New Jersey Gaming Revenue Up Despite Poor Retail Casino Figures

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New Jersey’s retail casino business continues to take a hit in October, potentially as a result of a smoking ban being rejected by a local judge. In contrast, iGaming continued its surge, reaching more than $200 million of gaming win for the month and posting a 28.1% increase in figures. Sports betting remains a relatively small portion of overall gaming and posted a 16% decline for the month. Internet gaming win was marginally higher than retail casino win.

While retail casinos have been drawn into a legal dispute over the legality of allowing smoking in their properties, iGaming has gone from strength to strength. More online casinos are now available, offering a range of games and other features, including cryptocurrency deposits, live dealer games, and online casino game show games. Casino game shows enable players to enjoy live dealers and improve game immersion from the comfort of their own homes.

New Jersey was one of the first states to legalize iGaming, overwhelmingly passing legislation to allow online casinos and other forms of online gambling in 2013. It remains one of just seven states with regulated online casinos. And, as the state’s retail casinos continue to lose business in 2024, iGaming has picked up the slack.

This summer saw NJ casinos experience a 13.6% drop in gross profits compared to last year. The state’s retail casinos, which are all located in Atlantic City, saw third-quarter net revenue of $943 million, down 2.9% from 2023, leading to a 13.6% decrease in gross profits to $243 million. Even hotel room occupancy was down 1.5% year on year.

The decline continued in October. The month saw total gaming revenue, including all forms of gambling online and offline, reach $499.8 million, which is 2.6% higher than last year. However, despite the overall gain, retail casino wins shed 8.5% to $208.7 million. Sports betting was also down, losing 16% compared to 2023, with $77.5 in bets. Despite this, year-to-date sports wagering has increased 13.9% to $912.8 million. New Jersey has the largest sports betting market in the US collecting more than $1.3 billion in wagers in 2022: a figure it should get close to this year.

Retail casinos in The Garden State have been in the news lately. Casino workers have been campaigning to have smoking banned in retail casino outlets. However, in August this year, Superior Court Judge Patrick Bartels ruled that smoking in casinos would not be banned. The decision came after four years of legal wrangling, and barristers representing workers have said they will continue the fight.

While making his decision, the judge ruled that smoking has been restricted to a fraction of the casino floorspace and other health and safety improvements have been put in place to benefit workers.

Workers and proponents of the ban claim that while smoking is restricted to 25% of floorspace, the areas are spread out which effectively means passive smoke spreads right across the casino floor anyway. Similar cases are being fought in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Virginia, but opponents of the ban fear that it will further harm casino revenues.

In October, iGaming was left to do the heavy lifting, and it obliged. Online win increased by 28.1% to reach $213.6 million, a massive 28.1% increase. Although retail casinos are struggling, New Jersey’s general gambling market is not. Year-to-date revenue stands at $5.22 billion – a 9.3% increase compared to 2023. Seasonally, revenue traditionally drops during this period, but the gaming market will be hoping that retail casino revenue picks up, while online gaming revenue continues to increase its ongoing profits.

If you or anyone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.