New Jersey’s red-hot igaming market soared to new heights in March as it hit $197.2 million in revenue – a new monthly record. While igaming and sports betting continue to see monthly and annual gains, the big picture for the states land-based casinos in Atlantic City continues to be muddled.
The Garden State has held a unique spot in the American gambling boom since it legalized online poker back in 2013. New Jersey lawmakers continued to fight for regulated gaming and can take credit for moving sports betting into the regulated space in 2018. All this legal wrangling was done on behalf of the city’s beleaguered Atlantic City casinos, which haven’t quite seen the boom they were expecting.
That said, land-based casinos had a very good month in March, bringing in $239.8 million in revenue. That’s up 4.9 percent over March 2023. As is usually the case in every US gambling market, slot machines were the big winner for casinos; bringing in $172.3 million of that haul.
Though individual monthly revenue reports may stand out, the big picture for Atlantic City remains murky at best, with casinos struggling to get back to where they were before the pandemic. In comments reported on by SBC Americas, Lloyd Levenson Institute Director Jane Bokunewicz described the situation saying, “It is getting more expensive for New Jersey’s casinos to operate, and patron spending may not be keeping pace. The same forces that might be tightening visitors’ purse strings, inflation, increased consumer prices, are also forcing operators to dig deeper into their pockets.”
It’s unclear what it’s going to take to truly revive Atlantic City’s fortunes, especially while NJ residents continue to enjoy playing slots from the comfort of their own homes.