NJ casino, sports betting, online revenue up 7% in September

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — New Jersey’s casinos, horse tracks that offer sports betting and the online partners of both types of gambling outlets won nearly $485 million from gamblers in September, up nearly 7% from a year earlier.

And the nine casinos collectively edged past the amount they won from in-person gamblers in September 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit. They won nearly $252 million, up 1.3% compared with three years ago.

But much of that came from the performance of just two casinos: Hard Rock and Ocean; the other seven are still trailing the in-person revenue levels they had before the pandemic hit.

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The amount won from in-person gamblers is a key metric for Atlantic City casinos, and is among the industry's biggest concerns as the seaside gambling resort works to recover from pandemic-related declines. Six of the nine casinos won more from in-person gamblers last month than they did in September 2019.

“September’s mild weather helped contribute to a strong start to the fall season for Atlantic City’s casino operators,” said Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the Atlantic City gambling market. “At this rate, Atlantic City’s casino operators are likely to meet and potentially exceed pre-pandemic end-of-year totals for both brick-and-mortar and total gaming revenue.”

The in-person revenue numbers are less encouraging when compared to September 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak.

Over the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in September 2019, Bally's was down 10.3%; Borgata was down 1.2%; Caesars was down 9.3%; Golden Nugget was down 25.2%; Harrah's was down 17.2%; Resorts was down 5.9% and Tropicana was down 16.8%, according to the Casino Association of New Jersey.

Over that same period, Ocean was up 68.3% and Hard Rock was up 51.8%.

The casinos and the three horse racing tracks that offer sports betting took nearly $867 million worth of sports bets in September, keeping nearly $98 million as revenue after paying off winning bets and other expenses. The sport betting revenue figure was up nearly 19% from a year ago.

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Internet gambling brought in over $135 million in September, an increase of over 10% from a year ago.

Bally’s won nearly $15.9 million from in-person gamblers in September, up 12.8% from a year ago. It won over $3.7 million online, compared with just $337,000 a year earlier, and it won over $905,000 from sports betting, up from $126,000 a year ago.

Borgata won $62.3 million from in-person gamblers, up 3.5% from a year ago. It won $41.1 million online, up 7.6%, and it won over $10 million from sports bets, down from over $13.4 million a year ago.

Caesars won $22.4 million from in-person gamblers, up 1.8% from a year ago. It won nearly $1.5 million in sports bets, compared to a loss of over $380,000 a year ago.

Golden Nugget won nearly $13.5 million from in-person gamblers, up 4.3% from a year ago. It won over $34 million online, up 10%, and it won just over $224,000 from sports betting, about twice what it did a year earlier.

Hard Rock won $43.6 million from in-person gamblers, up 6.3% from a year ago. It won nearly $5.7 million online, down 2%, and it won $1.8 million from sports bets, marginally above what it won a year earlier.

Harrah's won $23.2 million from in-person gamblers, down 15.5% from a year ago. It lost almost $83,000 online, compared with winnings of nearly $386,000 a year ago.

The Ocean casino won nearly $30.6 million from in-person gamblers, up 5.2% from a year ago. It won nearly $2.4 million online, about double what it did a year ago, and it won over $536,000 in sports bets, down from the $1.6 million it won on such bets a year ago.

Resorts won $16.7 million from in-person gamblers, down 3% from a year ago. Its online affiliate, Resorts Digital, won over $34 million, up 20.5%, and the casino won nearly $229,000 in sports bets, about half what it won a year earlier.

Tropicana won $23.3 million from in-person gamblers, down 4% from a year ago. It won nearly $4.9 million online, down 32% from a year earlier.

Caesars Interactive Entertainment NJ, affiliated with Caesars, Harrah’s and Tropicana, won over $9 million online, down nearly 11% from a year ago.