The story of online poker in New Jersey has been a tough one. The 2018 year was especially difficult as the revenue downswing seemed unstoppable and out of control.
However, the current year is showing slight improvements and glimmers of hope for the little industry. Per the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement monthly statistics, there was better news than the online poker had seen in some time. January’s revenue saw a monthly increase, February’s numbers showed a year-on-year increase, and the new numbers just released for March 2019 show another slight-but-important monthly push upward.
As for online casino revenue, the magic just keeps happening. The New Jersey market for online casino games is hotter than ever, and its upswing truly does seem unstoppable.
When the online casino revenue is combined with poker to provide a total internet gaming win, it shows another year-on-year increase of 53%. As a whole, the market remains strong and healthy.
Monthly Progress for Online Poker
Any growth for online poker is welcome. As the New Jersey market stands as a beacon for other states, a standard to which they can aspire, it helps to see growth for online poker. It remains a very small slice of the overall internet gaming pie for the state, but it is vital for poker to have a future in the United States.
--March 2019 online poker win: $1,903,790--February 2019 online poker win: $1,810,597--March 2018 online poker win: $1,966,366--Month-on-month: 5.1% increase--Year-on-year: 3.2% decrease
An increase at this time of year is not unprecedented, as poker operators run spring tournament series and begin the hype leading up to the World Series of Poker in the summer months. But it has been some time since revenue has increased at such a rate. If it continues, it could signal a change in the market.
More Outstanding Numbers for Online Casino
Last month saw an unusual event in this category. Though the year-on-year increase was still close to 50%, there was a decline of 5.6% for the monthly revenue. But the ship righted itself in March, and the monthly numbers are back on par with the growth of the yearly ones.
--March 2019 online casino games win: $37,230,590--February 2019 online casino games win: $29,938,129--March 2018 online casino games win: $23,613,844--Month-on-month: 24.4% increase--Year-on-year: 57.7% increase
This shows the largest monthly increase in some time and a solid way to close out the quarter and head into the spring and summer months.
Internet Gaming Holds It All Together
The whole of the internet gaming take for New Jersey in March was a stunner yet again. While the land-based casino revenue increased 15.7% from the previous year, internet gaming rose 53%. This means that internet gaming is becoming continuously more important to the entire gambling market of the state, bringing in $39 million as compared to $223 million from the brick-and-mortar casinos.
--March 2019 total internet gaming win: $39,134,380--February 2019 total internet gaming win: $31,748,726--March 2018 total internet gaming win: $25,580,210--Month-on-month: 23.3% increase--Year-on-year: 53% increase
For the month of March, the entire gambling revenue win was $293,967,694, with more than $31.6 million from sports wagering to add to internet gaming and land-based casinos.
In all, the first full quarter of 2019 saw online poker contribute $5,597,277, which added into the total internet gaming win of $104,477,497. And all of that combined with other forms of gaming gave New Jersey gambling entities $764,783,813 in revenue for the first three months of the year.
