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In August, it seems New Jersey’s gambling industry tapped into whatever The Power Station was feeling when it recorded “Some Like It Hot.”
August in New Jersey was the best month of 2023 so far in terms of gambling revenue. New Jersey online casinos were a big part of the reason why, notching their best month since May’s record-breaking total.
Atlantic City’s brick-and-mortar casinos also expressed that they want to multiply. Meanwhile, online sports betting plus retail betting at New Jersey casinos and racetracks showed they are qualified to do exactly that.
New Jersey online casinos feel the heat
While New Jersey’s real-money online casinos fell about $6 million short of setting a new single-month record in August, it was still the second consecutive month of at least $150 million in revenue for them. The lot of them also improved upon their August 2022 numbers by more than 18%.
The top spot in this category is usually a tussle between Borgata and Golden Nugget Online Casino. August saw a new contender make those two licensees sweat when the heat is on. Resorts Digital took the crown for August, accounting for about 27% of the statewide total.
To make August even hotter, land-based casinos got themselves untied.
Atlantic city casinos push players to decide
After a marginal downturn in July New Jersey casino revenue, the spots on the boardwalk in Atlantic City increased the action, perhaps to a figurative temperature that could induce frying.
August’s gaming revenue between the nine brick-and-mortar casinos represented a marginal increase compared to the same month in 2022. That keeps their performance for the calendar year at the same margin of comparison to 2022.
It also made the small decline in July even more of an outlier as that’s been the only month to see an annual downturn in 2023 to date. At the same time, improvements in most months to date have been statistically irrelevant.
That’s probably the last thing anyone could say about a year-over-year comparison of legal sports betting in New Jersey.
New Jersey sportsbooks won’t be satisfied
According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the greatest annual improvement in terms of revenue came at New Jersey’s licensed sportsbooks. Their revenue was up over 47% compared to August 2022. That keeps the running total for the year almost 43% higher than the first eight months of 2022.
Bettors in New Jersey might have been feeling the heat of summer during August. It seems they were anticipant of fall’s return regardless. They put down over $725.8 million on sporting event wagers in August. That’s up almost a quarter from the same month in 2022.
Books fared quite well on that haul, winning 13.2% of the dollars wagered. That helped gambling tax dollars for New Jersey avoid being so circumscribed. The tax haul from all aforementioned gaming activity increased by more than 14% year-over-year.
After months like August, it’s highly unlikely that any New Jersey gaming licensees will decide that they can’t go on. They’re far more likely to try to heat things up even further. As The Power Station sang, you can’t tell how hot ’til you try.
