New Jersey’s July gaming revenue boosted by casino reopenings

After more than three months out of action, Atlantic City casinos opened their doors at the beginning of July. According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the total gaming revenue for the month was $264.5 million.

While that is down from the total of $334.4 million from July 2019, any revenue is a good sign after three months of no revenue for the Garden State’s land-based casinos. The year-on-year drop is no surprise considering the player capacity is decreased at the casinos due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main revenue while the casinos were shut down came from internet gaming. In July of this year, New Jersey online casinos had revenue of $87.5 million, which is a 122.5% increase from the July 2019 figure of $39.3 million.

Sports betting revenue for July was $138.5 million, and that number was bolstered by the return of major sporting leagues such as the NBA, NHL and MLB. Online poker also saw a big month with a revenue total of $4.8 million, which is more than double the $1.9 million figure from July 2019.

The total gaming revenue for New Jersey in 2020 through July is $1.29 billion compared to $1.93 billion for the same period last year, which is a 32.9% decrease. However, online gaming revenue for the year so far is $510.2 million, which is an increase of nearly 100% (98.7%) over the first seven months of 2019. Sports betting revenue for the year through July comes to $138.5 million.

Most of the land-based New Jersey casinos reopened on July 2. The only one that did not was Borgata, which reopened on July 26. Nevertheless, Borgata leads all casinos in taking in just over $140 million so far in 2020.

In terms of total gaming revenue for July 2020, Golden Nugget leads the pack with a revenue of $40.39 million. Hard Rock Casino came in second place ($31.05 million) and Borgata came in third ($26.65 million) even though the land-based casino was only open for five days in July.

New Jersey collected from $26.4 million in gaming taxes in July, which is 8% of the taxable gross revenue for casinos. Online gaming is taxed 15% on gross revenue, casino and racetrack sports betting revenue is taxed 8.5%, while online sports betting is taxed 13.5%.

Also, the New Jersey casino industry had a 1.25% Additional Tax to the tune of $4.2 million on sports betting as well as Alternative Tax Obligations. This shows a 1.25% tax on casino revenue and a 2.5% tax on online gaming revenue. For July of this year, the 1.25% Racetrack Economic Development Tax took in a little under $200,000.

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