New Jersey’s gambling market demonstrated significant resilience and robust growth across multiple segments in June, marking a 7.4% year-on-year increase. This enduring performance across land-based casinos, igaming, and sports betting culminated in combined earnings reaching an impressive $491.0 million.
Land-Based Casinos Maintain Steady Growth
The land-based casino sector saw a modest yet noteworthy growth of 1.0%, amassing $244.1 million in revenue. Slot machines remained the primary contributor, generating $184.0 million with a 0.6% uptick. Table games outperformed slightly more, registering a 2.5% boost in revenue to $60.1 million.
Strong Igaming Performance
Igaming emerged as a standout performer with earnings surging by a substantial 25.2% year-on-year, totaling $186.8 million. This impressive growth, however, still left it trailing the revenue generated by land-based casinos by $57.3 million. The igaming sector's significant contributors included the broader category of "other authorized games," which alone brought in $184.4 million, reflecting a 25.6% increase.
Within the igaming space, notable performers included Golden Nugget, which achieved $51.5 million in revenue, marking a 23.3% increase from the previous year. Resorts Digital exhibited even stronger growth, with a 36.4% year-on-year increase, leading to $48.6 million in revenue. The Borgata also showed a solid upward trend, generating $42.9 million, an 8.8% rise from last year’s figures.
However, not all facets of igaming thrived. Peer-to-peer poker recorded a decline, with revenue falling by 2.9% to $2.5 million.
Challenges in Sports Betting
Conversely, sports betting faced hurdles, recording a 9.5% year-on-year decline in revenue to $60.1 million, also down significantly by 23.7% from May’s $78.8 million. Despite this, the appetite for sports betting among New Jersey residents remained robust, with total bets amounting to $748.4 million—a 26.6% uptick from the previous year. Online bets continued to dominate, contributing $719.0 million, while retail sportsbooks took in $29.5 million.
The key players in the sports betting market displayed varying performance. FanDuel led with $29.1 million in revenue, followed by DraftKings with $14.4 million. BetMGM and Bet365 reported $3.7 million and $3.4 million in revenue, respectively, while Fanatics Sportsbook contributed $1.8 million.
Tax Contributions and Year-to-Date Performance
The thriving gambling market also significantly bolstered state finances, contributing $47.8 million in taxes for June. This included $16.2 million from land-based casino gross revenue tax, $28.0 million from igaming internet gross revenue tax, and $3.6 million from internet sports wagering tax. Retail sports wagering from casinos and racetracks added smaller but notable amounts, with contributions of $7,782 and $71,191, respectively.
Examining the broader picture for the first half of the year, New Jersey's total market revenue hit $3.06 billion, reflecting a 12.2% increase from $2.73 billion in the previous year. Land-based casinos contributed $1.36 billion to this figure. Slot machines and table games were significant contributors, with slot machines amassing $998.3 million and table games bringing in $357.8 million in revenue.
Igaming continued to show robust growth over the first six months, with revenues climbing 21.4% to $1.1 billion. The category of "other authorized games" maintained its strong performance, generating $1.12 billion, up 21.8%, although peer-to-peer poker saw a decline with a 4.2% drop to $14.1 million.
Sports Betting Continues to Surge
Despite the declines noted in June, sports betting overall showed significant strength in the first half of the year, with revenue rising by 30.0% to $573.1 million. The year-to-date handle for sports betting exceeded $6.76 billion, with online sports betting dominating the sector, contributing $6.53 billion, while retail locations accounted for $231.0 million.
New Jersey’s gambling market thus showcases a dynamic and resilient landscape, with encouraging growth in the igaming and land-based casino sectors. However, despite facing challenges, especially in the sports betting domain, the state's industry continues to thrive and contribute substantially to the local economy.