Over the past few years, a number of US casinos have closed their poker rooms, including M Resorts, Palms Casino, Circus Circus and Atlantic City’s Revel. It’s certainly not hard to see why either because many land-based poker rooms aren’t making any profits.
Since 2007, when poker was at its peak in America, annual poker revenues have continued dropping in both Nevada and New Jersey. The steadily dropping land-based revenues directly coincide with major legal milestones in US online poker history, namely the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006) and Black Friday (2011).
However, it seems that the regulated online poker markets in Nevada and New Jersey are now reversing the overall decline that we’ve seen for so many years. To illustrate this point, let’s discuss how revenue numbers are shaping up this year.
The combined effect of land-based and online poker revenue
Starting with Nevada, poker rooms in the Silver State experienced their greatest period of bliss in 2007, when they collected $168 million in revenue. From here, though, it was a sharp drop as land-based poker popularity gradually declined following the UIGEA. Last year the market finally steadied at $124 million, which is a far cry from what was seen in the mid-2000s.
But based on the combination of brick-and-mortar and online poker revenue this year, projected numbers for 2014 are over $133 million. This not only stops the seven-year slide, but it also approaches 2010’s revenue figure of $135 million.
As for New Jersey, their casino poker revenue peaked at $84 million in ’07, but tumbled below $44 million last year. The effect of internet poker has been huge on the Garden State’s poker market because, based on current estimations, casinos will end with about $75 million in total poker revenue. This is especially impressive when you consider that over half of this is coming from online poker.
Perhaps internet poker deserves a break
Based on inflated predictions in both Nevada and New Jersey, regulated online poker has largely been considered a disappointment since its launch in late 2013. However, judging from what we’ve discussed, maybe poker deserves a little more credit for what it has accomplished in both states.
The regulated online market has helped boost the sagging revenues of land-based poker rooms. Furthermore, brick-and-mortar rooms have done a good job of cross-promoting online poker sites. For example, Ultimate Gaming has been working with various Nevada casinos to promote their brand, while the WSOP used the Rio to heavily push WSOP.com this summer.
The end result is that land-based and online poker rooms can work together to save jobs and generate more tax revenue.