Is Disney Wagering on a BIG Expansion into Sports Betting?
This Gambling News Flash article looks at Disney & ESPN as they look to get in on all the sports betting action.
What does Disney have to do with sports betting?
The ultimate goal in all this? Disney wants to use legal sports betting in order to promote and strengthen the struggling ESPN+ streaming service.
But just last year in a Legal Sports Report Article, Disney CEO stated…
“I don’t see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way,” said Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Company. “Getting into the business of gambling, I rather doubt it.”
But new CEO, Bob Chapek took over for Bob Iger last year and the company had a sudden change of tone. Disney has not been thrilled with the idea of jumping into the gambling world in the past, but now feel that legal sports betting can bring in a younger audience and improve overall service.
CEO Bob Chapek hinted that Disney intends to break into the sports betting industry…
“Strategically, what sports betting gives us is the ability to appeal to a much younger sports fan viewer, who can be very strong in their affinity for those sports,” said Chapek.
In August, Disney was in talks to license its ESPN brand to casino operator Caesars and DraftKings. Nothing is finalized, and the deal sources valued at $3 billion could fall through, but the move is an indication of adding gambling to the Disney franchise.
Disney, ESPN Explore Sports Betting Options
Pretty much everyone is getting into sports betting these days. Needless to say, it’s no surprise that the Worldwide Leader in Sports wants a taste.
There had been rumors this past week that they were pulling away ESPN+ from its Disney streaming service in preparation for shifting ESPN more into gambling. Of course, if they are moving into betting, they’ll want to set up clear boundaries between ESPN and the 21+ activities, and the young audience that’s into Disney content.
For now, it’s unclear where ESPN is going next but a report on CNBC indicated that they are “pursuing further value in sports betting”. ESPN’s ratings have been in decline over the last few years as other streaming services have popped up.
Moving into the sports betting space would likely give their brand a big shot in the arm and push revenues to new heights. It feels like it’s only a matter of time before they partner with a betting brand or create one themselves.
Gambling News Flash – MGM in the Gaming Industry Limelight of Late
This week’s casino news is strictly MGM-focused. They’ve been in the news for all sorts of good reasons, so let’s get you up to speed.
MGM Resorts Expands Their Grip On Las Vegas Strip
MGM Resorts is expanding their footprint in Las Vegas. While they already have a number of properties on The Strip, they’ve now purchased The Cosmopolitan. The deal put them out a good $1.625 billion but it is a lot cheaper than the original $5 billion price tag that the property owners were originally hoping for. The reason for the significant drop in price is because Blackstone – the previous owners – will remain the land lords of the property.
MGM and Blackstone will be in a 30-year agreement that will be split up into ten-year increments. In total, Blackstone will receive $200 million in annual rent payments and could potentially haul in around $6 billion in rent by the end of those 30 years.
This deal for the Cosmopolitan will be finalized before the second half of the 2022 year. Everything is expected to check out as these two companies have worked together multiple times in the past with zero issues. Now MGM gets to run a prime property in the heart of The Strip, right in City Center.
MGM Resorts Donates $500K To Urban Farming Initiative In Las Vegas
Speaking of MGM Resorts, they’ll be giving back to the community via an urban farming initiative they’ve launched. The company donated half a million dollars to the Las Vegas Historic Westside in order to fund an urban agricultural farming facility.
The Historic Westside area has been hammered by food shortages for years now and this new farming facility could help overcome those difficult challenges. The Westside was just one of many communities picked for this program during 2021 and should allow residents cleaner and safer food options.
Westside has had a rough past. They were wildly segregated during the 1950s and even into the 1960s. African American residents were allowed to work in casinos but couldn’t visit them on their own if they wanted too. Some blame desegregation for the economic decline in their area while others believe it is the best thing they could have done since that time. While many people frown upon gambling and gaming companies, this is one of the positive sides of working with these types of brands. They have tons of money to pass around and in this case, they’re using some of it for a good cause.
MGM Resorts Picked By Osaka
MGM Resorts has some good news to share: they officially told all of their investors that Osaka has picked them to create a phenomenal integrated resort development in the city. The early budget for this exciting new casino was originally listed at $9.1 billion but since being picked they have increased that total to $10 billion. They believe that Osaka and Japan are the perfect places to settle down and build a great new casino, which is why they don’t want to hold back during the creation. Of course, building and operating in Japan has been a bit of a marathon and many other suitors dropped out. MGM endured through it all and they’ve been rewarded.
