New Jersey Hits 30 Online Casinos While Lawmakers Push Tax on Prediction Markets

Key Points

• Three new online casino platforms, namely Vegas Club Casino, Ember Casino, and Betinia Casino, pushed New Jersey’s total from 27 to 30 active sites, all launching under Caesars-linked market access agreements.
• New Jersey’s iGaming revenue reached a record $276.3 million in May 2026, up 11.9% year on year, with year-to-date online casino revenue at $1.32 billion through May.
• Senate Bill 4447 and Assembly Bill 5336, each carrying a 9% surtax on prediction market gross income, cleared committee votes of 9-4 and 10-4 respectively, though late amendments delayed the full chamber vote to autumn.

New Jersey’s iGaming Platform Count Crosses 30 as Three Operators Launch

Thirty active online casino platforms. That figure is not a ceiling; it is evidence that New Jersey’s licensing model continues pulling investment years after the initial wave of launches.

Three new platforms entered the market between June and late July 2026, according to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement: Vegas Club Casino, Ember Casino, and Betinia Casino. Vegas Club is run by G2 Digital, a company established by gambling industry veterans Greg Carlin and Dan Alexander, and launched through Caesars Entertainment. Ember Casino operates via a Playtech and Delaware North partnership, and Betinia Casino entered through a Soft2Bet and Caesars agreement.

New Jersey’s regulatory framework permits multiple brands, referred to as skins, to operate under a single Atlantic City casino licence. One licence holder can support several distinct platforms, each targeting different player segments with separate branding and game portfolios. That model has been fundamental to how the market scaled from its 2013 legal launch to 30 platforms today, without requiring each new entrant to own a physical casino.

Why Do Operators Keep Entering an Already Crowded Market?

The revenue figures explain the continued appetite. According to Division of Gaming Enforcement data, New Jersey’s online casino win reached $276.3 million in May 2026, up 11.9% from $246.8 million in May 2025. Year-to-date internet gaming revenue stood at $1.32 billion through May, a 14.4% increase over the same period.

June continued the run. According to Covers.com, internet gaming has generated $271 million for the month, growing by 17.5% year on year. For the year so far, the year-to-date online casino income stands at $1.59 billion as of the first half of 2026, up 15% year over year. These numbers point towards the state of New Jersey beating its 2025 full-year iGaming total of $2.91 billion, a 22% increase from 2024’s total of $2.39 billion.

Revenue from land-based operations has a completely different narrative, however. The nine casino hotels of Atlantic City have reported a casino win of $257.3 million in June, down 0.7% from the previous year’s corresponding period. Sports betting income declined by 37.7% to $57.3 million for the month.

The Competitive Pressure That Comes with Scale

Reaching 30 platforms does not make life easier for operators already present. May 2022 was another record month for New Jersey’s iGaming industry with the top-performing online casinos being FanDuel Casino, which had $62.5 million in revenues, DraftKings with $47 million, and BetMGM with $35.4 million in earnings, which together account for more than 50% of the state’s overall online casino win for that month. Caesars Palace generated $19 million. Hard Rock Bet had $18.3 million in earnings, up 39.7%, and Fanatics Casino earned $13.5 million, an increase of 115.7% year over year. The three new entrants step into that environment knowing the largest players have scale advantages and established player relationships. Each platform faces the same regulatory baseline; the Division of Gaming Enforcement reviews game rules and platform systems before any title goes live, regardless of when the operator launched.

Prediction Market Tax Legislation Takes a Narrower Shape

Alongside the casino market expansion, New Jersey lawmakers advanced separate legislation reflecting the tension between state regulatory ambitions and federal authority. Senate Bill 4447 and Assembly Bill 5336 passed their respective committees on 28 June 2026, as the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee voted in favour of SB 4447 by 9-4, while the Assembly Budget Committee approved AB 5336 by 10-4. Both bills, revised through committee substitutes, propose a 9% surtax on gross income generated by prediction market operators, collected on top of existing obligations under the state’s Gross Income Tax Act.

The original versions were far more ambitious. Introduced on 11 June 2026, SB 4447 would have classified sports-related event contracts as sports betting under New Jersey law, requiring prediction market operators to obtain licences from the Division of Gaming Enforcement and pay a combined effective tax rate of approximately 29.75%. The committee statement confirmed that the substitute focuses solely on establishing a surtax on income derived from prediction market operations.

Kalshi’s legal victory drove the scaling back. It is important to note that in April 2026, a panel of three judges from the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals made a decision that Kalshi’s sports wagers were futures contracts under the Commodity Exchange Act which meant that the contract was under the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and not the state gaming authorities.

As such, the bills failed to pass through both chambers within the legislated time frame of 30th June. The Assembly speaker confirmed the proposal would return in autumn.

Revenue Projections and the Legal Uncertainty Ahead

New Jersey’s Office of Legislative Services estimated the 9% surtax would generate between $10.3 million and $15.3 million per fiscal year. There is uncertainty involved in that estimate because, unlike the legal sportsbooks that release such figures each month, there is no public release of state-by-state revenues for prediction markets.

Kalshi and Polymarket have generated a trading volume of $60 billion from January to early July of 2026 with monthly trading volume increasing from below $5 billion in September 2025 to nearly $24 billion in April 2026. Illinois and Kentucky have enacted similar tax models, and Kalshi has filed legal challenges against both states.

Expert Analysis

New Jersey’s regulatory environment is doing two different things at once in 2026. The casino market expansion to 30 platforms confirms that the skin-based licensing model still attracts new entrants, even in a market with strong incumbents. The prediction market tax legislation demonstrates that states are searching for revenue tools that acknowledge federal preemption without fully conceding the field.

A 9% surtax on unverifiable gross income from platforms under exclusive federal oversight satisfies no one completely. It generates less revenue than comprehensive regulation would, faces the same preemption challenges as the licensing approach, and leaves consumer protection gaps the original bills aimed to close. Whether the autumn return of SB 4447 resolves those contradictions or simply codifies the current standoff will determine whether New Jersey’s approach becomes a policy template or a cautionary example.