New Jersey’s Online Gambling Maintains Upward Growth Curve
Revenues in April rise 10.6 percent y-o-y at $23 million
Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gambling Enforcement show that online gambling continued its upward monthly growth path in April, rising 10.6 percent year-on-year to $23 million.
April’s revenues were the second best since online gambling was legalised in the state, topped only by the $25.6 million recorded in March this year (see previous InfoPowa reports).
Online casino revenues topped the contributions, rising 12.7 percent y-o-y at $21.25 million, but online poker remained disappointing, declining 10.5 percent to just $1.76 million.
The Golden Nugget-Play Sugar House-Betfair combo once again led the market with revenue of $8.13 million, with Borgata trailing at $4.6 million (half a million from poker), Resorts-PokerStars-Mohegan delivered $3.6 million ($800,000 from poker) and Caesars Interactive contributed $3.5 million (with poker just short of half a million). The wooden spoon went to Tropicana on $3.17 million.
Will New Jersey Sue U.S. Sports Leagues For Lost Sports Betting Revenue?
Or is this a ploy to discourage the leagues from demanding a cut of the sports betting pie
US media reports that the state of New Jersey may seek to recoup both its substantial legal costs and the hundreds of millions it may have made had the sports leagues not challenged its attempts to introduce intrastate sports betting in 2014 have been discounted by legal experts.
They have pointed out that the leagues did not act improperly in resorting to blocking litigation, and based their action on PASPA – a long-established federal law which the US Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional this week.
Experts argue that the sports leagues could therefore be said to be no more legally liable than the members of Congress who passed PASPA back in 1996, or for that matter the president who signed it into law and the lower courts which sustained the leagues’ opposition for several years.
The more cynical among industry observers suggest a different rationale for such a move, should it materialise; a ploy to discourage the sports leagues from attempting to secure a slice of the lucrative sports betting pie, dressed up as an “integrity fee”.
Several states working on sports betting legislation have been sounded out by the leagues on such a fee, with mixed reactions from the states.