As far as casino gaming is concerned, it is only New Jersey and Delaware that offer fully functioning online casinos. New Jersey has taken the lead as the top provider, with five operators within the state. Online operators in the state must have partnered with a land based casino to be able to provide online gaming options.
For the month of December, New Jersey did quite well with online casino gaming, as the gaming regulators of the state have released the revenue figures. For 2015, the state was able to earn $14.04 million within the month of December. This is over 30% better than December of 2014. One year previously, the state only earned just over $10 million. Poker revenues were down by almost $2 million, but casino gaming saw such an increase, that the online casino industry has made a complete turnaround in 2015.
The December earnings were also a record for the state in regards to monthly earnings. The state has only been in operation since late 2013, with the previous record being $13.2 million. This is a huge increase when you consider the difference from the $13.2 million earnings to the $14.04 million, an almost one million dollar increase.
Since launching in 2013, the state has been able to earn close to $280 million in revenues. For the year, the state saw $148.88 million in overall internet gaming, which is a 21.2% increase from the 2014 yearly earnings of $122.88 million. Poker game play fell just over 18% for the year, decreasing from $29.06 million from 2014 to $23.82 million for 2015.
As far as internet gaming is concerned, the state’s earnings can be broken down based on the operator. In order of top earnings to the lowest are:
Borgata Casino earning $45,667,287
Tropicana Casino earning $32,822,727
Caesars Interactive NJ earning $32,638,153
Golden Nugget Casino earning $30,968,182
Resorts Digital earning $6,783,831
With online gaming totals included, Atlantic City was able to earn $2.56 billion. This is a decrease of 6.5 percent from the 2014 total earnings of $2.74 billion. The Atlantic City area has been suffering for many years and the hope was that online gaming would help to bring about a change in the gaming industry. While online gaming totals are helping, officials of New Jersey are trying to find a way to bring in additional revenues, even considering creating casinos in the northern area of the state.
There is even a plan in place for the state to takeover Atlantic City’s financials for a set number of years. It appears as though officials have been a bit careless with the gaming revenues, with the city now in trouble.
It will be interesting to see how 2016 fares as the state is set to offer online poker gaming via PokerStars. This should help bring in additional totals to the online gaming revenues but the total amount that the brand would be able to bring in is unknown. However, analysts feel that PokerStars will have a large impact in the industry. For now, the state has done well and the hope is that the totals for 2016 will continue to increase, bringing in much needed revenues to the state.