Sports betting is off and running in New Jersey, with three casinos and two racetracks taking in $40.6 million in wagers in July, the first full month it was legal.
Those figures were part of a report that showed that Hard Rock debuted as Atlantic City's No. 3 casino in terms of gambling revenue out of the nine casinos in town. Ocean Resort came in last in its first full month of operation.
New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court case in May clearing the way for all 50 states to offer sports betting if they choose. Since betting began in New Jersey on June 14, more than $57 million in bets has been taken in, and additional companies continue to join a rapidly expanding market.
July's numbers were mainly posted by the Borgata and Ocean Resort casinos, and the Monmouth Park and Meadowlands racetracks. Bally's casino began taking sports bets on July 30.
Since then, Harrah's and Resorts have started taking sports bets as well, but their revenue will not be reported until mid-September.
The Meadowlands, about 6 miles (9.66 kilometers) from New York City in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the NFL's New York Jets and Giants play, took in $1.35 million in July, having started taking bets on July 14. Monmouth Park, which started taking bets June 14, took in $856,280 in July, and has won $3.1 million since mid-June.
Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US, which runs the sports books at Monmouth Park and the Ocean Resort Casino, said he is "thrilled with the early numbers at both Monmouth and Ocean. They are clearly exceeding our expectations of where we thought we would be at this early stage. There's no doubt the New Jersey sports betting market has a lot of potential."
The Borgata took in $562,830 in sports betting in July, and Ocean Resort handled just over $1 million. Bally's did just under $18,000 in the two days it took sports bets in July.
Sports betting generated $325,646 in state taxes in July.
Figures released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show the Borgata, Ocean Resort and Bally's, and the two tracks saw gross sports betting revenue of $3.8 million on those bets.
But regulators caution that bets involving future outcomes, such as the winner of football's Super Bowl, won't be paid out for months.
Of completed events that were the subject of betting, they retained just under 6 percent of the amount wagered.
Harrah's and Resorts casinos began offering sports betting in August.
Including all gambling revenue, the nine casinos took in $302 million in July, up 12.8 percent from a year ago. But that's mainly because two newly reopened casinos had their first full month of operation in July, including Hard Rock, the former Trump Taj Mahal. It debuted as Atlantic City's No. 3 casino out of the nine now operating in terms of revenue, with $32.7 million. It trailed only Tropicana, at $37 million, and perennial leader Borgata, which won $76.6 million in July.
Looking more closely at individual casinos, July was actually not a great month. Of the seven casinos that were operating a year ago, only the Golden Nugget showed a year-over-year increase in July, with $29.4 million, an increase of 8.8 percent over July 2017.
Harrah's was down 14.1 percent to $31.4 million and Resorts was down 12.7 percent to $17.8 million. Resorts president Mark Giannantonio said the casino did more business this July than last, but was hurt by some losses at table games.
Caesars was down 10.3 percent to $29.3 million; Bally's was down 9.9 percent to $20.5 million; Tropicana was down 9.8 percent, and Borgata was down 4.4 percent.
Ocean Resort, the former Revel casino won $17 million in its first full month, ranking it last among the city's nine casinos. Bruce Deifik, who owns the property formerly known as Revel, noted that July was the first time in its history that it generated a positive cash flow. He reopened the site in January after buying it from Florida developer Glenn Straub, who failed to open it for two years.
"To be ninth out of nine in this position, I'm tickled pink," he said. "This was a property that for two years had a cloud over its head, people thought it was cursed, and no one thought I'd ever get it open."
Internet gambling continued its strong performance in July, up nearly 26 percent from a year ago to $25.8 million.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
