New Jersey Trend Continues: Online Gambling Revenue Up, Online Poker Revenue Down
Published July 23, 2016 by Elana K
New Jersey’s online gambling pattern of 2016 has continued throughout the month of June; overall, online gambling revenue is up, but online poker is on the decline - and has been for months.
New Jersey’s online gambling pattern of 2016 has continued throughout the month of June; overall, online gambling revenue is up, but online poker is on the decline - and has been for months. The figures recently released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show a 3 percent increase from last month’s online gambling revenue, but a 23.4 percent decrease from last month’s online poker revenue. When compared to June 2015, online casino revenue in June 2016 shows a whopping 40.6 percent increase.
Why is Online Poker Lagging?
Summer is traditionally a time when online poker traffic slows down, as people tend to focus on outdoor activities during this season. June also has one day less than May, another fact that may explain the decrease in revenue. Additionally, the NJ Spring Championship of Online Poker took place in May, which may have inflated the figures for that month, making June look worse than it usually would. And while you may have thought that the World Series of Poker, taking place between May 31-July 18, would bolster online poker revenue, the opposite seems to have happened, perhaps because poker fans are following the series as opposed to playing online themselves.
These are certainly plausible reasons as to why New Jersey online poker declined in June, but they don’t explain previous months when the industry followed similar trends. Perhaps New Jersey’s new move to share liquidity with UK player pools will give the industry a boost, but there seems to be a long time to go before that happens.
New Jersey Online Gambling
New Jersey officially legalized online gambling in 2013, and while it initially got off to a rough start, with the revenue coming in at much lower numbers than predicted, it seems that the Garden State has finally found its stride, at least in terms of online casino games. Online poker still has a long way to go.
