Strong Growth in New Jersey's Gambling Industry: June 2022 Insights

New Jersey's gambling industry continues to show strong performance, posting a 7.4% year-on-year growth in June despite facing challenges in the sports betting sector. The state’s combined earnings from land-based casinos, igaming, and sports betting reached an impressive $491.0 million for the month, surpassing last June's $457.2 million. However, this figure represents a slight decline of 3.7% from May’s $510.0 million.

Land-Based Casinos Steady

Revenue from New Jersey's land-based casinos saw a modest increase of 1.0%, amounting to $244.1 million. Slot machines, a significant contributor to this segment, generated $184.0 million, marking a growth of 0.6%. Table games also played a part in this growth with a 2.5% increase, reaching $60.1 million for the month.

Igaming on the Rise

Notably, igaming revenue surged by an impressive 25.2% year-on-year to $186.8 million. Although it trailed behind the land-based sector by $57.3 million, the growth rate highlights a robust upward trajectory. "Other authorized games" within the igaming sector contributed significantly with $184.4 million, a 25.6% increase. Despite this, peer-to-peer poker saw a decline, dropping 2.9% to $2.5 million.

Breaking down the igaming performance, Golden Nugget led the pack with $51.5 million in revenue, which is a 23.3% increase from the previous year. Resorts Digital followed closely, generating $48.6 million, a substantial 36.4% increase. The Borgata also showed solid growth, reporting $42.9 million, up 8.8% year-on-year.

Challenges in Sports Betting

The sports betting landscape in New Jersey displayed mixed results. While residents placed bets worth $748.4 million—a significant 26.6% increase from last year’s $591.1 million—the revenue from this segment declined by 9.5% year-on-year, falling to $60.1 million. This figure also reflects a more substantial drop of 23.7% from May's $78.8 million.

Online bets dominated the sports betting sector, amounting to $719.0 million, while retail sportsbooks took in $29.5 million in bets. Among the top performers, FanDuel generated $29.1 million in sports betting revenue, followed by DraftKings at $14.4 million, BetMGM at $3.7 million, Bet365 at $3.4 million, and Fanatics Sportsbook at $1.8 million.

Tax Contributions and Year-to-Date Performance

New Jersey's gambling industry made a substantial contribution to state taxes in June, totaling $47.8 million. 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. Additionally, retail sports wagering from casinos contributed $7,782, while racetracks paid $71,191 in sports wagering taxes.

For the first six months of the year, total market revenue reached an impressive $3.06 billion, marking a 12.2% rise from last year’s $2.73 billion. The land-based casinos contributed $1.36 billion to this total, with slot machines generating $998.3 million and table games adding $357.8 million.

Igaming also posted strong numbers for the first half of the year, with revenue reaching $1.1 billion, up 21.4% from the previous year. "Other authorized games" contributed $1.12 billion to igaming revenue, a 21.8% increase, while peer-to-peer poker saw a decline, contributing $14.1 million, down 4.2%.

Meanwhile, sports betting revenue for the first half of the year was $573.1 million, up a remarkable 30.0% year-on-year. The year-to-date handle for sports betting surpassed $6.76 billion, with online sports betting contributing $6.53 billion and retail locations accounting for $231.0 million.

All in all, New Jersey’s gambling market demonstrates resilience and growth potential, particularly in the igaming and land-based casino sectors. Despite some volatility in sports betting, the overall trends indicate a robust performance for the industry.