New Jersey Casinos Had $392.8 Million Profits In June

The New Jersey gambling market experienced another strong month as operators experienced a fourth consecutive month with massive year-over-year gains.

According to numbers released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, gambling companies generated $392.8 million worth of gross gaming revenue in June. Those figures represent a 302.7% year-over-year increase from June 2020.

The year-over-year comparison isn’t a reliable indicator for gauging the strength of the market’s recovery, as the entire brick-and-mortar market was closed during the same time frame last year. Only online options were available and from a sports betting standpoint, gamblers still didn’t have a full slate of games to wager on.

Garden State casinos, both online, and brick-and-mortar, are still clearly in an upward trend. Dating back to February, when regulators reported $288.3 million, the market has been in a steady uptrend. Operators won $359.3 million in March, $352.2 million in April and $374.2 million in May.

Online casinos pulled in about 25% of June’s total gaming revenue with $107.1 million. Since internet gaming win hit a record $113.7 million in March, the virtual realm of the gaming market has kept a nine-figure revenue number. June’s numbers were a 26.1% year-over-year increase from June 2020.

The brick-and-mortar properties pulled in slightly more than half of the total figure with Atlantic City’s nine casinos won $214.5 million from gamblers in June. The overwhelming majority of that number came from slot machine revenue as gamblers lost $154.1 million at those machines.

About a quarter of that figure was lost at the Borgata, which had the largest revenue of any of the state’s land-based casinos. Borgata reported $56.6 million in winnings, while Hard Rock Atlantic City was the owner of the second-largest gaming revenue with $35.2 million. Bally’s Atlantic City was at the bottom of that list with $11.2 million.

Sports wagering revenue made up the remaining piece of the gross gaming pie. In June, both online and retail sportsbooks won $71.3 million.

The state collected $39.9 million in taxes on the $392.8 million.

Through the first half of 2021, New Jersey gaming operators won $2.11 billion. It is more than double what was won through the first six months of 2020, but once again, those comparisons are basically moot because of the government shutdowns last year.

Internet gaming, however, was never forced to shutter. Through the first six months of this year, online operators have won $643.2 million, which is a 50% year-over-year increase. It’s a more accurate comparison since the entirety of the state’s gambling market was online for nearly four months of last year.