The growth is slow, but online gambling revenue continues to rise in New Jersey.
The state’s online gambling sites—which are run through, or in partnership with Atlantic City casinos—took in $11.9 million in revenue for March. That’s a 15.2 percent increase compared to $10.3 million in online revenue in February.
Online gambling began in New Jersey in late November of 2013 and revenue has climbed every month since it’s been in operation.
Some analysts now see online gambling taking in about $150 million for the year in the state. That figure is still below most predictions for online gaming that ranged from about $250 million to $400 million.
The administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie initially predicted revenues of $1 billion, but has since admitted that the figure was wildly optimistic and has backed off making budget estimates on online gambling revenue for the state’s upcoming 2014-15 budget.
One encouraging sign for the fledgling industry, however, is the continued growth of online gambling accounts in the state. About 292,000 internet gaming accounts had been created by the end of March. In February, the figure was 248,241 accounts.
Online accounts do not necessarily reflect the number of individual players as many gamblers are opening multiple accounts at the state’s online sites.
Two of the big winners in March were the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and the Tropicana Casino Resort.
Boyd Gaming, owner of Borgata, announced that its Borgata sites and its online partner party.poker generated $4.4 million in online gaming revenue, leading the New Jersey online gaming market with a 37 percent share.
Tropicana Atlantic City Online announced a 41 percent revenue increase from February to March from $1.345 million to $1.895 million. Tropicanacasino.com offers slots and table games, but not online poker.
Tropicana officials also echoed previous statements from other Atlantic City casinos saying their player tracking indicates the online Tropicana brand is attracting new players and not hurting their land-based casino base.
“So far, we find that online gaming appeals to a brand new customer for us. Sixty-eight percent of our online customers are new to the Tropicana brand,” said Tony Rodio, president and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment. “While we are seeing substantial growth in the online side of the business, we are also seeing growth in our land-based numbers, which seems to dispel the notion that internet gaming will cannibalize Atlantic City casinos. At this point, online gaming has allowed us to expand our audience and introduce the Tropicana experience to new faces.”
Another optimistic sign is that several sites—such as Borgata and Caesars Entertainment sites—have begun introducing new banking options which should make depositing at the sites easier. The online rollout in that state has been hurt as many credit card issuers, banks and e-wallet companies have refused to approve online gambling transactions.
“Expanding payment processing options for our customers is one of our highest priorities, and we are making good progress in this regard,” Keith Smith, president and CEO of Boyd Gaming said in a press release. “Earlier this month, Borgata added Neteller, a global online payment solution, as a new payment option for our customers. Boyd Gaming is working diligently to make our online gaming experience as convenient as possible, giving players another reason to continue selecting Borgata over the competition.”
Caesars Interactive has also added Neteller to its four online sites as well as some other banking options.
Meanwhile, Atlantic City casinos as a whole took in $233.4 million in revenue for March, a 2.2 percent decline from March 2013. Those figure include the online revenue.
Including online revenue, Atlantic City’s 11 casinos won a total of $233 million in March 2014, down 2 percent from March 2013. The city has one less casino operating in 2014, however, as the Atlantic Club casino hotel closed in January of this year.
The casinos brought in 15 percent more from online gambling in March over February, according to figures released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Casinos won $11.9 million from online bettors—up from $10.3 million—in February. The DGE also announced that 292,000 online-gambling accounts are registered in the state, an 18 percent increase over February.
Without the online revenue, the city’s brick-and-mortar casinos brought in $221 million, a drop of 7 percent from 2013.
Some casinos, however, posted gains.
Revel Casino Hotel saw its winnings jump 50 percent to $14.7 million. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City and Resorts Casino Hotel each had increases of just over 20 percent. The Golden Nugget’s winnings were $12.9 million; Resorts’ were $11.2 million.
Tropicana Casino and Resort brought in $22.2 million for an increase of more than 10 percent.
Meanwhile, four casinos had winnings that were down by more than 10 percent from last year.
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino brought in $4.7 million, a decrease of 31 percent; Bally’s Atlantic City, at $17.9 million, was down 18 percent; Trump Taj Mahal won $19 million, down 19 percent; and Showboat Casino Hotel, at $14 million, was down 17 percent.
The Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa stayed relatively stable with $51.5 million, a decrease of 1.2 percent. Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City was down 5.5 percent to $29 million, and Caesar’s Atlantic City won $24.3 million, an increase of less than 1 percent.
The biggest share of the Internet gambling revenue went to Borgata, with $4.4 million; Caesars Interactive New Jersey was next with $3.7 million.
