New Jersey online gambling rises in January but poker still struggling

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market generated $11.6m in revenue in January, up 22.3% from the same month last year and up 8.5% over December’s tally.

The Division of Gaming Enforcement says the monthly total is actually up 34.5% if you discount the fact that Ultimate Gaming was still operational last January. Either way, the monthly sum is just $300k off the state’s all-time peak recorded in March 2014.

The casino vertical accounted for $9.3m, up from $8.7m in December, while poker added $2.3m, up from $2.05m. However, when comparing year-on-year numbers, poker revenue is down by a full third from January 2014’s $3.44m, which represents the market’s peak poker revenue score. Meanwhile, the casino vertical is up 54% year-on-year.

Online sites affiliated with the Borgata casino – NJ Party Poker, the Borgata’s own branded sites and recent addition PalaCasino.com – led all comers with a total $3.78m (+2.7%). Borgata sites earned $2.5m (flat) from casino and $1.28m (+16%) from poker. Caesars interactive New Jersey – whose sites include all Caesars brands, WSOP.com and 888.com – earned $2.75m, with casino accounting for $1.74m (flat) and poker earning $1m (+7%).

The Tropicana‘s sites reported $2.56m from their casino-only operations, up 11% over December’s total and finally unseating the Borgata as the market’s casino leader. The Golden Nugget – on whose license Betfair is now piggybacking – earned $2.46m (+12%) from its casino-only operations.