New Jersey online gambling lagged in May
News on 13 Jun 2015
News on 13 Jun 2015
The New Jersey Division for Gaming Enforcement released its May 2015 performance statistics Friday, revealing that online poker revenues fell 2.5 percent compared with the preceding month at $1,93 million, whilst online casino revenues slipped 1.5 percent to $10.54 million.
Total New Jersey online revenue was $12.47 million, down by 1.5 percent on the previous month..
The Borgata – Party Poker – Pala alliance kept the lead with a 31.7 percent market share, with the Golden Nugget – Betfair partnership in hot pursuit with 24.6 percent of the business, performing strongly in the online casino vertical.
Caesar’s Interactive – 888 trailed in third with 21 percent of the market, whilst the Tropicana, which offers only internet casino action, languished at fourth. Pokerstars partner Resorts continued to offer NYX casino games whilst awaiting the DGE’s licensing decision on its massive partner, and contributed just 2.6 percent of overall revenues.
Looked at from a year-on-year perspective, the numbers are more encouraging, showing that overall online figures in May 2015 at $12.47 million are 19.1 percent better than the $10.5 million harvested in May 2014, with the online casino vertical performing 28.7 percent stronger.
Atlantic City’s eight land casinos saw their revenue increase by 5.3 percent in May compared with a year ago.
The casinos won $208.6 million from gamblers last month; more than $156.9 million came from slot machines and $51.6 million from table games.
“That’s a strong showing for what our detractors say is a weak market,” said Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. “Whether you look at the results for the one month or for the first five months of this year, total gaming revenue is up for the current operators. The size of the market may be smaller, but the health of the current operators is getting stronger.”
However, the Associated Press news agency observed that when the three land casinos that were operating in May 2014 but have since closed are included in the calculations, Atlantic City’s May 2015 revenue was down 9 percent from a year ago.
Five of the currently operating casinos saw increases last month. Caesars was up 51 percent to $27.7 million; the Golden Nugget was up more than 33 percent to $22.5 million; Resorts was up 19.6 percent to $14.4 million, Harrah’s was up 8.2 percent to $33.3 million, and the Tropicana was up 2.3 percent to $27.6 million.
For the first five months of this year, the casinos have taken in just under $1 billion, an improvement of nearly 4 percent over the same time period last year. But when the now-closed casinos are included, that figure represents a 10.5 percent decrease.
