) in annual revenues.
Over the next few weeks, it will be interesting to watch as the sports betting industry begins to take shape in New Jersey, with the next few months revealing just how the new gambling offering will affect the overall gaming earnings of the state.