New Jersey Online Casinos To Make $2.3 Billion a Month by 2025

The state of New Jersey has been a trailblazer in the online gambling industry across the country. As one of the leaders in legalizing players to play safely online, over the last 10 years the sector has transformed the state’s economy. As the legislation to extend legal online gambling for another 10 years comes before the state legislature: how much does the industry actually make? How much of that goes to the state and its citizens? 

New Jersey Online Casinos Legal Structure

All New Jersey online casinos must be attached to a physical, land-based casino. An internet gaming license, which allows a land-based casino licensee to offer online gambling, may be applied for and there is a yearly fee payable. This is similar to the requirement for sports betting providers: the only properties that can apply for a sports betting license are licensed casinos and racetracks.

The legal authorization for internet gaming, under bill A2190, is now scheduled to expire in November 2023, 10 years after the original law was enacted. A bill in the state legislature right now, Bill A2190, looks to extend the authorization for the state’s internet gaming law for another decade. New Jersey was one of the first states to implement the legal control of gambling in person and online. A two-tier system comprised of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and the Division of Gaming Enforcement oversees the regulation of casinos across the state.

New Jersey Online Casino Revenue                                                            

Most of the online casino providers in the state trade online under a separate or additional brand name to their land-based casino. For example, Borgata trades as PartyCasino online. Caesars Palace Online Casino in New Jersey operates both Caesars online and Harrah’s Casino online. All of these entities, therefore, report their revenue together.

Online casino operators employ New Jersey residents and the operators’ revenue is a large contribution to the state’s economy, far beyond Atlantic City’s footprint. Each month, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement publishes the revenue each operator made in the past 30 days.

This is how much revenue each New Jersey online casino made each month.

Monthly online casino revenue in New Jersey from January 2019 to December 2021 by operator in millions of dollars

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/944117/online-casino-revenue-new-jersey/

As the chart above shows, among New Jersey's online casino providers, Borgata/Party Casino had the highest monthly revenue for the past year. The operator's earnings during that time period totaled about $36.25 million. The second and third casinos with the highest revenue were not far behind. Golden Nugget/Betfair made close to $36 million and Resorts AC over $32 million.

Projected Revenue for Online Casinos in New Jersey by 2025

With our dedicated finance team's expertise on revenue trends in the state and across the country, Casinos.com was able to analyze the data to forecast what online casinos in New Jersey will make over time. With New York online casinos a very real possibility in the future, Jersey’s casinos must think competitively. State legislators must also know the numbers involved in order to create an environment where local casinos can thrive.  

We studied the total percentage increase in revenue as well as the monthly average increase for each casino since 2019. From these figures, we were able to project how much income each operator would make monthly as well as yearly by the middle of the decade, 2025. 

Projected revenue for New Jersey online casinos by the year 2025, monthly and annually

Source: Casinos.com projections

How much do New Jersey online casinos pay in tax?

New Jersey casinos, in addition to paying tax on their land-based profits, contribute millions in tax each month to the state. A variety of taxes are collected from New Jersey casinos and internet gambling in particular is taxed at a rate of 17.5 percent. Most of this is a state gaming tax (15 percent) while 2.5 percent is a community investment allocation. Since 2013, the 15 percent has gone to the Casino Revenue Fund, which funds several programs. These include services like Hearing Aid Assistance for the Aged and Disabled and community-based senior programs like Alzheimer's Adult Day Services. 

New Jersey Online Casino Operator Taxes A-Z

This chart visualizes how each online casino operator compares in terms of tax paid.

Total tax paid year to date by August 2022 by New Jersey online casinos on online gaming revenue

Source: Casinos.com from New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement monthly internet gross revenue reports

Two operators paid the most tax overall so far in 2022: Borgata/Party Casino and Resorts AC/Resorts Digital. Respectively, these two companies contributed over $49 million and $36 million to the state of New Jersey.

How does sports betting revenue in New Jersey compare to online gambling revenue? 

As far as industries go, casinos don’t have many comparable fields that are similar. One exception is sports betting, a form of gambling that has a long history across the country, both regulated and not. New Jersey was also a pioneer in the field of sports betting and as of mid-2018, the state legally allowed land-based sports betting. College sports, Major League Baseball games, and NBA games are all fair play for bettors in New Jersey. 

The revenue from sports betting totaled $50.35 million in April 2022 for New Jersey. This represents a decrease from the $66.4 million it brought in the previous month. Looking at the past few years as a whole reveals that the revenue from sports betting is much more volatile compared to online casinos.

New Jersey's monthly sports betting revenue from June 2018 to April 2022 in millions of dollars

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1032400/monthly-sports-betting-revenue-new-jersey

This could be due to factors such as the varying seasons that each sports league plays. One difference between sports and casinos is that online casinos were able to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In contrast, many sports leagues shut down their games completely. No games, no betting. Surprisingly, however, revenue started climbing started in July 2020 and did not dip again to anywhere near the lowest point the industry experienced in April 2020 ($2.63 million). 

In general, the amount of sports revenue has been on an upward trend since legalization. 

The Future of New Jersey Online Gambling

The most recent revenue figures for September 2022 show that New Jersey’s online casino future is bright indeed. This month the Associated Press reported that the figure for online casinos (when combined with sports betting) was up by 7 percent compared to last year. Golden Nugget and Resorts Digital just about tied for the top spot for online revenue, $34 million each. Revenue from in-person gambling even comes second to online revenue for some operators. It’s clear that New Jersey’s position as a countrywide leader will continue in the future.

1. New Jersey State Casino Revenue fund-supported programs https://www.nj.gov/casinorevenue/funded/
2. New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement statistics on revenue from online gambling for land-based licensees https://www.statista.com/statistics/944117/online-casino-revenue-new-jersey/
3. New Jersey legislature bill A2190 https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2022/A2190 
4. New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement monthly internet gross revenue reports https://www.njoag.gov/about/divisions-and-offices/division-of-gaming-enforcement-home/financial-and-statistical-information/monthly-internet-gross-revenue-reports/ 
5. Associated Press report “NJ casino, sports betting, online revenue up 7% in September” retrieved October 17, 2022 https://apnews.com/article/sports-health-covid-atlantic-city-oceans-c6a575f4c2c354c37dfd3bb8cd87b95c