ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's red-hot internet gambling market continued to smash records in November, even as revenue inside physical casinos continued to lag behind pre-pandemic levels at six of Atlantic City's nine casinos, numbers released Monday show.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement said internet gambling brought in just over $214 million in November, narrowly eclipsing the previous record of $213 million set a month earlier.
“The continuing success of online gaming and sports wagering has helped total gaming revenue achieve its best November monthly result in over a decade,” said James Plousis, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.
But that's not necessarily great news for the casinos. They must share a substantial portion of internet and sports betting revenue with partners including sportsbooks and tech platforms.
For that reason, the casinos consider money won from in-person gamblers to be their core business. And that business has not been terrific for years now.
The casinos collectively matched their pre-pandemic in-person revenue total of $223.9 million in November. But only three casinos — Hard Rock, Ocean and Resorts, which barely exceeded its pre-pandemic level — won more from in-person gamblers in November than they did in Nov. 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak began.
The continuing surge in internet gambling represents a trend that has been present in New Jersey for several years now. It was accelerated by the pandemic, which forced the casinos to close for 3 1/2 months in 2020 and pushed many people to online alternatives that they have continued to use even in the years after the outbreak waned.
November's $214 million in internet revenue was up nearly 25% from a year ago.
Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the Atlantic City gambling industry, noted that New Jersey's internet gambling market exceeded $200 million for the third month in a row.
When internet and sports betting revenue is included, the casinos, two horse tracks that take sports bets and their online and tech partners won $556 million in November, an increase of 15.4%. That was helped by two additional weekend days in November that did not occur in November 2023.
Borgata won a combined $122.6 million in November, up over 25% from a year earlier. Resorts won nearly $101 million, up nearly 28%; Golden Nugget won nearly $77 million, up 26%; Hard Rock won $63.5 million, up over 21%; Ocean won $39.8 million, up 8.6%; Bally's won $24.5 million, up over 24%; Harrah's won $18.5 million, down 4.4%; Tropicana won $16.6 million, down 7.3%, and Caesars won $16.5 million, down 7.4%.