New Jersey online casinos generated nearly $86 million in the month of May, easily beating the previous record of $80 million set in April. The record numbers are attributed to the closure of 9 gaming floors in Atlantic City due to COVID-19. According to the New Jersey Division of Gambling Enforcement (DGE), online casino revenue has experienced a 124% year-on-year increase.
As expected, slots and table games brought in the lion’s share of revenue at $81.4 million, while online poker brought in $4.5 million, a considerable decrease from April’s record of $5.15 million.
Casino Rankings
As usual, the Golden Nugget generated the most revenue, surpassing its April record by $1.3 million and reaching over $29 million in May. Resorts Digital Gaming came in a far second with $17.66 million, surpassing its April record by $1.5 million. The Borgata family of sites came in third with $16.67 million, and Caesars Interactive Entertainment came in fourth with $9.4 million. The Tropicana rounded out the top 5 with $6.7 million.
Sports Betting
With New Jersey’s racetracks closed down, along with most major national sports, sports betting revenue in the Garden State hit only $9.9 million, a one-third decrease from May of 2019. The Meadowlands and partner FanDuel generated $4.23 million while Resorts and partner DraftKings brought in $3.76. These were the only two operators to surpass the $1 million mark.
Gambling Industry Takes a Hit
Unfortunately, the stellar numbers of online gambling were not enough to help New Jersey out of the hole that has been created due to the lack of land-based gambling and sports betting. In total, revenue from online gambling, poker, and sports betting generated $95.8 million, a 16.1% month-on-month decrease and a 65.4% year-on-year decrease. The only good news here is the fact that online gambling is operational. States that don’t have online gambling are experiencing much greater losses than those that do.