New Jersey Gaming Industry Still Recovering, Revenue Up Single Digits

Things are looking great for the industry as a whole and New Jersey’s reported results indicate that business is picking up nicely, with few elements lagging.

New Jersey Shows Strong Recovery

According to information from the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), New Jersey casinos have a Total Casino Win of $299.0 million for July 2022, constituting an 8% growth, when compared to the results in the same metric for the same period in 2021, with the July 2021 result hitting $276.9 million. The Total Casino Win result for 2019 was $277.2 million, so the 2022 figure still signals growth in this metric.

The Year-to-date results are even better, scoring a 16% uptick to $1.61 billion, compared to $1.39 billion for the same period last year, however, the 2019 figures showed $1.925 billion, signaling that the industry still has ways to recover. Furthermore, Associated Press reported that five out of the nine casinos reported lower wins from traditional casino gambling, when compared to pre-pandemic levels, further indicating that’s indeed the case.

Total Gaming Revenue for July 2022 was reported at $480.7 million, making for a 6.7% uptick compared to the July 2021 results, totaling $450.6 million back then. The Year-to-date result also signifies that business is picking up, with a 13.7% increase in reported figures by casinos, racetracks, and their partners, sitting at $2.91 billion, compared to last year’s same period $2.56 billion. Total Gaming Revenue was $1.925 billion for the same period in 2019, strongly suggesting that once casinos go back to normal, and without any economic turbulence, NJ might be looking at some record numbers.

Second Record Gaming Revenue Quarter

The American Gaming Association (AGA) provides an organized gaming revenue tracker, which takes into account revenue reports from all states and compiles it together. As per the tracker, the second quarter (April 1 through June 30) results for 2022 are again represented by record gaming revenue.

Traditional in-person casino gaming, iGaming and sports betting combined revenue was above $14.81 billion for the second quarter of 2022, constituting an 8.8% uptick compared to the same period last year and 3.3% up from the first record-breaking result from Q4 2021.

Birdseye’s view on the financials shows that growth is slowing down throughout the quarter, dropping from 13.1% in April, to 2.5% in June, indicating that the industry is probably close to its peak in the current climate.

The explosive growth we’ve been seeing in the last few quarters pushing the industry back to pre-pandemic levels, or at least much closer to them, is possibly coming to an end. Whether this is just saturation or if it’s fatigue or maybe there’s still some insecurity in people’s spending habits that counteracts the hunger for entertainment and travel born out of the lockdowns, is still up for debate. One is clear, however, and that’s that the industry is definitely recovering and it’s a matter of time for things to pick up in the few areas that still remain a bit lagging.