Beyond The Headlines: 3 NJ Online Casino Takeaways From Record-Setting November

Written By David Danzis on December 21, 2023 - Last Updated on December 28, 2023
phone with online gambling for a story on november 2023 revenue by new jersey online casinos

The obvious New Jersey online casino headline from November’s financial report is the record-setting $171.6 million in monthly revenue.

The Garden State’s new all-time high comes just a month after the NJ online gambling industry rewrote the record books with $166.8 million in October.

But we like to think bigger here at PlayNJ. We’re not content with just looking at the surface numbers and regurgitating them back. We like to go beyond the headlines.

So, with that in mind, here are three things that caught our eye in November.

NJ online casinos still among best – just not THE best

The massive November returns from online gambling were not enough to push NJ back into the top spot among legal internet casino jurisdictions.

To be clear, it is only a three-horse race between New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. And, for most of NJ’s 10-year history with legal online casinos, it was the undisputed champ in the space.

But, even though New Jersey is still in the top tier, Pennsylvania is now regularly outperforming its neighbor. Last month, PA online casinos reported more than $191 million in revenue, the highest monthly total in US history. September and October were above $180 million in the Keystone State, too.

Michigan’s best month was $171.8 million (March 2023), which is still just a bit ahead of NJ’s best showing.

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Online revenue will top Atlantic City casino revenue in 2024

It is no secret that online gambling is becoming more and more popular. The COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread availability of online sports betting in NJ have made people more comfortable with and more accustomed to gambling online.

It won’t be long before we see a month where online casino revenue matches or exceeds in-person gambling revenue generated by Atlantic City casinos. For perspective, AC’s nine casinos reported a shade under $215 million in revenue in November.

Monthly online casino revenue is growing by an average of 13.1% per month in 2023. If that trend continues, it is possible that online gambling revenue will exceed in-person gambling revenue from AC casinos in either January or February of the coming year.

Atlantic City will bounce back as the weather warms up, but online casinos reporting higher gross gaming revenue than brick-and-mortar casinos will almost certainly happen toward the end of 2024.

Remember when $50 million was the entire industry’s monthly total?

The most encouraging thing we noticed from November’s financial data is attributed to a single licensee.

Golden Nugget Atlantic City and its online casino partners — including Golden Nugget Online Casino NJ, FanDuel Online Casino NJ and BetRivers Online Casino NJ — became the first grouping in NJ history to collectively report more than $50 million in a month.

To put it into perspective, that total of $50.1 million in NJ online gambling revenue: It took the New Jersey online gambling industry over six years to beat it as an industry.

While NJ does not break out revenue data for individual operators, the returns for the GNAC grouping are understood to largely be the result of Golden Nugget (which has always been a high performer) and FanDuel, which is beginning to parlay its internet sports betting success into online casino wins.

The Resorts Digital Gaming grouping — which, among others, includes DraftKings Online Casino NJ — is nipping at Golden Nugget’s heels. The licensee group posted more than $47 million in November, meaning it is likely we could see two licensee groups generating upwards of $50 million per month in the near future.

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David Danzis

David Danzis is the former lead writer for PlayNJ. He is a New Jersey native and honors graduate of Rutgers University. As a newspaper reporter for the New Jersey Herald and Press of Atlantic City, David earned statewide awards for his coverage of politics, government, education, sports, and business. He served as PlayNJ’s Atlantic City “insider” and gaming industry expert on casinos, sports betting, and online gambling.

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