“Explosive growth in sports wagering” helps New Jersey’s gambling market to “superb revenue increases” in September
The nascent New Jersey sports betting market indeed reported “stunning” September results, just as promised by the state gambling regulator’s Director earlier this week. The state’s gambling venues handled $183.9 million in wagers and reaped revenue of nearly $24 million last month, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement revealed in the latest monthly report on the performance of the local gambling industry.
Sports betting helped the state’s casinos to overall revenue of $281.7 million for the month of September, up 19.5% year-on-year. Casino gaming revenue totaled $232 million last month, up 7.7% from the same month last year. Revenue from online gambling amounted to $25.8 million in September and grew 26.3% from 2017.
Year-to-date revenue generated by the state’s gambling venues totaled $2.148 billion and increased around 5.4% year-on-year.
Commenting on the latest results, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement Director David Rebuck said in a Friday statement that September was “another month of superb revenue increases” and attributed those increases to “the explosive growth in sports wagering and continuing improvements in Internet gaming and brick-and-mortar casino win results”. The gaming regulator expects a “strong finish for New Jersey’s gaming industry in 2018”.
A Closer Look at New Jersey’s September Betting Results
The industry is watching closely the development of the New Jersey wagering market as the state has turned into a test case as to how large the fledgling US sports betting market can grow in the coming years. The state was the second one to launch legal wagering services following the mid-May SCOTUS ruling that struck down a long-standing federal ban on sports betting. And it was the first major one to go live with sports betting following that landmark ruling.
The Borgata Casino in Atlantic City and the Monmouth Park racetrack in Oceanport were the state’s first two venues to go live with sports betting services on June 14. Five more Atlantic City casinos and one more racetrack have launched wagering since then. And betting operations are conducted both at physical sportsbooks and via the Internet on the territory of New Jersey.
As mentioned earlier, the state’s gambling venues now offering betting reaped nearly $24 million and handled nearly $184 million in wagers in September. And the New Jersey betting market recorded revenue of $40.4 million and handle of $336.7 million since June 14, when first betting services kicked off.
Here it is important to note that more than half of the state’s betting handle was generated last month. And that of the $183.9 million recorded in wagers, $104.9 million came from online betting, while the rest came from the state’s physical sportsbooks.
In comparison, the state’s gambling venues handled $95.6 million in August. The massive monthly increase was attributed to two important factors – the start of the new National Football League season and the launch of four online/mobile sports betting operations in September. There were just three digital betting operations in the state in August.
While it is too early to say how the New Jersey betting market will develop in future, it clearly has been living up to expectations so far.
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