New Jersey Betting Soar in the First Year of Legalised Betting to Rival Nevada

The New Jersey market is benefiting from gambling activity, and seeking to move as much as possible of tax gains to the state budget.

One year after PASPA, sports betting in New Jersey is soaring to billions.

Billion Dollar Figure

The figure that New Jersey gamblers put down on sports bets is reportedly $3.2 billion, bringing the state into stiff competition with long-time legal state Nevada for the nationwide lead after the first year of legalised sports betting.

June Take

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reports the state’s casinos and racetracks handled $273 million worth of bets in June alone.

Catching Nevada

Since sports betting came into effect on June 14^th, 2018, New Jersey has already overtaken Nevada in quantity of monthly sports bets placed with $318.9 million wagered, besting long gambling Nevada by $1.5 million, with Nevada's June totals still to be released at the time of writing.

Land-based Venues

As far as casino gambling in New Jersey, the state's casinos and two horse tracks that offer sport betting collected some $284 million in June, for a year-on-year jump of 21.5%.

Meadowlands Operator Speaks

Meadowlands operator Jeff Gural expressed “shock at how well” the East Rutherford race track has done, earning nearly $58 million on sports betting revenue after paying out winning bets.

Gural added his expectation of reaching $500 million (in betting volume), helped by the reluctance of New York to legalise sports betting. providing a huge boost to the track (and the state) as well.

Impact on the State

As far as the pass along to state coffers, the numbers are not all they seem to add up to. This is because taxes are assessed only on the operators’ revenue after paying off winning bets and other expenses, as opposed to total amount of bets placed.

All told, New Jersey casinos and tracks earned $109 million while paying $13.3 million in state taxes. New Jersey Casino Control Commission chairman James Plousis reports that the state received $23.8 million in taxes on that.

Year-on-Year for June

Revenue from iGaming topped $38 million in June, a key total representing a 68% year-on-year improvement. Golden Nugget led the charge at nearly $13.6 million won--twice the nearest competitor.

Outlook

The New Jersey market should welcome more sports betting in more sites in the coming months, with online sports gambling and sports wagering continuing to contribute to state coffers as revenue sources that did not exist a year ago.