Gambling continues to earn huge amounts of money in the state of New Jersey. The betting revenue figures for June had some good and disappointing results. Those for the first six months of 2024 were certainly impressive.
There were increases on the results achieved in the same period in 2023. While the figures for land-based and online casinos were impressive, those for sports betting again declined. There’s no reason to believe the state’s love affair with betting on sport is coming to an end. One look at the sporting calendar explains the situation.
The NFL is in its off-season and when it comes to basketball, the NBA play-offs ended in mid-June. Without those two powerhouses, a fall in sports betting revenue was totally expected. When the NFL and NBA make their return, the figures will start to increase again.
In June, the total for sports betting, online casinos and land-based casinos was $491 million. The same period last year produced revenue of $457.2 million.
There’s no off-seasons in the casino industry. The nearest they came to that was when the COVID-19 pandemic caused land-based casinos to temporarily close their doors. Now that the crisis is over the land-based venues are again earning high amounts. June saw a figure of $244.1 million achieved. Slot games remain so popular to play and contributed $184 million to that total.
Online casinos continue to see huge growth in New Jersey, and the trend is growing. They came into their own when that pandemic occurred. Unable to go to their favorite land-based casinos, gamblers went online and many did so for the first time ever.
June 2024 produced revenue of $186.8 million and that’s 25.2% more than the figure recorded in the same period last year. It was just $57.1 million behind the revenue from their land-based counterparts.
The most profitable online casino in the state was Golden Nugget with a $51.5 million revenue figure. To illustrate the growth in the state’s online casino industry, that total was 23.3% higher than that recorded in June of last year.
Just behind them was Resorts Digital on $48.6%. They had a higher year-on-year increase though with that figure being 36.4% higher than in June 2023. Also earning over $40 million were Borgata on $42.9 million. That was only 8.8% higher than their June 2023 revenue total.
It’s all good news for the New Jersey finances with huge amounts being earned from gambling taxes. That was one of the key reasons why the state was so keen on being able to make both online casinos and sportsbooks legal.
June alone saw $47.8 million received in gambling taxes. We now have the figures for the first six months of the year. Total market revenue for the gambling industry has been $3.06 billion, 12.2% higher than last year. Land-based casinos contributed $1.36 billion towards that total with slot machines revenue being $998.3 million. Online casino revenue was $1.1 billion with sports betting at $573.1 million.
In terms of tax received, it’s an impressive $331.3 million from operators in the first half of 2024. Could even more tax revenue be received in the future? That may well be the case if bill s3064 is passed in the state. That has the intention of increasing the tax rate for gambling in the state of New Jersey.
New Jersey can look on neighboring states such as New York and Pennsylvania with envious eyes. Both earn more tax revenue then New Jersey and the tax rate plays a huge role in this. In New York the tax rate is 51% and 36% in Pennsylvania. The bill that has been introduced into the New Jersey senate has the aim of seeing a higher tax rate in the state.
New York is closing in on $2 billion in sports betting tax revenue and that’s since January 2022. That was four years after the 2018 US Supreme Court Judge ruling that forever changed the sports betting industry in the US.
New Jersey isn't the only US state looking to increase their gambling tax rates. Illinois and Ohio are also looking to do the same. It’s clear that while US states are pleased to see such high levels of gambling tax being received, they want more in the future.
For the gambling industry itself, it’s worrying because their biggest fears are increased taxation and higher levels of regulation. With there still being concerns over gambling harm, both may well affect those operating in New Jersey.
