Legal online gambling in New Jersey will continue until at least 2028.
On June 30, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation authorizing a five-year extension of the state’s internet gambling law.
While it isn’t the 10 years originally carved out in proposed legislation, it does guarantee that NJ online casinos will stick around for another half-decade.
More questions than answers after NJ online casinos law extension signed
Since being legalized in 2013, online casinos have generated more than $6.3 billion in NJ online gambling revenue and over $928 million in taxes. The 2013 approval was set to expire in November.
The new law went into effect just hours after the state Assembly (76-2) and Senate (37-0) voted in favor of an extension that had been amended twice without any explanation.
The original proposal, introduced in 2022, called for permitting legal online gambling until 2033. That 10-year extension was approved by two Senate committees and two Assembly committees, the latter as recently as June 22.
It was amended to two years in an Assembly budget committee last week. A few days later, it was altered to five years.
Following the dollars to make sense of changes
Trenton lawmakers acted quickly to preserve the state’s new Gambling Golden Goose.
From January 2019 through May 2023, internet gaming (excluding sports) generated nearly $64.3 million more in tax revenue for the state than Atlantic City casinos.
Online gaming taxes exceeded AC in-person gambling taxes each year since 2020. Taxes from iGaming ($117 million) also outpace AC gambling taxes ($70.5 million) in 2023, as well.
Online gambling is taxed at a higher rate (15%) than revenue generated in Atlantic City casinos (8%) or by NJ sports betting (13%).
Does Trenton want more of the online gambling pie? (Spoiler: of course)
And that may be at the crux of the unexplained changes in Trenton last month.
Some have speculated that politicians were sending a message to Atlantic City casinos and their online gambling partners that a higher tax rate is coming.
Pennsylvania taxes online slot revenue at 54% and non-poker table games at 16%. Michigan, which recently overtook NJ as the country’s largest legal iGaming market, taxes digital operators 20% for revenue under $4 million and 28% for anything over $12 million.
