The middle of the summer season here in the Garden State proved to be beneficial on the revenue side of New Jersey sports betting, not so much on the handle side.
New Jersey’s total sports betting handle in July for both mobile and retail posted at more than $531.888 million dollars, a solid 16% decrease from June’s $633.19 million and down 8.1%
from July last year ($578.72M).
The figures were released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE). July’s reported handle was the lowest handle in the state since $315.1M was posted in July 2020, three months into the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For contrast, since May’s $766.41M handle mark, handle has plummeted $234.22M in the last two months.
Mobile sports betting accounted for almost $495 million last month, down an identical 16% from June’s $588.89M, and a modest decrease of 6.5% from July 2021 ($529.43M).
For the second consecutive month, mobile usage represented 93% of the sports betting market in July.
On the revenue side, July posted a solid number of more than $45M, a significant 14.7% increase from June’s $39.25M, but down 18.1% from this time last year ($54.97M).
Casino Report a Bright Spot
At NJ real money online casinos, the report tells a different story.
Total gaming revenue for July registered at $480.7M, marking a 19.7% increase from June ($401.53M) and up 6.7% from July 2021 ($450.55M).July’s internet gaming win was more than $136.7M, up 2.7% slightly from June’s $133.14M and up 15.2% from July 2021 ($118.69M).
New Jersey is one of six states with real money online casinos, along with Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Those states, plus Nevada, also have legalized online poker.
“July 2022 showed indications of a strong summer season fueled by a return to normal operations and consumer behavior,” said Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism (LIGHT) at Stockton University School of Business, in a news announcement.
Bokunewicz recently did a Q and A with TopNJCasinos.com.
“At $299 million, July 2022 brick and mortar gaming revenues for Atlantic City’s nine casinos exceeded July 2021 by 8%," she continued. "Unlike last summer, Atlantic City casinos in 2022 are operating without official public health restrictions, which were still in place at the start of summer 2021. There also isn’t the “COVID-19 drag” of persisting public health concerns that kept some visitors from returning to pre-pandemic behaviors, even after an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency in New Jersey.
“Consistent with an emerging trend, internet gaming revenue for the month shows signs of plateauing, likely due to a seasonally driven shift in gambling behavior or a potential preference for in-person gaming activities during the summer. But this did not prevent July 2022 from turning in the strongest total casino industry revenue performance (excluding racetracks) in recent history (since 2011). At $453.1 million, July 2022 beat out July 2021 ($416.3 million) to set a new near-term record for single month industry total gaming revenue.”
