New Jersey Online Gambling Revenues Fail to Live Up to Expectations
While online gambling in New Jersey is on the rise, the revenue is still nowhere near as high as Governor Chris Christie first predicted.
While New Jersey’s online gambling revenues are on the rise they are still far short of Gov. Christie’s original predictions.
Gov. Christie had predicted that $160-$180 million would be brought in this year. However, there are a number of reasons why the real figure is so much smaller. Firstly, the administration had based its estimate on online gambling commencing on July 1st; however, the first bets weren’t placed until November 26th.
Secondly the estimate was based upon a Wells Fargo report which was far more optimistic than most industry projections.
Finally, revenues have been reduced as a number of potential gamblers had difficulty in playing online. At first a number of operators were rejecting attempts to play as they could not guarantee the player was within state boundaries. Furthermore, a number of U.S. banks would not process transactions as they were not sure about its legality.
However, with revenues of $9.5 million last month, things are on the up and there is a good chance that Gov. Christie’s original estimate could be met next fiscal year.
