Sports betting and online casino gaming saw big increases in January for Atlantic City’s casinos and New Jersey sports books set a new record of $385 million in sports betting handle for the state.
Coupled with better than $33 million in revenue for Atlantic City’s nine casinos from online gambling, the resort saw a 20 percent increase in revenue for the month compared to last year. However, the opening of two new casinos in June continues to impact the city’s now nine casinos as five casinos saw revenue declines.
According to figures released by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, about $305 million of the sports betting handle was placed through online or mobile devices. The total $385 million topped the previous record of $330 million set in November. January features the NFL playoffs and run up to the Super Bowl, played February 3.
Atlantic City casinos made about $10 million in revenue from sports betting while the state’s two racetracks that offer sports betting made about 9 million. Monmouth Park brought in $2 million while the Meadowlands made about $7 million, bringing the total for all sportsbooks to $18.8 million. The win, however, was down from about $21 million in December.
Atlantic City’s nine casinos also saw an about 20 percent increase in revenue compared to January 2017 at about $220 million. The revenue was buoyed by a strong month for online casino gaming which took in $33.5 million, up about 53 percent over 2017.
“Atlantic City held its own in January, a month when gaming figures have traditionally dropped off in the resort,” said James Plousis, chairman of the state Casino Control Commission in a press release. “The figures seem to be a good first chapter for Atlantic City’s 2019 gaming story.”
Still, the impact of the opening of the Hard Rock casino in June, along with the Ocean Resort casino the same month continued to raise questions of whether the city’s market can maintain nine casinos.
Five city casinos reported revenue declines. Caesars casino saw revenue decline 21.3 percent in January to $17.1 million. Harrah’s was down 8.6 percent to $21.5 million and Tropicana was down 6.2 percent to $24.5 million. Borgata, the city’s market leader, was down 3.4 percent to $55.8 million, and Bally’s was down 1.1 percent to $12.6 million.
The Golden Nugget, however, was up 14.3 percent in January to nearly $26.8 million and Resorts casino was up 10.9 percent to nearly $12.9 million.
For the new casinos, which were not operating in January 2017, Hard Rock took in $17.2 million in January, and Ocean Resort won $14.1 million. Ocean Resort has been struggling in the market and is currently being taken over by one of its main lenders.
For online gaming, the Golden Nugget continued to lead the market with more than $12 million in online winnings in January, up 67 percent from a year earlier. Resorts Digital was second at $6.4 million.
