New Jersey Online Poker Revenues Continue to Flounder

December 17th, 2014 | by Kaycee James

The Borgata and partner partypoker still narrowly lead the New Jersey online poker market ahead of Caesars and 888. (Image: CardPlayer.com)

New Jersey online poker revenues hit an all-time low in November, marking the third straight monthly decline for the state’s Internet poker market.

Overall, the state’s remaining sites took in $1,877,603 million, about a $90,000 drop from October, which had set the previous low for the state.

Online gambling has now been active for a full year in New Jersey, and the numbers have not looked good for the state’s poker sites over the last eight months.

Between January and March, 2014 started off with three straight months in which the industry took in over $3 million in revenue.

However, that number has failed to reach even $2.5 million in any month since May, leading some to wonder if the state’s market will ever grow significantly.

Expected Seasonal Growth Not Yet Occurring in New Jersey

Perhaps most concerning of all is the fact that the late autumn months are usually when online poker sites tend to see their revenues start climbing for the winter season. Instead, revenues declined slightly in November even after taking into account the fact that the month had one day less than October.

Some of the turmoil in the Atlantic City casino market may be spilling over into the online world.

Over the last few months, two sites that were at one time partnered with Trump Entertainment Resort properties have left the New Jersey market, and while neither was a major competitor, their decisions to leave may have still harmed the perception of online poker in the state.

First, Ultimate Gaming made the decision to leave the state after “multiple breaches” by their partner, the Trump Taj Mahal.

That included closing Ultimate Poker, a site that was only a minor player in the state’s online poker market.

Earlier this month, Betfair Poker also left the state after several months of generating absolutely no revenue at all.

Betfair, which previously partnered with Trump Plaza and Caesars before settling down with the Golden Nugget, will still offer casino games in New Jersey.

Borgata, Caesars Fight for Player Pool

Those withdrawals have left just two casino companies actively fighting for online poker players in the state: Borgata and Caesars. Borgata and partner Partypoker have the state’s largest poker network, which accounts for 53 percent of the state’s online poker revenue.

The other 47 percent is split between Caesars’ WSOP.com and an independent All American Poker Network Room operated by partner 888 Holdings.

So far in 2014, online poker has generated a little over $27 million in revenue in New Jersey. That’s about 24 percent of the total online gambling win for casinos this year, which comes to a total of $112.1 million.

Combined with the tail end of 2013, regulated online poker has brought in about $30 million over its first year for Atlantic City casinos: perhaps not as much as they had hoped, but certainly a meaningful amount for the struggling industry.

Still, opponents of online gambling have pointed to these figures in an attempt to bolster their arguments.

On their Facebook page, the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling posted a graph showing the decline in online poker revenues in New Jersey, saying that the game is “leaving the state with an ever-widening budget shortfall.”

However, respondents to the post questioned why online poker revenue was being singled out by C2SIG and why revenues that didn’t live up to unrealistic projections should be blamed for budget issues.