Caesars posted the biggest revenue gains among Atlantic City casinos in March 2017. (Photo: AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

The numbers released by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement show that online gaming revenues have cleared the $20 million mark for the first time ($21.7 million). That happened even though online poker was DOWN 8.5 percent last month (to 2.25M). The other online games (mainly slots) were up a whopping 49.4 percent to $19.5M.

“Every month should be as good as March was,” said Matt Levinson, the chairman of the Casino Control Commission. “Slot win, table game win and internet gaming win all were up last month.  Slot win was up at every single casino,  three properties reported  table win was up over 80 percent, and  internet win jumped 40 percent to a record high.  Even when results from the now closed Taj Mahal are added into last year’s figures, total gaming win was still up 9.3 percent.  For the first quarter of this year, total gaming win is up 12.8 percent for the current operators - and 5.7 percent when Taj Mahal results are included.

“When coupled with the very strong earnings report that came out last week, it’s clear that casinos have started to grow the market and increase their profits,” Levinson added. “That is generating a lot of positive interest in Atlantic City and has already attracted significant new investment in this market.”

The biggest winners were Caesars, up 31.9 percent, and Resorts, up 25.3 percent. Bally’s had a 2.2 percent loss to trail the field.

One of the most interesting of the two dozen or so online gaming sites affiliated with Atlantic City casinos is PlaySugarHouse.com, in which the Philadelphia casino has been partnered with Golden Nugget Atlantic City since September.

Golden Nugget has a deal with Philadelphia-based SugarHouse casino for online gaming in New Jersey. (Photo: Golden Nugget)

PlaySugarHouse’s numbers were up more than 50 percent from Feb. 2017 to the following month, reports CEO Richard Schwartz. Golden Nugget has its own brand, SugarHouse, and BetFairNJ. SugarHouse is clearly helping Golden Nugget pull clear of the field in the online game race with $16.1M in revenues in March compared to $10M to $12M for four competitors.

Basically, the DGE reports only on each iGaming permit. Each iGaming permit is allowed to have 5 brands under it. The Golden Nugget AC iGaming permit has three (3) brands under its permit: us (playsugarhouse.com), their own Golden Nugget brand and Betfair NJ. So the number reported by the DGE is the total for all brand under each iGaming permit, in Golden Nugget’s case the three brands I just mentioned.

“Since we custom-developed a proprietary online gaming platform for New Jersey players, we've been able to constantly add more bells and whistles to our site that keeps the player experience fresh and unique,” Schwartz said. “We expect the revenue growth to continue as we continue to introduce new and exciting games and promotions.”

In the next few weeks, SugarHouse.com plans to premier Inspired Gaming’s Virtual Sports games online in the New Jersey market - starting with virtual Horse Racing.

That growth comes at a time when there remains much debate in Pennsylvania about whether to follow New Jersey and Delaware’s lead in legalizing online casino gaming.

“Contrary to initial fears surrounding online gaming, these incredible numbers show that online gaming represents a growth vehicle for the gaming industry,” Schwartz said. “It’s attracting a different demographic. For example, PlaySugarHouse.com players are on average 8 years younger than SugarHouse land-based casino players. This is providing the SugarHouse brand with a new and important base of players.”

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