New Jersey Casino Revenue Surges in May as Land-Based Outpaces Online
New Jersey was out with May revenues this week, and to everyone’s complete shock, their nine brick-and-mortar casinos in Atlantic City roared back to life, eclipsing the online casino totals for the first time in many months.
Atlantic City Casinos had a huge pop in revenue in May. © Chermel Porter, Unsplash
Key Facts:
- New Jersey raked in a record $614.7 million in May from all gambling
- Brick and Mortar casinos led the way with $265.3 million in revenue
- Online Gaming also set a new record with nearly $247 million
- Moribund Sportsbooks woke from their slumber and won $102 million last month
It was Atlantic City’s moment to shine. For the first time this year, land-based casinos outperformed online casinos, generating $265.3 million in slot and table-game revenue, with a 10.9% year-over-year increase and the strongest May in nearly 15 years. Thanks to five full weekends, a sunny Memorial Day weekend, and cheap gas drawing crowds down the shore, the Boardwalk finally came alive.
Top Performers on the Floor
- Borgata: $73 million (up 19% YoY)
- Hard Rock: $52 million (up 4.%YoY)
- Ocean Casino Resort: $42 million (up 32% YoY)
As always, there were winners and losers. Tropicana, Bally’s, and the Golden Nugget all had down months compared to May 2024. The Trop was down slightly more than 2%, and Bally’s was down a bit more than 4%. Golden Nugget maintained its slot business with a decline of less than 1% but experienced a precipitous drop in table games revenue, down 45% on the felt.
Online Casinos Still Breaking Records
Not to be outdone, digital casinos claimed May as their own, posting a record $247 million in revenue, up 28.5% year-over-year (YoY) and surpassing March’s previous high of $244 million. That’s only a modest gain over last month’s $235M, but still a new monthly record for NJ iGaming. However, being eclipsed by brick-and-mortar casino revenue stole some of the online casino operators’ spotlight.
May’s Online Leaderboard
- FanDuel: $54 million (up 36% YoY)
- DraftKings: $48 million (up 14% YoY)
- BetMGM: $32 million (up 43%, continuing to close the gap)
The slow build in the online space continues, with total open online casinos rising to 28, though Harrah’s, Wheel of Fortune, and Spin Palace didn’t manage to break the one million dollar mark in revenue. Harrah’s online casino is leading the decliners with a 41% drop. Fanatics and Jackpot City, on the other hand, both had stellar months, up 547% and 430%, respectively.
Sportsbooks Swing Back Up
A significant rebound is also evident here, with total sports betting revenue reaching $102 million. While online sportsbooks generated $98 million (+26%), the most surprising story was the $4.5 million generated at retail books, a jaw-dropping 326% increase.
Hold, or the total amount of bets placed was a respectable $1.01 billion. New Jersey kindly breaks out completed bets by type, and over 18% of completed bets have been parlays, which are usually much more profitable for the house. In any case, hold numbers here finally climbed back over 10% to 10.1%
Unsurprisingly, FanDuel continued to pull away from the crowd with more than $44 million in revenue, and DraftKings was a distant second at $28 million. Still, everyone will be asking what happened to BetMGM, which is down 71% year-over-year to just $1.4 million compared to last year’s $4.9 million.
Conclusion
May proved Atlantic City still has serious get-up-and-go. Perhaps all of those stories over the winter about her imminent demise were overblown. Retail tables and slots sprung back to life, and hotels filled up. Even brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, a category everyone believed dead, made people take a second look.
Online casinos also set fresh highs, though their rocket-like trajectory seems to have started to dim a bit in the second quarter. Still, fresh new records are nothing to sneeze at, and while they may not have made the lead this month, the story of online casinos in the Garden State is not over by any means.
Sportsbooks also made a sharp comeback, finally seeming to put last Fall and Winter’s “player-friendly” results behind them. Now, the burning question: as the summer heats up, can the Boardwalk keep this buzz going into July and August? Or will players slip back to their screens as the season rolls on?
