Credit: (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)This summer is shaping up to be a strong one for Atlantic City casinos and their online gambling operating partners.
According to the latest data collected by the state, the total gambling revenue for the casinos and their operating partners from in-state online gambling was nearly $250 million during July.
That represents a nearly 27% increase over last year’s total revenue for July, and it comes on top of a more than 23% year-over-year increase measured during the month of June.
In all, revenue this year from online gambling through the end of July topped $1.6 billion, up 23.3% compared to the same period last year, according to a report from the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, which regularly tracks gambling revenue earned legally in New Jersey.
The revenue gains from online gambling do not appear to have come at the expense of in-person gambling this summer, according to the DGE data. Revenue from gambling at the casinos also grew in both June and July, although at more modest rates, with year-to-date collections totaling $1.66 billion through the end of July, the report said.
Higher taxes
Amid the online-gambling revenue upswing, state policymakers decided earlier this summer to increase the state tax levied on legal online gambling offered by casinos and their operating partners.
The online gambling tax hike, as well as an increase in the state tax levied on mobile sports betting, came as part of a broader plan to raise an additional $600 million in annual revenue for the state budget.
The two gambling tax hikes, which went into effect on July 1, are projected to increase the revenues the state collects from casino taxes and fees by more than $200 million annually, according to estimates from the Department of the Treasury.
According to the report issued by Stockton University, which is based in Atlantic County, the casino industry’s gross gambling revenues totaled nearly $5.7 billion in 2024.
Last year, the total from taxes and fees levied on casino operators in New Jersey topped $880 million, according to a report issued earlier this year by Stockton University.
This included $572 million in revenue that went directly into New Jersey’s Casino Revenue Fund, the report said. That fund, by law, benefits programs and services for senior citizens and disabled residents.
Timeline of NJ’s gambling changes
In 1976, New Jersey voters approved a referendum to legalize casino gambling in Atlantic City.
But it wasn’t until 2013 that online gambling became legal in New Jersey under a law enacted by then-Gov. Chris Christie that allowed the casinos in Atlantic City to partner with online gambling platforms. The same law also levied an initial 15% tax rate on online gambling operators — nearly double the 8% tax on in-person gambling.
In 2018, New Jersey legalized both in-person and mobile sports betting, just weeks after a major U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned a long-standing federal law that only allowed such gambling to occur in Nevada and a handful of other states. The 2018 law, enacted by Gov. Phil Murphy, set a 13% tax on mobile sports betting.
The tax rates for both online gambling and mobile sports betting now total 19.75% under the rate hikes approved in late June by Murphy and fellow Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature.
According to the report issued by Stockton University, which is based in Atlantic County, the casino industry’s gross gambling revenues totaled nearly $5.7 billion in 2024.
This continued an “upward trend,” the report said, as overall gross revenues were “propelled by internet gaming and mobile sports betting.”
By the numbers
In all, online gambling on traditional casino games, like poker and blackjack, netted casino operators $2.4 billion in gross revenue last year, followed by slots, $2.1 billion; table games, $699.7 million; mobile sports betting, $486.5 million; and in-person sports betting, $6.5 million, according to the report, which cited state data.
And even before the increased state tax rates that were put in place earlier this summer, the tax revenue generated by casino gambling in New Jersey was trending up, the report said.
Murphy, a second-term Democrat, originally called for hiking the operator tax rates for both online gambling and mobile sports betting up to 25%.
Revenue from casino taxes and fees totaled $883.2 million in 2024, up from the $796 million collected in 2023, according to the report.
“Driven largely by taxes levied on the growing internet gaming and mobile sports betting market, Atlantic City casino total taxes and fees increased 11% [year over year],” the report said.
Much of the tax revenue collected from casino operators goes directly into the Casino Revenue Fund. A portion of sports wagering tax revenue also supports the annual state budget’s general fund.
The industry resisted even higher taxes
Murphy originally called for hiking the operator tax rates for both online gambling and mobile sports betting up to 25% in a budget proposal he put forward in late February.
But after significant pushback from industry groups, and closed-door negotiations with Democratic legislative leaders, the governor and lawmakers agreed in late June to increase the online casino gambling tax rate, from 15% to 19.75%, and the mobile sports betting tax rate, from 13% to 19.75%.
The compromise on the tax rates that Murphy struck with lawmakers will result in the state collecting a projected $209 million in additional revenue during the 2026 fiscal year, according to the Treasury estimates. That’s well below the more than $400 million the Murphy administration had envisioned under its original proposal.
Among other tax hikes approved by Murphy and majority Democrats that are now in effect throughout the state are higher rates levied on the sale of packs of cigarettes and liquid nicotine cartridges for vaping devices.
A new set of graduated fees on high-dollar real-estate transactions is also now being charged throughout the state under another tax-policy change enacted in late June.
