New Jersey Online Gambling Sites Make Hay With Casinos Closed, Win $85 Million In June

Online gambling continues to prop up a New Jersey casino industry that would otherwise have produced zero revenue in June.

NJ gambling sites brought in $84.9 million for the month, just fractionally off their all-time record set the month prior. Sportsbooks contributed another $12.6 million from online-only betting to push the total internet win close to nine figures.

Data comes from the latest report published by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement.

NJ online gambling highlights: June 2020

Here are some of the numbers that stick out from the newest data:

• NJ online casinos and poker sites combined to win $84,913,147 for the month.
• Online casinos won $81,376,070, also just off the record.
• Online poker sites raked in $3,537,077, down 22% from May.

For online casinos, the difference between the last two months comes down to the number of days in each. Although the totals were higher in May, daily revenue reached a new record in the shorter June — more than $2.7 million/day.

Golden Nugget continued its reign atop the market, winning more than $29 million for the second month in a row. Borgata and Resorts were essentially tied in second place at just less than $16 million apiece, with DraftKings Casino doing the heavy lifting for the latter.

Although NJ online poker sites have cooled down from their record spring, June’s revenue of $3.5 million still represents a 100% increase over last year.

NJ online gambling revenue breakdown

Revenue / ∆ Monthly (normalized) / ∆ Yearly:

• Total: $84.91 million / +2.1% / +123.1%
• Online casinos: $81.38 million / +3.3% / +124.3%
• Online poker: $3.54 million / -19.1% / +99.8%

Even with the complete shutdown of land-based casinos, NJ gambling revenue is still about one-third of what it was at full operation last summer. The coronavirus outbreak has merely magnified the trend that was already materializing, with online play representing a growing piece of the pie in jurisdictions with modernized gaming industries.

The state made out well enough in June too, collecting more than $14 million in tax revenue from online gambling sites and sportsbooks.

For as good as this run of revenue has been, though, the record-setting is likely over for now. Atlantic City casinos began reopening earlier in July, so last month was the last one in which gamblers didn’t have a choice between land-based and mobile options.

Expect brick-and-mortar casinos to cannibalize some of this unprecedented online revenue as long as they remain open this summer.

NJ online sports betting revenue

• Total NJ sports betting: $12.6 million
• Online sports betting: $12.6 million

Despite the ongoing suspension of most major sporting events, NJ online sports betting is slowly returning to normal. Summer is typically the slow season for sportsbooks anyhow, so the $165 million in handle — up about 40% from May — is nothing to complain about.

Operators were actually more profitable this June than last, holding 7.7% for a win of $12.6 million. FanDuel Sportsbook was responsible for almost half of that by itself, while the trio that includes rivals DraftKings Sportsbook and Fox Bet combined for about $10 million — almost 80% of the total revenue.

Find out which secondary sports are driving the most handle in NJ at Legal Sports Report.

NJ online gambling revenue, by operator