A Truly Golden Nugget: November Online Casino Revenues Soar in New Jersey
New Jersey’s now nearly six-year-old market has been going top guns over the past year, and the state can now add a record-breaking November to its list of achievements.
New Jersey’s online operations saw an 82.4% rise on last year’s figure of $29.6m, raking in a respectable revenue of $49.1 million over the month.
That’s a significant chunk of the state’s $305 million total for the year so far, which is also up 18% on the $257m collected in 2018.
Nugget Takes the Lead Again
Because online ventures in New Jersey must partner with a physical casino, big Atlantic City brands dominate the list of major players. Right at the top is Golden Nugget, who nearly doubled their income from the same month last year, pulling in a cool $18.9 million in revenue in November.
Resorts Digital, the online arm of Resorts Casino and Hotel, came second in the revenue race with $10.9 million.
Third place in the online battle for customers went to Borgata Online, banking $8.2 million—an increase of around 70% on last year.
Meanwhile, in the physical realm of land-based casinos, Borgata crushed their November competition and picked up $59 million in revenue—nearly twice as much as their nearest competitor, Caesar’s, who pulled in $28 million.
These fantastic figures currently support nearly 7,000 jobs in the state, and gambling firms have paid nearly $300 million in taxes since New Jersey first legalized online gambling in 2013.
Ocean Resort and Poker Revenues Fall Off
Unfortunately, it’s not party time for every single operator in the state. The two biggest losers in November were online poker (the only sector to see an overall drop in revenues for the month) and Ocean Resort Casino’s online wing, which failed to see the same growth as its resurgent land-based operation over this year.
With revenues at Ocean’s online casino down nearly 25% on last year’s November, the company will no doubt be looking at making a few changes to its online service soon in an effort to remain competitive.
Conversely, Ocean Resort also saw the biggest revenue rise of any land-based New Jersey casino over the month—$19.5 million, up 66% on last November.
These contrasting fortunes mean the company might invest some of the land-based casino’s revenue into improving its online service.
As for online poker, the immensely popular card game has had a tough year in the legal NJ market. Overall income from New Jersey poker players is down 2.2% on last year’s so far, and November saw a record low of just $1.49 million in revenue.
The market appears to be slowing down its contraction, though, as this year’s 2% fall is much kinder than the nearly 14% year-on-year decline we saw between 2017 and 2018.
Such figures must worry even the state’s consistent top-dog in the poker market, PokerStars NJ, although the company has been quickly diversifying its brand into online casino gaming, like many poker operators across the US.
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