New Jersey Online Casinos Set Revenue Record In March

Online gambling revenue hit an all-time high in New Jersey last month.

According to numbers released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, online operators won $113.7 million from Garden State gamblers. It’s the most revenue generated in a single month by online casinos in the history of the state and it’s only the second time the industry crossed the $100 million mark. The first came last January when online casinos reported winning $103.8 million.

Internet gaming win was up 75.4% year-over-year from the $64.8 million recorded in March 2020, when the pandemic first began to wreak havoc in the U.S. and caused governors around the country to shutter their casino markets.

New Jersey’s total gaming revenue in March totaled $359.3 million, which represents a 119.8% increase year-over-year. But since Gov. Phil Murphy closed Atlantic City’s nine casinos on March 16, 2020, and kept them closed until July, it’s an unfair comparison.

Sports betting revenue was also up a massive 360.9% year-over-year after books reported gross winnings of $60.8 million. Nearly every major American professional sports league paused their seasons a year ago as well, which shut down nearly the entire market by default.

While year-over-year trends may not give a true sense of the market sentiment, it does at least mark the beginning of post-COVID comparisons. Moving forward, year-over-year changes should give a more accurate indicator of how the industry is faring.

Despite any faults with comparing year-over-year numbers, there was a significant jump from $288.3 million in February’s gross gaming revenue. The uptick can be attributed in part thanks to the return of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the continued rollout of vaccines nationwide.

For the last year, however, the opposite was true as New Jersey casinos were operating at reduced capacities and recording severe dips in earnings as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and mandates by the government. Those restrictions led to an 80% drop in profit for New Jersey casinos in 2020.

Predictably, all nine New Jersey casinos posted a year-over-year increases with the Hard Rock Atlantic City seeing the largest of them all with a 200.8% bump in earnings with $30.7 million. Borgata reigned supreme, however, and was once again the highest-grossing casino in the state with $46.5 million

Bally’s Atlantic City was on the other end of the spectrum, winning $9.8 million from gamblers in March. The brick-and-mortar industry as a whole won $184.9 million, which is good for a 116.3% uptick year-over-year.

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