There is a new player in town. Well, not new exactly. Online gaming or igaming, whichever you prefer, has been legal since 2013 in New Jersey. It got off to a slow start. In 2014, the first full year, igaming generated $93 million in revenue. Though its beginnings were modest, its growth rate was not. By the time the pandemic arrived, igaming gross gaming revenue (GGR) was $900 million, 10 times what it was six years earlier. In 2021, igaming crossed the billion-dollar threshold with $1.3 billion. In the next four years, it doubled to $2.9 billion.
In 2025, casino GGR was $2.8 billion, toe to toe. In 2014 when the igaming revenue was just $93 million, the casinos generated $2.6 billion. In 2006, casino revenue peaked at $5.2 billion. Clearly, casinos and igaming in New Jersey are on different trajectories. The paths may not even be related. Igaming is riding an economy-wide wave of cyber activity. The decline in casino revenue was and is caused by competition from other casinos in other states. The casinos in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania have eaten into Atlantic City’s customer base.
Other factors also impact Atlantic City casinos. Nationally, the gaming industry is starting to stagnate after several years of dynamic growth. COVID forced casinos nationwide to shut down, but they reopened to a startling surge in business. The surge began in 2020, but really took off in 2021 and 2022. Every month, casinos everywhere reported more revenue. It was an advantageous time for operators. The casinos drastically cut expenses during the crisis. When they reopened, it was with more revenue and less expense. Those were very profitable years for the industry. That trend lasted into 2023, but by 2024, many jurisdictions were starting to experience a decrease in revenue. In 2025, the trend was very noticeable, with same-store sales flat or dropping.
As 2026 gets underway, that trend is continuing. With an uncertain economy, it is likely to get worse in casino land. That is not a doom-and-gloom prediction; the sky is not falling. But the go-go environment created by the pandemic shutdown is gone. The factors affecting today’s economy are quite different and igaming might be part of the mix, part of an overall shift in spending patterns.
A recent report by Kindbridge Research Institute’s Financial Stability and Responsible Gambling Initiative Harm examines how gambling has become more digitally embedded in everyday financial life. The report is concerned with gambling addiction, but its revelations have a broader application. The report states that gambling is becoming more acceptable and accessible. In the digital world, payment is indirect and therefore disconnected from the consumer’s awareness.
The digital world has been steadily gaining ground for years. The forced isolation of the pandemic ramped up the conversion from in-person, retail purchasing to online cyber consumption. PayPal and its kin were standing in line to help in the payment process and the disassociation. In the casino world, igaming and remote sports betting are the benefactors of the new paradigm.
A study published by Kellogg Insight suggests that the availability of in-home gambling options is directing impacting other spending, Kellogg says, “The research shows that the hundreds of billions of dollars that consumers pour into online sports betting overwhelmingly come from money that used to be spent on more stable, long-term investments, like retirement accounts.” As the reports says, online gaming is going to impact many other aspects of the economy.
For our purposes today, the largest and most immediate impact of remote gambling is going to be on other forms of gambling. Horse racing, lotteries, and casinos are standing in the line of fire. At the rate igaming is growing in New Jersey, it will probably generate close to $4 billion in 2026. In that scenario, casino revenue of $2 billion is conceivable. If we project that out a bit further, into 2027 or 2028, casinos in Atlantic City would be lucky to generate $1 billion, while igaming and sports could reach $5 or $6 billion. The same trend could be forecast for Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. Or any other state that chooses to join the igaming fraternity.
That creates a dismal picture for casinos, except that in many cases, casino companies are diligently trying to cross the digital divide. Caesars, MGM, Boyd, Penn, and Bally’s all imagine a cyber future for themselves. It is an interesting time in gaming; a major shift is taking place. The shift is not an event that happen at once with a bang. It is a process, a continuum. The signs of the paradigm shift are becoming clearer, especially in New Jersey. But the shift is bigger than New Jersey and bigger than gaming. It is a fundamental change in both our economy and society. With apologies to Huxley, it is a brave new world.