A mixture of COVID-19 and the WSOP Online Bracelet Series led to a massive spike in July online poker revenue compared to previous years in New Jersey.
The state's three legal poker sites racked up $4,818,561 in gross internet poker revenue last month. That's a 155.37% increase compared to the same month in 2019 ($1,886,918). July revenue also crushed June's numbers of $3,537,077, thanks in large part to the bracelet series hosted last month.
Overall online gambling revenue in July was also up significantly compared to July 2019, a rise from $37,428,813 to $82,674,391 (120.9% increase). Poker only represents a small portion of the overall internet casino rake in New Jersey, and pretty much everywhere.
With Atlantic City's land-based casinos closed from mid-March until the Fourth of July weekend, gamblers turned to the internet to get some action. But the city's five poker rooms, the only card rooms in New Jersey, still remain closed with no timetable set for reopening.
World Series of Poker leads to influx in online poker traffic
New Jersey is one of just four states with legal internet poker sites in operation, along with Nevada, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. During the month of July, the Garden State and Nevada — the only two states WSOP.com operates in — were home to the first ever WSOP Online Bracelet Series.
Each day in July, a gold bracelet was awarded to the lucky winner of that day's WSOP event - 31 in total. The Online Bracelet Series served as a replacement for the 51st annual live World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, which was postponed due to COVID-19. And will most likely eventually be canceled completely.
For the WSOP's poker site, the lack of a live series was quite beneficial. WSOP.com, a Caesars Interactive platform, was responsible for 58.7% ($2,826,806) of all online poker revenue in New Jersey last month. That isn't much of a surprise considering the WSOP.com site hosted a major series.
PokerStars (Resorts World) raked in $1,146,175 in revenue, and Partypoker (Borgata) brought in $845,580 from online poker.
As usual, Golden Nugget's internet casino was responsible for generating the most overall virtual gambling revenue. The Atlantic City-based casino took in $31,480,080 in July, or 38.1% of state's total monthly gross revenue. Golden Nugget, however, doesn't have an online poker room, but clearly doesn't need one.
Resorts World, the Atlantic City casino that owns the PokerStars NJ site, was closest to Golden Nugget at $18,031,664 in overall July online gambling revenue. But only 6.3% of that came from the PokerStars poker site.
Borgata, an MGM Resorts property, also had a successful online gambling month, generating $15,297,228 in revenue. But, like Resorts World, only a small percentage of that came from poker - 5.5%.
Caesars Interactive Entertainment, home to Caesars Palace and Bally's in Atlantic City, brought in $9,672,828 from its internet casinos last month. Due to the WSOP Online Bracelet Series, poker revenue represented a much larger chunk of Caesars' internet gambling rake — 29.2%. You can expect poker revenue in August to be down now that the Online Bracelet Series has shifted to GGPoker, which is only available outside the United States.
