Internet gambling: Another record month smashed for New Jersey

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement said internet gambling brought in just over $214 million in November, narrowly eclipsing the previous record of $213 million set a month earlier.

“The continuing success of online gaming and sports wagering has helped total gaming revenue achieve its best November monthly result in over a decade,” said James Plousis, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

But that’s not necessarily great news for the casinos. They must share a substantial portion of internet and sports-betting revenue with partners including sportsbooks and tech platforms.

For that reason, the casinos consider money won from in-person gamblers to be their core business. And that business has not been terrific for years now.

The casinos collectively matched their pre-pandemic in-person revenue total of $223.9 million in November. But only three casinos — Hard Rock, Ocean, and Resorts, which barely exceeded its pre-pandemic level — won more from in-person gamblers in November than they did in November 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak began.

The continuing surge in internet gambling represents a trend that has been present in New Jersey for several years now. It was accelerated by the pandemic, which forced the casinos to close for 3½ months in 2020 and pushed many people to online alternatives that they have continued to use even in the years after the outbreak waned.

November's $214 million in internet revenue was up nearly 25% from a year ago.

Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the Atlantic City gambling industry, noted that New Jersey's internet gambling market exceeded $200 million for the third month in a row.

When internet and sports betting revenue is included, the casinos, two horse tracks that take sports bets, and their online and tech partners won $556 million in November, an increase of 15.4%. That was helped by two additional weekend days in November that did not occur in November 2023.

Borgata won a combined $122.6 million in November, up over 25% from a year earlier. Resorts won nearly $101 million, up nearly 28%; Golden Nugget won nearly $77 million, up 26%; Hard Rock won $63.5 million, up over 21%; Ocean won $39.8 million, up 8.6%; Bally's won $24.5 million, up over 24%; Harrah's won $18.5 million, down 4.4%; Tropicana won $16.6 million, down 7.3%, and Caesars won $16.5 million, down 7.4%.

In terms of in-person revenue only, Borgata won $57.5 million, up 11.4% from a year earlier; Hard Rock won $44.3 million, up 7.1%; Ocean won $34 million, up 8.2%; Harrah's won $18.5 million, down 5.6%; Tropicana won $16.7 million, down 6.6%; Resorts won $13.9 million, up nearly 12%; Golden Nugget won $11.7 million, up 6.7%, and Bally's won $10.8 million, down 10.3%.

Sports betting brought in nearly $119 million in revenue on $1.2 billion worth of bets.

The Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, just outside New York City, had $50.5 million in sports-betting revenue, down 12.3% from a year ago. It has a FanDuel sportsbook on the premises.

Resorts, which is allied with DraftKings with a retail location and online operations, had nearly $38 million in sports-betting revenue in November, nearly double the amount from a year earlier.

Monmouth Park in Oceanport, near the Jersey Shore, had $2.5 million in sports-betting revenue. That was up 163% from a year earlier, undoubtedly helped by the recent cessation of sports-betting operations at a competing track in the same county, Freehold Raceway, which is closing at the end of this month.