New Jersey Sports Betting Handle Drops, Still Passes $1B in February

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement announced a drastic dip in sports betting  in the state in Feb. 2024. After a stunning start to the year, in which New Jersey sports betting operators collected $1.7 billion in handle, wagering dipped to just $1.08 billion in February, signaling a 36% drop.

Year-on-year, however, New Jersey has made rapid progress. Gross revenue from sports betting was reported at $67.6 million for Feb. 2024, which was 24% more than the $54.6 million in Feb. 2023. The revenue — reported by casinos, racetracks, and partners — totaled $238.3 million year-to-date (YTD), which is 87.7% higher than the $127 million in the preceding YTD period.

More Pages: New Jersey Sports Betting | Sports Betting Sites | Sports Betting Sign-Up Bonuses

NJ Online Betting Passes $1 Billion

Internet sports wagering totaled $1.04 billion in February, taking the YTD handle in New Jersey to $2.7 billion in just two completed months. Retail wagering contributed a minor percentage to the total handle, with $37.9 million in February. In New Jersey, the total YTD handle has now crossed $2.8 billion.

Football has been a bane for sportsbooks, with customers taking operators for $4.4 million in YTD sports wagering wins. Total handle for football so far this year has been $438.9 million, equating to a net loss for sportsbooks at 1%.

Basketball, however, changed the profit and loss books for operators. Almost $1 billion has been wagered in two months in basketball, with sportsbooks retaining $47.4 million, indicating a 4.8% hold on basketball.

Users betting on parlays were the biggest beneficiary for sportsbooks. Of the total $764.8 million wagers on parlays, sportsbooks kept close to $150 million, with a hold of close to 20%. According to the report, of the five categories of sports – football, basketball, baseball, parlays, and others – sports betting operators retained a hold of 8.8%, amounting to $247.3 million.

NJ Casino Wagering Comprises Majority of Tax Collection

The state of New Jersey collected $461.4 million in tax from the iGaming sector. Slot machine wins made up $158.9 million while table games helped the state collect $52.7 million in taxes. Casino wins made up $211.5 million in taxes for New Jersey in February, which was down 1.6% from February last year.

“Based upon filings with the Division of Gaming Enforcement, Casino Win for the nine casino hotel properties was $211.6 million for February 2024, reflecting a decrease of 1.6% when compared to $215.0 million reported in February 2023. Year-to-date Casino Win for the nine casino hotel properties was $416.3 million, decreasing 2.4% compared to $426.6 million for the prior year-to-date period,” the report stated.

According to the report, internet gaming wins made up $182.3 million in February, which was up 27.9% year-on-year after New Jersey reported $142.5 million last year. Total collections for the state increased $49.3 million, which was up 12% from Feb. 2023.

Of the casino licensees, Caesars saw a massive year-on-year dip. After collecting $19.2 million in total gaming revenue in Feb. 2023, Caesars managed just $16.2 million in February this year, which was a 15.5% drop YoY.

Harrah’s and Borgata were also in the red when compared to Feb. 2023. Harrah’s had $21 million in total gaming revenue in Feb. 2023 but had $18.7 million last month, an 11% drop in revenue collections.

On the other hand, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, Ocean Casino, Tropicana, and Resorts Digital witnessed significant jumps in total gaming revenue collections. Golden Nugget’s revenue spiked 31.4%, moving from $47.8 million in February last year to $62.9 million last month. Resorts Digital saw a jump of close to 50% year-on-year, with an increase from $48 million to $72 million in the same period.

READ MORE:

• New Jersey Starts off Strong With Impressive Revenue Boost in January
• New Jersey Records Historic Revenue Milestone in 2023
• US Sports Betting Revenue Tracker