Atlantic City Casinos Pay $504m in Taxes and Fees for 2022-2023 Fiscal Year

Land-based venues and New Jersey online casinos helped bring over $504 million in taxes and fees to state programs for the 2022/2023 fiscal year. The record-setting amount within the Casino Revenue Fund helps vulnerable residents throughout the state, with funds provided by iGaming, sports betting, racing, and physical casino properties.

The Casino Revenue Fund was established in New Jersey in 1976. The goal was for casinos to provide payments to the state to help reduce living costs via property taxes, rental, telephone, gas, electric, and municipal utility charges for eligible senior citizens and disabled residents. 

Casinos like Hard Rock, BetMGM, and Tropicana Casino helped to contribute to the overall payment total thanks to sports betting, casino gaming, and online services. Of the more than $504 million generated from the fiscal year, most of the contributions went toward the Community Care Program Individual Support.

This program provides services to individuals, including help with household chores. Additional services offer training to residents of residential facilities with state licensing to help the individuals learn more about self-care and rehabilitation.

The NJ Transit industry also received a large contribution of more than $38 million. The transportation unit provides services to senior citizens and disabled residents via a Transportation Assistance Program. A spokesperson for NJ Transit, Jim Smith, stated that the Casino Revenue Fund is essential to the program as it helps provide transportation that people need, such as shopping, nutrition, or non-emergency medical trips.

Over the years, the payment contributions have waned due to casino closures from 2013 to 2016. The Atlantic Club, Revel, Showboat, Trump Taj Mahal, and Trump Plaza closed during that time period. However, the industry also introduced online gaming, and legalized sports betting, and two more casinos have opened within the past few years.

All of this has combined to build the payment contributions back up, and the state is thriving. The New Jersey legal online casino market plays a huge role in bringing in payments to the fund, as iGaming has continued to grow rapidly in the state.

The increased volume of play for iGaming and the higher tax rate on the industry certainly help to boost funds. The online industry pays a 15% tax rate, which is much higher than the 8% paid by casinos for physical slot and table games.

Every month in 2023, New Jersey casinos have seen heavy earnings, with some record-setting totals. In August, the state generated $531 million, an increase of 2.3% from the previous year. The totals include NJ online gambling totals, sports betting, and land-based earnings.

The month saw a series of ups and downs for operators. Hard Rock was a big winner, generating over $59 million for August. The brand saw an increase of 10% for its land-based earnings. Golden Nugget jumped to $54 million, with a 21% increase for its Atlantic City operations.

The top earner for the month was the Borgata Casino, with nearly $118 million in revenues. However, the casino was down 2.3% when compared to last year. Several operators saw a major decrease in earnings, including Harrah’s Casino, Resorts, and Caesars.

As the fiscal year has come to a close and the new one has started, we can look ahead to what 2023-2024 has to offer. Analysts expect the industry to continue to hit record-setting highs in 2023 and into 2024. We should see the Casino Revenue Fund continue to receive large contributions from casino operators.

It will be interesting to see by the end of this fiscal year; it will be interesting to see if the earnings of 2023 will help push the new payment to the Casino Revenue Fund to new heights. It is highly likely that it will!