Judging by the final revenue numbers from August 2019, it would appear that the online poker scene in New Jersey is struggling to hit any kind of significant numbers. The industry within the state has suffered from the same kind of issues throughout the course of 2018 and into the beginning of 2019. The figures from August display information that revenue for online poker declined for that month, despite the fact that hopes were growing in the months previous.
Between the months of June and July 2019 for example, revenue was up by 6.6% for online poker, and that combined nicely with an improvement of revenue year-on-year, with an increase of 2.1% in that area. It’s unfortunate that the upswing lasted for such a short time period, because August’s decline will certainly affect the overall revenue for 2019.
That is in stark comparison to the online gaming industry on the whole, which went on to set a new record for August, coming from the online slots and table gaming sectors. Even though internet gaming has been on the rise in general within New Jersey, it seems as though the poker sector is more of an afterthought for players.
Figures suggest a 9.5% decrease in revenue when compared with July’s takings, while a year-on-year decline of 5.9% has also been noted. That’s quite the significant drop for the online poker scene within New Jersey. It may not seem like much, but when you consider that the online casino scene has witnessed a 71.4% increase in a year-on-year basis, the numbers stand out even more.
Online Poker – from King-like Status to Afterthought
It’s quite the shame for the New Jersey online poker scene, because at one point, it was considered to be the leader when it came to online gambling in the state. Poker sites were joining in with the onrush of players from The Garden State and other locations within the US. Of course, the poker boom came to an end, as any craze eventually does, which was in part due to countries like the United States seriously cracking down on international poker operators.
Because each separate country wanted tax revenue and licensing from the various sites, many sites withdrew from offering their services to multiple countries, with the US being hit quite hard by that. While the European poker scene is still in effect and operating to a degree of success, thanks in part to certain liquidity taking place between some countries, the US market hasn’t really followed the same success.
Even though New Jersey has entered into an online poker liquidity deal with Nevada and Delaware, there is just a single operator that has been able to enter into that liquidity pool so far. Needless to say, this has affected the growth and, in turn, the revenue of New Jersey’s poker sector.
While it’s also true that Pennsylvania has legalised online poker, with West Virginia following suit earlier this year, neither has launched online poker options yet. The latter state does hope to do this by 2021, but Pennsylvania seems to be stalling on such efforts. Potentially, this is due to the almost consistent decline in New Jersey’s online poker revenue figures.
