Strong revenue figures for December have capped a record-breaking year for the New Jersey sports betting industry, which raked in almost $300 million in 2019.
The annual revenue for operators at the Meadowlands Racetrack, Monmouth Park, and the many wagering arms of the Atlantic City casinos added up to $299.4 million, marking a 6.5% increase over 2018. New Jersey collected $36.5 million in taxes, with as much as $6 million of that coming from New Yorkers who came over the border to make legal wagers with online bookmakers.
The state garnered $4.7 million in taxes from the 8.5% tariff on bets made at New Jersey casinos and racetracks. Most of the money flowing into the state’s coffers came from mobile gaming revenue, which generated $31.8 million from a 13% tax. The two racetracks and their online betting arms took in nearly twice as much tax revenue as the sportsbooks at Atlantic City casinos. Meadowlands hit it big after partnering up with FanDuel and PointsBet, while Resorts struck a similar deal with DraftKings.
NJ sports betting revenue for December 2019
New Jersey’s record monthly handle for sports betting was set in November last year, when NJ sportsbooks took $562.7 million in wagers. December almost matched that figure, posting a sports betting handle of $557.8 million.
Borgata New Jersey is still the top dog for all of the casinos in Atlantic City with December sports betting revenues of $2.3 million. That is an astronomical leap from Borgata’s returns for the previous December, when the firm took in only $200,000 from sports wagers. The casino opened its new $11 million sportsbook in mid-2019.
Ocean Casino Resort keeps making waves
In terms of total figures for 2019, Ocean Casino Resort was the big winner in Atlantic City with $17.4 million in betting revenue. That is a significant gap on second-placed Borgata, which took in $10.5 million.
Bally’s, which has the largest land-based sportsbook in Atlantic City, recorded $5.5 million in wagering revenue, followed by Hard Rock at $3.5 million, Golden Nugget at $2.4 million, Resorts Casino at $2.1 million, Tropicana at $1.9 million, and Harrah’s at $600,000.
The Meadowlands Racetrack and its partners posted $149.9 million in wagering revenue for 2019, almost half of the total figures for New Jersey. Monmouth Park and partners took in more than any of the casinos with a figure of $25.9 million.