Any more than the nine casinos already operating in Atlantic City could hurt the gambling industry in New Jersey.
The warning follows a report issued by Rutgers University to the state Assembly last Thursday. It said the US Casino market right now is saturated and new Casinos would hurt New Jersey.
Man-in-the-know Jim Johnson, who headed Governor Phil Murphy’s Atlantic City recovery drive, was quick to back the report. He firmly believes a cap is needed on the number of licensed state casinos.
Agreeing with the Rutgers’ report, he said the Casino situation in the region was cause for some “very serious concern.”
With new Casinos continually opening in surrounding eastern states, he argued, “The trend-lines suggest things are going to be down,”
“The Atlantic City casino industry is vulnerable to challenges from competition both within, and from outside the state. The data is really stark.”
NJ could lose up to $150m to new PA casino
His claim underlined one of the points made in the Rutgers report. It predicted that a casino due to open next year in Philadelphia’s could cost Atlantic City between $63m and $150m in gambling revenue.
His view was supported by numerous Assemblymen. One of them, Democrat Ralph Caputo, was highly critical of a proposal to revive a casino at the Showboat. The hotel currently offers no gambling or sports betting facilities.
“That’s just a bad idea,” said the former Atlantic City casino executive. He admitted NJ’s overall gambling revenue had increased in the 15 months since Hard Rock and Ocean Resort, had opened.
He added, however, that gross operating profit of the casinos had in fact declined during this period.
Republican Assemblyman Ronald Dancer was another who believed a cap on casino licenses should be studied.
“There are only so many gambling dollars to go around. This certainly needs to be part of the discussion,” he said.
Sportsbooks not under discussion
The prevalence of Sportsbooks which, to be legal, must be licensed to casinos or race tracks, had not come under discussion. Perhaps this is because the sports-betting market in New Jersey is still growing at a pace.
A few days ago the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement announced that its 18 sportsbooks had once more broken records in October.
Its total in bets received (handle) rose 9.5% from $445.6 million in September to a record $487.9 million in October. And this without a full month of NBA and college basketball.
More records are expected in November when both football and basketball, betting’s most popular sports, will be at full tilt.
Also still on the rise in New Jersey is the incidence of online sports betting. Retail casino betting in casinos or at race tracks dipped in October, but online betting rose to a new high of 85% of total handle.
FanDuel and DraftKings, both early starters after betting prohibition ended 18 months ago, led the pack. And by some distance – almost certainly because of the big start their millions of established sports fantasy players gave them.
18 sports-betting operators in New Jersey
Presently there are 18 sports-betting operators in New Jersey. The bulk, like FanDuel are independent online sportsbooks partnered with licensed race tracks or Atlantic City Casinos.
Most Casinos run or provide retail sportsbook lounges for their partners. Resorts Casino runs its own online sportsbooks alongside those of their partners.
Here’s the full list of New Jersey’s sports-betting operators (in alphabetical order). The Casinos and race tracks with asterisks are partnered by independent online sportsbooks. Online Sportsbooks are marked by the hash sign #.
The operators:
Ballys Wild Wild West Casino*
Bet365 sportsbook#
BetAmerica sportsbook#
BetMGM sportsbook#
Borgata Casino*
Caesars sportsbook#
DraftKings sportsbook#
888sport sportsbook#
FanDuel Sportsbook#
FOX Bet NJ Sportsbook#
Golden Nugget Casino*
Hard Rock Casino*
Harrahs Casino*
Meadowlands Race Track*
Monmouth Park Race Track*
Ocean Resorts Casino*
PlaySugarhouse sportsbook#
PointsBet sportsbook#
Resorts Casino and sportsbook*#
theScore Bet sportsbook#
William Hill NJ Sportsbook#
