New Jersey Gambling Revenue is Increasing but Has Still Not Reached Pre-Pandemic Levels in Some Areas

In April 2024, casinos, sportsbooks, and their online partners in New Jersey achieved total gambling revenue of $510.9 million. This figure is a 10.4% increase on the $462.7 million reported in April 2023. The year-to-date (YTD) figure reported was $2.06 billion, which is a 14.4% increase from the figure of $1.80 billion for the April 2023 YTD period.

While this is positive news, several of the casinos in the state are not receiving as much money from in-person gamblers as they were before the pandemic period. In April, the nine casinos combined achieved in-person gambling wins of $216.8 million, compared with $207 million for the same period in 2019, before the pandemic hit.

This may seem like a significant increase in revenue. However, it’s important to add that the 2024 figure is bolstered by the strong performance of Hard Rock and Ocean, the newest casinos in the state. Of the remaining seven casinos, only Borgata’s figures were significantly up from 2019.

Despite this, figures for casino win, Internet gaming win, and sports wagering revenue have all improved since 2022. This trend is especially pronounced in internet gaming for 2023 and 2024, which raises the question: what lies ahead for the New Jersey market? As cryptocurrency gains popularity among players worldwide, it becomes apparent that adopting blockchain technology could be the next logical step for New Jersey online casinos.

However, industry executives are wary about the positive impact that online casinos in New Jersey are having. They agree that this impact is good for the industry but point out that as much as 70% of the money made from online gambling goes to the digital partners of casino brands and not the casinos.

Looking at the figures in the tables below shows a comparison between in-person, Internet, and sports betting win achieved by the casinos and their partners in 2019, 2022, and 2023. This comparison indicates the impact that Internet gambling has on the figures.

In-Person

Internet

Sports Betting

The figures show that in person and Internet gambling in New have experienced growth when comparing wins from April 2023 and April 2024, while sports betting has experienced a slight dip. However, despite the growth in-person figures, in-person wins at many casinos are still trailing below what was being achieved before the pandemic in 2019. In comparison, casinos and their partners achieved an Internet win figure in 2024 that was over 300% higher than the figure achieved in 2019.

This increase, combined with a steady sports betting market and a recovering in-person market, is good news for the New Jersey gambling industry overall. Although, executives will want to see further progress for in-person casino wins in the coming months.