Visitor numbers to New Jersey have increased since the pandemic ended, but in-person gambling has yet to recover.
The online gambling market in New Jersey continues to be strong. According to a study of gambling in New Jersey, containing data from 2021, the percentage of 3,512 New Jersey residents questioned who gambled solely online tripled from 5% recorded in the previous 2017 report to 15% in this recent version.
Data in the
Prevalence study of gambling report also revealed that the percentage of people gambling both online and in person increased from 19% to 36%. In contrast, the number of people gambling in land-based venues fell from 76% to 49%.
Given the time period covered by these figures, the in-person data was likely affected by the global pandemic. However, the trend towards increased online gambling and decreased in-person gambling seems to be continuing.
Recent figures released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement revealed that casinos and their online partners won in excess of $197 million from online casino games in March 2024. This figure was a monthly record. Overall, with sports betting and in-person gambling also included, casinos, online partners, and horse tracks won more than $526 million in March 2024; an increase of 8.1% on figures from the previous March.
Despite this increase, in-person gambling figures are still struggling to reach pre-pandemic levels. The nine casinos in New Jersey won $239 million overall in March 2024; a figure that is 5% higher than the figure for 12 months previously and slightly higher than March 2019, before the beginning of the pandemic. This may seem like positive news, but it’s only part of the story.
While all casinos except the Borgata had in-person wins that exceeded March 2023, only two of the casinos in the state won more in-person than pre-COVID figures. This is not good news for the owners. They normally care more about in-person wins because they do not have to share them with partners like they do online gambling wins.
It remains to be seen whether these valuable in-person wins fully recover to pre-pandemic levels. The figures from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement suggest that online gambling is making serious inroads into the overall gambling market. It’s also worth considering that Internet casino gambling has raised over $7 billion in tax dollars since its launch in 2013.
Given this high revenue level, it’s interesting that
online casinos in the US have yet to catch on nationwide. Only seven states currently permit online casinos: New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, the latest state to launch online casino gambling, where the
first online casino went live in March 2024.
It’s not clear why more states have not legalized online casinos as yet. However, one reason put forward by analysts and experts is the often-held belief that Internet gambling deters people from gambling in person. While this is far from proven, the figures from New Jersey show that although the position of online gambling is extremely positive, in-person gambling is in a less advantageous position overall than it was in 2019.
By Chris Bates
