Total monthly revenue reached $484.8 million (£373.5 million/€444 million). This beats February 2024 but was 12.5% behind January this year, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) reports.
Growth was apparent across two of the state’s three core markets, with both igaming and sports betting seeing increases. This was only partially offset by a drop in land-based casino revenue.
Igaming revenue rises 14% in New Jersey
Starting with the primary source of revenue, igaming, revenue increased 14% year-on-year to $207.8 million. This was only the third time that igaming drew the most gambling revenue in a single month in New Jersey.
Breaking this down, $205.4 million came from “other authorised games”, including slots, up 14% from last year. The other $2.4 million was attributed to peer-to-peer poker, a rise of 2.6%.
FanDuel and Golden Nugget Atlantic City just held on to top spot with $44.1 million in total revenue, up 10.3%. DraftKings and Resorts Casino Hotel were close behind with $43.1 million, a rise of 5.9%.
BetMGM and Borgata were next with $28.2 million, ahead of the Borgata’s own platform with $20 million. Caesars and Tropicana Atlantic City completed the top five in igaming, posting $14 million in revenue.
Sports betting revenue rises despite handle decline
Turning to New Jersey’s sports betting, revenue for this segment increased by 8.9% year-on-year to $73.6 million in February.
Some $72.7 million of this figure was attributed to online betting, a rise of 11.1%. However, retail sports wagering revenue dropped 60.9% to $824,895.
Spending-wise, players wagered a total of $988.9 million on sports during February. That handle was 8.5% behind last year and 14.2% behind January’s total this year. Some $949.6 million was bet online, compared to $39.3 million at retail sportsbooks in the state.
This meant monthly hold for February stood at 7.44%.
Among the operators, FanDuel and Meadowlands retain a healthy lead in the online market. The partnership generated $33.9 million in revenue during the month, up 27.2% from last year. The NJDGE does not publish handle for individual operators.
DraftKings, the longtime rival of FanDuel, again placed second in New Jersey through its partnership with Resorts Casino Hotel. However, the $20.3 million reported fell 16.4% short of the previous year.
BetMGM and Borgata remained third in revenue with $5.9 million, a rise of 41.9%. Fanatics and Bally’s took fourth with $3.5 million, with no year-on-year comparison as the partnership only went live in May 2024.
Bet365 and Hard Rock completed the top five in sports betting revenue with $4 million, up 35.1%.
As for retail betting, just three of the state’s nine operators posted positive revenue. By far the most successful was Resorts Casino Hotel, which reported $81,843.
Land-based casino revenue dips to $203.5 million
Completing the roundup, gaming revenue collected by Atlantic City’s land-based casinos fell 3.8% to $203.5 million in February.
Slot machine revenue declined 4.3% to $152.1 million, while table games revenue was 2.5% lower at $51.4 million.
Borgata remained the market leader with $49.9 million in revenue, down 6.9%. Hard Rock was next at $41.9 million, up 1.8%. Ocean Casino collected $32.4 million, an increase of 4.3%.
Could New Jersey gambling taxes be on the rise?
As for taxes, New Jersey collected a total of $53.3 million from gambling operations during February. This included $31.1 million from igaming, $12.7 million from land-based casinos, $9.4 million from online sports betting and $161,488 retail sportsbooks.
However, the amount operators pay in tax in the future would be increased if Governor Phil Murphy gets his way. Last month, Murphy proposed hiking sports betting and igaming tax rates to 25%, up from 13% and 15%, respectively.
That effort has drawn criticism from the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), of which heavyweights BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics Sportsbook and FanDuel are members.
“Raising sports betting taxes will make sports betting more expensive for customers, slow operator investments in jobs and local business partnerships and put the regulated industry at a disadvantage to unregulated and offshore operators who pay no state taxes,” the SBA said.
