New Jersey’s sports betting machine crossed a major threshold in September. Thanks, in large measure to college football and the NFL, the state took in more than $1 billion in handle, the first state in the U.S. to reach that mark, according to the Associated Press.
After winners were paid and expenses accounted for the nine casinos and three tracks kept $82 million as revenue, with the Meadowlands Racetrack outside New York, responsible for half the total.
“New Jersey has always been a strong gaming market,” said Casey Clark, senior vice president of the American Gaming Association, the casino industry’s national trade group. “Crossing the $1 billion handle mark in September is an impressive indicator of the appetite of New Jerseyans and Americans across the country who have embraced legal, regulated sports betting.”
Nevada comes closest to the $1 billion plateau reaping a handle of $659 million in October 2020. Illinois crossed the $600 million mark in March 2021 and Pennsylvania did so in January of this year.
Gambling fared well overall in September, based on figures released October 18 by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Casino, internet, and sports betting revenue added up to $453.5 million, up more that 40 percent from September 2020, when casino gaming in person still operated with limited capacities due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The prior record for the most money wagered on sports in a month occurred in December 2020, when New Jersey recorded $996 million.
“New Jersey reaped the benefit of being an early adopter of sports betting,” said Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the gambling industry. “By embracing mobile sports books and making sports betting more accessible than even Nevada, New Jersey has now achieved an important milestone.”
Revenue at brick-and-mortar casinos rose 30 percent to $248.5 million compared with a year ago, and internet gambling jumped almost 40 percent to $122.5 million, even with casinos at full capacity. All nine properties enjoyed double digit increases, with Borgata up 75 percent with $111 million taken in.
Tropicana won $34.8 million, up over 33 percent; the Ocean Casino Resort won $32.1 million, up 8.5 percent; Harrah’s won $27.8 million, up 42.5 percent, and Caesars won $21.6 million, up just over 14 percent. Resorts won $17.7 million, up over 27 percent; Bally’s won $14.5 million, up nearly 13 percent from when it was under different ownership last year; and the Golden Nugget won $13.1 million, up almost 15 percent from a year ago.
Among internet-only entities, Resorts Digital won $41.5 million, up nearly 68 percent; Golden Nugget Online Gaming won nearly $31 million, up over 18 percent, and Caesars Interactive NJ won $10.1 million, up 22 percent.
The return of various sports in May, along with pent-up demand, led to a doubling of bets to $117.8 million and an upward trend that never quit the rest of 2020.
December 2020 produced $996.3 million in wagers, but January 2021 couldn’t quite measure up, this time at $958.7 million.
The first “rebound month” for New Jersey gambling in 2020 was that $668 million in bets that August. In August 2021, the figure was $664.7 million.
If the sports and the betting continuum continue between September and January, New Jersey should be able to close in on the $1 billion mark four times in that time span, and maybe eclipse the figure in March 2022, thanks to March Madness and the NBA and NHL playoffs, according to NJ Online Gambling.
Enjoy it. When New York State rolls out mobile gambling, New Jersey’s handle should go down, maybe a lot. Industry experts say as much as 25 percent of New Jersey wagers come from New Yorkers.
