The United States igaming market has been growing, mostly in the area of sports betting. A handful of states legalized online casinos and/or online poker in the past decade as well. While those markets have shown internet gaming’s worth in many ways, especially during the pandemic, the online poker sector remains a small and underdeveloped part of the industry.
This is obvious with every month’s revenue reports from state-regulated online poker markets. Online casino growth is consistent and usually impressive, which pushes igaming forward. Meanwhile, the tasks necessary to connect online poker sites across state lines and show the game’s potential remain undone.
So, once again, the US-regulated online poker market was a mix of ups and downs in August. There were some boosts due to the long-awaited launch of the WSOP site in Pennsylvania and the WSOP bracelet events available there. And that was the highlight of the month for poker followers.
Delaware: August 2021
The Delaware Lottery revealed a drop in online poker revenue monthly, not to mention a very significant yearly decrease. The yearly numbers have been and continue to be expected, to some degree, due to the return of land-based gambling after the pandemic. The monthly numbers are tougher to explain.
Even so, the monthly and yearly numbers grew for the igaming market as a whole due to fairly consistent positive results from the video lottery sector.
New customer registrations rose slightly by 1.4% from July to August, but the year-on-year growth in registrations was 68.9%. That was a surprising number due to the pandemic surges setting such a high bar.
Michigan: August 2021
Since this is the first year that Michigan has regulated and licensed online casinos and poker, the state decided to lump that revenue together. While most states separate online casino games from poker, the latter operating as a peer-to-peer game, Michigan has not yet chosen to do this. Thus, we have no information about poker site performances.
We do know online gaming’s revenue numbers as a whole. And those have been on the rise, showing that climb continuing in August.
Total adjusted gross receipts slowed from the significant 25.6% increase from June to July but still grew 5.4% from July to August. State tax payments showed the same, as the previous month-on-month growth of 24.5% fell to just 4.9% from July to August. But for an emerging market, all growth is good growth.
Nevada: August 2021
Nevada does not report its online poker revenue. They will be required to do so if and when three or more state-regulated sites operate in Nevada, but currently, the WSOP is the only one. It has been that way for years.
New Jersey: August 2021
After a sizeable increase in online poker revenue from June to July, the monthly number dipped significant in August. Despite more sites available and a heightened interest in the World Series of Poker satellites, revenue dropped last month.
--August 2021 internet poker win: $2,443,414--July 2021 internet poker: $3,072,756--August 2020 internet poker: $3,035,003Month-on-month: 20.5% decreaseYear-on-year: 19.5% decrease
As usual, the rest of the New Jersey igaming market did well. Online casino slots and table games held its growth trajectory in place and boosted the sector up for the year, though the monthly difference didn’t have the same luck.
--August 2021 internet gaming win: $113,230,701--July 2021 internet gaming: $118,685,095--August 2020 internet gaming: $87,772,968Month-on-month: 4.6% decreaseYear-on-year: 29% increase
Overall, the entire New Jersey gambling market cooled down 5.1% from July to August, but the yearly gain of 31% was no surprise. The live gambling venues are still making their comeback from the pandemic lockdowns of 2020.
Pennsylvania: August 2021
For the second month in a row, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported online poker growth. This can definitely be attributed to the opening of the WSOP online site and the associated gold bracelet events on the site.
--August 2021 internet poker revenue: $3,196,992--July 2021 internet poker: $2,596,418--August 2020 internet poker: $2,729,199Month-on-month: 2.3% increaseYear-on-year: 17.1% increase
As for igaming on the whole, it grew significantly from the same month last year but only a tiny bit from the previous month.
The whole Pennsylvania gambling market saw its revenue drop 3.7% from July to August, but the year-on-year growth of 31.3% represents that solid resurgence from the extraordinary year of the pandemic.
