Home / Poker News January 2014 / New Jersey Online Gaming Revenues Miss Forecast Mark
New Jersey Online Gaming Revenues Miss Forecast Mark
Posted by: Jo Martin - Wed, 2014-01-15 06:32
Back in November, New Jersey became the largest US state to legalize and regulate online gambling and online poker. Understandably, the move generated quite a bit of anticipation, and some rather optimistic forecasts, mostly coming from lawmakers who had thrown their support behind the legalization and regulation effort. The first numbers regarding revenues generated by the Garden State's online gambling and
online poker market have surfaced and frankly, they're a bit disappointing. Apparently, during the five weeks following its November launch, online gambling generated some $8.4 million in revenues, of which $1.3 million ended up in the state's coffers in the form of taxes.
According to the detailed report, of the above said total sum, some $7.4 million came in December, which means that during its first 10 days, legal online gambling generated around $1 million in revenues in the Garden State.
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the revenues came from the online casino tables which accounted for $5.17 million, making up around 62% of the entire $8.4 million sum. Online poker generated $3.2 million, accounting for around 38% of the revenue.
While these numbers do in fact seem quite impressive to the untrained eye, one has to look at them through the prism of the state's forecasts and expectations, which set a $1.2 billion value on online gaming at the end of its first fiscal year, and with the way things are currently going, it is obvious that the goal can't possibly be met.
According to David Rebuck of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the numbers aren't entirely relevant yet, and the state will get a much better picture concerning its online gaming revenues in a few months’ time.
The lower-than-expected numbers weren’t due to lack of player interest. The fact that some of the major financial institutions in the state did not allow their customers to use credit cards to make online gambling deposits is probably at least partly to blame.
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