Small Gains in NJ January Casino Revenues

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement released January Gaming Revenue results on February 14th. There are some Valentines in here for the casinos, but its a very mixed bag. Let’s dig in.

The good? Internet gaming revenues (the Win) hit $221.6 million last month, up from $183.3 million in January 2024 for a year-over-year (YoY) gain of 20.9%.

The bad? Sports wagering revenues absolutely imploded, dropping from $170,758,334 in January 2024 to $122,194,865 last month for a dip of 28.44%.

The in-between? In-house gaming revenues for the 9 Atlantic City casinos grew by 2.6%, from $204.7 million to $210.1 million. Roll it all together and NJ casinos and racetracks saw January revenue dip modestly YoY from $558.7 million to $553.9 million.

As for the in house retail business, Tropicana stands out on the plus side with an impressive 13.2% YoY gain in casino earnings, powered by a 51.6% increase in table game revenues in Jan. 2025 vs Jan. 2024. On the other side we have Caesars posting an 11.7% revenue drop this January vs. last January.

In internet gaming, FanDuel (affiliated with Golden Nugget Casino) led the way, followed by DraftKings (affiliated with Resorts Casino).

What Does it Mean?

We have a bit to unpack here. Monthly Online gaming revenues passed retail revenues for the first time this past October, and they did again in January. By and large they have moved in lockstep since the summer. Does that bode poorly for the retail casino gaming business in the future? Perhaps not, as Jane Bokunewicz of Stockton University’s Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism (LIGHT) told PlayNJ. “Brick-and-mortar gaming is not being left behind by internet gaming. While internet gaming again surpassed brick-and-mortar for total gaming revenue, brick-and-mortar still realized a year-over-year increase in January”. As she noted, NJ has had some rough January weather this year. I will second that….we have have had a colder than normal winter with much more frequent snow than in recent years.

But alas, its the Jersey Shore and in house traffic will surely pick up when the weather turns and the Boardwalk is not wet and frozen. If the retail business still lags on a relative basis after Memorial Day it will not bode well. But for now? Nothing major to see here at this point.

Sports Report

That nearly 30% revenue drop really stands out, but it continues a trend that has remained in place since August. Here are the YoY changes in Handle and Revenue over the last 12 months.

The Handle has declined YoY for 6 months in a row. The last five of course correspond to the NFL season, so these are big declines at the busiest wagering time of the year. Revenue fluctuates with the Hold that the casinos manage to keep (the win). The big number in November is really more about the comps and the casinos had a lower-than-normal 5.91% hold in November 2023  vs, a 9.71% hold in November 2024. The hold is 7.6% since NJ legalized sports betting in 2018.

Sports betting in NJ occurs almost entirely online and in January the retail casinos accounted for just 4.18% of the handle and 2.98% of the revenue. As you can probably guess, FanDuel and DraftKings dominate the online space as well, accounting for 74.9% of NJ’s online sports wagering gross revenue in January.

While the overall trend in the casino business in NJ looks fine, their sportsbook business has maybe hit a wall. February could see improvement YoY as it includes the Super Bowl and it featured a local team, the Eagles. New Jersey was one of the first states to legalize sports betting, and so you have to wonder if the Garden State will be become a leading indicator for a national sports betting slowdown.