Another round-up from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure live from the land of Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie this time bringing you the news of a $100,000 buy-in event reduced to a $50,000 event containing two jokers.

[Image credit: Neil Stoddart]

It’s time.

Only two people show up.

Atlantic City casinos closed out 2018 with a solid December performance, pushing the market to its third straight year of annual gaming revenue gains.

On Monday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported the state’s nine casino operators generated brick-and-mortar gaming revenue of $209m in December, 12.3% better than December 2017’s result.

December’s slots revenue was up 10.7% to slightly under $146.6m while gaming table revenue jumped 16.2% to nearly $62.5m. December’s numbers brought the full-year 2018 revenue total to $2.51b, up 4% from 2017’s total, which was up only 0.3% from 2016’s numbers.

Throw in December’s online gambling and sports betting contributions and the year-on-year percentage gain for December rises to 19.5%. Counting those other revenue sources, annual statewide gaming win for 2018 was up 9.2% to $2.9b.

New Jersey’s licensed sports betting operators reported a slight decrease in both wagering handle and revenue in December, as punters apparently found themselves distracted by the cash and time demands of the holidays.

Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed betting operators generated wagering handle of $319.2m in December, down slightly from $330.7m in November. Wagering revenue – which under the state’s definition includes pending wagers – totaled $20.8m, down around $900k from the previous month.

In what is now a familiar pattern, online betting turnover dwarfed its land-based counterpart. Online handle totaled just over $241m, around $2.4m higher than in November, while retail wagering hit $78.1m, well back of November’s $92.1m.

The FanDuel-powered Meadowlands Racetrack’s betting revenue won the month with $9.1m, nearly $2m higher than November’s result and significantly better than the $3.5m the track reported in October. Resorts Digital, whose online sports offering is powered by the DraftKings/Kambi combo, reported wagering revenue of nearly $6.7m, down about half-a-million from November.

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market closed out 2018 by blowing past old revenue records for both the month of December and the year as a whole.

Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online gambling operators generated combined online casino and poker revenue of just over $29m in December 2018, a nearly 40% increase from the same month last year.

December’s online total was also $2m higher than the market’s previous monthly best, which was set last November. As always, December’s online gains were driven by the casino vertical, which shot up nearly 45% to $27.2m. The poker vertical rebounded somewhat from its record low performance the previous month, but its $1.76m was still down nearly 9% year-on-year.

December’s result helped drive the 2018 online revenue total to $298.7m, up 21.6% from 2017’s total and another new record high for the state. The online casino vertical improved by more than one-quarter to $277.3m in 2018, while poker fell 11.8% to $21.4m (representing just 7.1% of the overall figure).

Credit cards, specifically those used for online gambling deposits, are coming under fire in the United Kingdom. Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright wants to question bookmakers and bankers about his concerns that punters are gambling with money they can’t afford.

This push comes due to concerns that as much as 20% of deposits are made on credit, made using money the player doesn’t have at the moment. It’s also part of a broader push to address gaming addiction.

The Guardian reports that Wright wants gambling operators to do more, or risk losing their licenses. He said, “We should also ask if it is right that people should be able to gamble on credit and this is an area that the Gambling Commission are going to look into.”

If he is really intent on pushing through changes, it appears they would be inevitable. The opposing Labour party has also called on a similar ban in the past.