With two months left in 2024, New Jersey’s iGaming continues smashing records. Since becoming legal in 2013, thanks to former Governor Chris Christie’s efforts to prevent revenue from escaping in offshore online casinos, New Jersey online casinos have been the glowing standard for all other legal American online casinos to follow.
And follow they will, now that the New Jersey Gaming Division of Enforcement reports are record-breaking September to the tune of $200 million. Not only is being shy of $210 million for September impressive, but it actually does this August’s mark that was shy of $200 million. In fact, September’s amazing iGaming growth is the third month in the row of incredible and steady and iGaming growth.
To put that in comparison, the remaining Atlantic City Casinos combined generated just north of $230 million for the month of September. While New Jersey’s online casinos have the most online casino operators, with 32 more than other states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, it is also a continued sign that Atlantic City’s land-based casinos continue to decline. In their heyday in the 1980s and for the greater part of the 1990s, Atlantic City’s Casinos had more than a dozen on the Beach Boardwalk, with many of them owned and operated by former President Donald Trump.
There’s no question that the construction fallout and recessions from the late 1990s to the 2010s caused many iconic Atlantic City Casinos to close. It also didn’t help that when the COVID-19 shutdown occurred, many lifelong Atlantic City players migrated to the top-tier New Jersey online casinos. The irony for Atlantic City’s land-based casinos is that from 2017-2019, they were showing steady improvements until the great 2020 shutdown.
The Future of New Jersey Online Casinos and other States
While there don’t appear to be any new online casinos entering the red-hot New Jersey online gaming market in 2025, it’s clear that DraftKings and FanDuel will spearhead the New Jersey iGaming charge in 2025. DraftKings took the cake for September by delivering $45 million, while FanDuel was just a tick below DraftKings. While both titans offer stellar sports betting and daily fantasy sports, they are also major innovators for today’s exclusive and original themed games.
With such impressive numbers coming from New Jersey’s online casinos, its neighbor, New York, is picking up the pace. 2024 was a very hopeful year that The Empire State would finally legalize online casinos, even calling for a special session to do just that. However, like so many years before, legal online gambling in The Empire State fell through the cracks.
However, 2025 is shaping up to be the year that legal New York online casinos finally become a reality. Senator Joseph Addabbo has once again put forth bills to do just that. This time, Governor Kathy Hochul has funds in New York’s 2025 budget for the issue of online casinos.