Golden Nugget Had a 30% Increase in Brick-and-Mortar Casino Revenues
New Jersey’s online gambling industry generated a 22% increase in June 2015 compared to June 2014. The June totals represent seven months of year-to-year increase, providing hope that iGaming is going to grow into the kind of business envisioned by sober-minded advocates of legalized online gambling in the state.
Online casinos showed marked improvement of online poker. For the iPoker industry to ever improve, it is obvious that New Jersey needs to either allow PokerStars to enter the gaming market or sign an interstate gaming compact with another population center. The director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement stated months ago he his office had spoken with officials from Nevada and the United Kingdom about such a compact, but no news has appeared on either of those fronts in recent months.
Numbers for June 2015
The June 2015 online gaming total was $11.7 million. The six month total for 2015 is $72 million, which represents a 14.2% increase over 2014’s first six months. Online casinos dominated the action with $9.865 million, while online poker had only $1.835 million. That total is down from the $2.048 collected in June 2014 for iPoker.
Borgata Leads Online Casinos
Borgata/PartyPoker led the pack with $3.55 million in revenues, which accounted for 29.6% of the whole market. Caesars Interactive websites collected $2.64 million or 22.6% of the revenues. Tropicana has 21.9% with 2.56 million, while Golden Nugget held 21.6% with a nearly-identical $2.53 million.
Resorts Casino Hotel, which just got into the Internet gaming industry in the spring of 2015, saw its revenues jump from $325 thousand in May to $400 thousand in June. Resorts Casino thought it had a coup when it signed a partnership with PokerStars in June 2013, but the two-year wait for licensing postponed the launch of its site for many months, while it continues to hamper operations to this day. NYX Sportech supports the Resorts Casino website, instead of PokerStars software.
Possible October Launch for PokerStars
Poker players who are waiting to play on the world’s #1 poker site are going to have to wait a while longer. Despite being bought by Amaya Gaming in August 2014, the poker site continues to face delays in licensing by the DGE. The earlier a PokerStars launch can be expected is October 2015, but no one is certain if that date is realistic or not.
Brick-and-Mortar Casino Reveneus
The brick-and-mortar casino revenues for Atlantic City in June 2015 were $204.9 million. If one adds that to the online gambling revenues, the total winnings by the casinos were $216.5 million. A comparison of those two numbers shows how marginal online gaming remains to this day, as the land casinos continues to generate 20 times the winnings the online sites do.
The land-based casino industry dropped 8.2% when compared against June 2014’s tally of $236 million. Of course, Revel Casino, Showboat, and Trump Plaza all closed after June 2014, so the totals include three fewer casinos this year. If one removes the revenues for those three casinos, the year-to-year total shows a 5.5% improvement.
Borgata Leads Land Casinos
Borgata had the best month, as usual, with $60.3 million. The represents a 16.8% increase in the revenues from last year. Harrah’s was second-place with a $31.8 million month, which represented a 7.3% increase over 2014. Caesars Atlantic City had the third-place total with $28.2 million, though those numbers were a decline of 2.4% compared to 2014.
Tropicana had a $27.2 million month, though the total was a 1.5% drop from last year at this time. Bally’s was next with a $17.4 million month, though once again, that represented a 3% decline from June 2014.
Golden Nugget Showed the Most Growth
Golden Nugget may have had the best news, because its $19.7 million 6th-place finish involved a 30.8% increase in revenues year-to-year. Trump Taj Mahal’s $15.3 in revenues represented a precipitous 23.5% fall in the numbers, which is not a good sign for Carl Icahn’s newest casino property. Finally, Resorts Casino reported a $14.1 million month, which is up 22.75% over last year at the same time.
While the 8 Atlantic City casinos remaining showed a mixed bag, the overall picture might be headed in the right direction. It would have been nice if the year-to-year totals had shown growth for more than half of the casinos, but several of the businesses have reason for hope. Carl Icahn should turn around Trump Taj Mahal, though that turnaround might be painful for the workers there.
