New Jersey Revenue Report: Poker Performing “OK” But Could Do Better

March 15th, 2015 | by Jason Reynolds

New Jersey online poker and revenue reports for Feb 2015 released.

NJ poker sites need to share.(Image: wikipedia.com)

New Jersey’s latest round of revenue reports were released on Thursday night and while casino games continued to thrive, the state’s online poker economy appeared to stall.

Although the figures were far from disastrous, the ever increasing gap between house games and peer-to-peer products has prompted gaming insiders to ask what the industry can do to improve the economy’s profitability.

In total, New Jersey igaming operators reported an overall return of $10,404,367 this February which represents a 0.9 percent ($97,281) increase on the same period in 2014. Propping up that figure was the State’s casino platforms which banked $1,106,829 more in 2015 than they did 12 months ago.

The Seesaw Poker State

However, like a seesaw, as one side of the market went up, the other made a downward movement. Of the poker platforms still active, the reported profits for the second month of 2015 reached $2,045,655. In comparison, the Garden State’s poker sites pulled in $3,109,203 ($1,063,548/ 34.2%) in 2014 which suggests the industry isn’t performing at its best.

Delivering the biggest bankroll boost for New Jersey last month was the Borgata/ partypoker coalition. The operator banked $3,735,720, of which $1,103,501 came from its poker platforms. However, this sort of win rate isn’t going to be enough to keep New Jersey’s operators questioning the long-term EV of their poker portals.

Should New Jersey Prepare to Share?

One of the main suggestions being floated to help improve an otherwise disappointing situation is liquidity sharing. Chris Grove of OPR described the current climate as showing signs of “severe structural decline”; while NewJerseyCasinos.com tweeted that “meh” results call for intrastate pacts.

“NJ Online Poker Results = “Meh” – liquidity sharing needed to improve Feb’s ~$2 million haul,” commented NJC.

Earlier this year Nevada and Delaware confirmed they will be implementing liquidity sharing in the coming months, but whether or not New Jersey will join this coalition remains unclear. As it stands, the Garden State is the largest igaming provider in the US and if it were to enter into a pact with other state’s it would certainly hold the upper hand.

However, it could be this mentality that’s preventing New Jersey from sharing its players. Wanting to get the better part of a deal is unlikely to sit well with other regulators and could ultimately lead to the state being ostracized and suffer an even greater downswing than it already is.