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The basics:

• Total gaming revenue reached $596.4M, up 9.2% year-over-year
• Internet gaming led with $272.1M – rising 11.6% and topping casinos, again
• Sports betting revenue surged 22.8% to $87.6M despite lower handle
• Brick-and-mortar casino win grew 2.5%, second-best March since 2013

New Jersey’s gaming industry posted solid growth in March 2026, with gains driven largely by continued strength in internet gaming alongside steady in-person casino performance.

Topline March figures (via the Division of Gaming Enforcement):

• Total gaming revenue: $596.4 million +9.2%
• Internet gaming revenue: $272.1 million +11.6%
• Brick-and-mortar casino win: $236.7 million +2.5%
• Sports betting revenue: $87.6 million +22.8%
• Total sports betting handle: $1.01 billion -8.6%

Internet gaming once again generated the largest share of revenue, continuing a recent trend, while brick-and-mortar casinos also posted year-over-year growth and delivered their strongest March total in more than a decade.

Casino Control Commission Chairman James Plousis said, “Atlantic City‘s in-person casino win achieved its second-best March figure since 2013, with mixed results among the operators. First quarter casino win was stable, recording its third-best result in 13 years.

“Internet gaming win reached its second-highest monthly result on record, surpassing $270 million for just the second time. As expected, online win also eclipsed in-person casino win for the seventh consecutive month, continuing the shoulder season’s recent trend.”

An in-person gaming trend emerges?

Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University School of Business, pointed to broader seasonal and structural dynamics shaping the market.

“Despite one of the worst winters in recent years, first quarter 2026 brick-and-mortar casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) surprisingly increased over the same period in 2025. Even so, internet gaming exceeded traditional gaming channels for total first quarter GGR and represented nearly half of total GGR for the period.”

She added, “March 2026 marks the seventh consecutive month where GGR for internet gaming has exceeded traditional, brick-and-mortar channels. The fact that brick-and-mortar gaming has not exceeded internet gaming since August 2025 may be indicative of a high degree of seasonality when it comes to in-person gaming.

“As the weather warms and a visit to the shore becomes increasingly attractive, it will be interesting to see how this trend evolves.”

Casino performance

Three casinos posted year-over-year increases, while six declined for that period:

• • Increases: Borgata, Caesars, Ocean Casino
  • Declines: Bally’s, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, Harrah’s, Resorts, and Tropicana

Top performers (casino win):

• Borgata $67.2 million, up 15%
• Hard Rock $42.6 million, down 4.1%
• Ocean Casino $35.4 million, up 2.2%

While Bokunewicz noted that the convenience of internet gaming will continue to drive its growth – she expects year-over-year growth during the peak summer tourism season.

“Just as during the pandemic, online gaming operations may prove to be an asset as competition for convenience gamblers increases with the introduction of downstate New York casinos,” she said. “The benefit of this will be limited by properties’ revenue-sharing agreements with third-party business partners and affiliates.

To succeed with brick-and-mortar operations, it will become increasingly necessary for Atlantic City’s casino resorts to ‘lean in’ to their on-property assets to make the in-person experience sufficiently enticing and distinctive to attract patrons in this competitive market.
—Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director, LIGHT

“To succeed with brick-and-mortar operations, it will become increasingly necessary for Atlantic City’s casino resorts to ‘lean in’ to their on-property assets to make the in-person experience sufficiently enticing and distinctive to attract patrons in this competitive market.”

Plousis highlighted some of the encouraging broader trends that the report shows.

“With growth in all three segments of New Jersey’s total gaming revenue, it has now exceeded one-half billion dollars in 13 consecutive months,” said Plousis. “In the first quarter, statewide total gaming revenue eclipsed $1.7 billion faster than any other year this decade.”