Thanks to all four major sports operating in the same month, New Jersey set a new record in sports betting in October. Figures released by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement show the state’s casinos and horse tracks took $487 million in sports bets last month.
The figure broke the previous record of $445 million, set in September.
The back-to-back records make New Jersey a threat to take over leadership of the U.S. sports betting market from Nevada some 18 months after New Jersey won the Supreme Court battle which legalized sports betting.
“Sports wagering is certainly claiming a seat at the table, with its October revenue share at seven percent of total gaming revenue, compared to 2.96 percent in October, 2018,” Rummy Pandit, executive director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University told the Associated Press.
Jeff Gural, who operates the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, just outside New York City, said New Jersey’s success is due in part to New York officials’ failure to approve mobile sports betting; bets can only be made in person at upstate New York casinos.
“It’s clearly a factor of New York sitting on its hands,” Gural said. “It’s not going to last forever.”
The Meadowlands track, which is affiliated with the FanDuel and PointsBet sports books, dominates New Jersey’s sports betting market, a fact attributed in large part to its proximity to New York City. It earned nearly $25 million in sports betting revenue in October after paying out winning bets and other expenses, up from $3.5 million in November, 2018. Resorts Digital, affiliated with DraftKings, was next at $10.5 million in revenue. Monmouth Park Racetrack earned $2.8 million in sports betting revenue and the Ocean Casino Resort took in $2.3 million.
October also was a great month for internet gambling, which was up 69 percent from a year ago to $45.2 million. The figures show how reliant Atlantic City’s casinos have become on the extra money from sports bets and online bets. Without those two, the casinos saw their revenue rise by less than one percent to $202 million.
Overall, including casino games, internet gambling and sports betting, total gambling revenue in the state rose 22.9 percent to $293.8 million.
Excluding sports betting, the casinos’ collective revenue for in-person and internet gambling increased 13.6 percent to $266.2 million.
Ocean Casino Resort had the largest monthly increase, up almost 47 percent from a year ago to $21.3 million. Golden Nugget grew nearly 22 percent to $31.9 million. Hard Rock went up 16.4 percent to $28.2 million, and Borgata was up 10.5 percent to $61.1 million. Caesars rose 7.8 percent to $21.7 million, and Harrah’s grew 1.2 percent to $24.1 million.
Resorts fell 10.6 percent to $12.3 million; Tropicana declined 8.9 percent to $26.3 million; and Bally’s tumbled 6.2 percent to $13.8 million.