The president and CEO of MGM, Jim Murren, has frequently visited Japan and Osaka to show how committed their company is to the region. This is likely a strong factor in being picked for this development.
As it stands right now, an MGM operated Osaka resort could bring in 20 million annual visitors to the property. They could employ up to 15,000 people, which will be a big boost to the local economy. And being one of the first to open in Japan, this resort is definitely going to be one that will be talked about for generations once its built.
NHL Investigation On Kane Throwing Games Has Come To An End
Responsible Gaming Week just passed and one big story that we’re tracking will highlight just how important it is to play within your limits. Let’s start off with some news updates involving Evander Kane and his betting scandal, then we’ll touch on the August revenue numbers from the state of New Jersey.
NHL Determines That Kane Didn’t Intentionally Lose Games
NHL forward Evander Kane has admittedly not had the best year or two, but at least he’s been cleared of a crime that could have cost him his NHL career. An NHL investigation examining accusations that Kane was purposefully losing games for his team in order to fund his gambling addiction has been completed.
After a deep dive, the league determined that there wasn’t any evidence to support that he was doing this.
Kane isn’t out of the woods just yet, though, as he is still sidelined from training camp while the team handles other accusations made by his wife about sexual and physical abuse.
Gambling has been a big problem for him as he is currently in tons of debt right now due to that his addiction and currently faces an unbelievable $26.8 million hole. What is even more shocking is that he compiled those charges less than three years from when he signed a massive seven-year, $49 million extension with the San Jose Sharks.
New Jersey Revenue Reaches $426 Million During August
The gambling market in New Jersey is showing strong signs of recovery right now. Their revenue totals from August have been reported and the numbers are impressive. They wound up being $426.7 million, a 31 percent increase in year-over-year. However, those numbers are a bit of a decline from July when they brought in $450.6 million in total.
Atlantic City was a massive part of last month’s success, bringing in $262.4 million of the $426 million that they earned. In July, Atlantic City only brought in $199.1 million. Although, iGaming has taken a giant leap in the last couple of months.
In July, all online casinos were able to total $118.7 million, a state record. The previous record was set earlier this year in March when they got $113.7 million. Sportsbooks were also critical to New Jersey’s recent success, accounting for $52.03 million from bettors in August.
iGaming & Sports Betting in the United States About to Reel in $40 Billion
This week’s casino news starts off in Osaka, Japan where MGM Resorts has won the rights to build a casino. Let’s take a closer look at that and at the revenue numbers of sports betting and igaming in the US.
Sports Betting And iGaming In The United States Could Hit $40 Billion in Revenue
Speaking of untapped markets, iGaming and Sports betting in the United States – which is just starting to grow legally – could reel in $40 billion in revenue per year. While those numbers sound lofty, they are merely considering the fact that many states haven’t legalized the pastimes yet, so there is ample room to grow.
Sports betting revenue has already increased 435 percent compared to last year with New Jersey leading the charge. With the football season underway as well, that number is projected to jump even higher. DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM are all among the sports betting operators that are bringing in the most revenue.
iGaming is also going to be taking a nice jump. Projections say that they could increase up to $14 billion in revenue by the year 2033. As it stands right now, they are only at $1.5 billion.
MGM Resorts Winner Of Osaka Casino Rights
MGM Resorts were able to become the last company standing in the race to place a casino in Osaka. After partnering with Orix, they gave themselves an edge in the competition and it apparently worked out as Osaka has chosen to go ahead with MGM. Back in July, there were announcements that a $9 billion casino concept was planning to be placed inside the city’s Yumeshima Island.
Osaka wasn’t really left with many options in this race, though. They opted to be really choosy and a lot of other companies decided to drop out of the running. A lot of other competitors chose to pass after rising concerns regarding the tax and regulations placed in the city. The time that it was taking for Osaka to officially choose an operator also killed a lot of their enthusiasm towards the project.
According to a recent announcement, MGM Resorts and Orix are both expected to own 40 percent of the integrated resort. The remaining 20 percent will be split out to other Japanese companies. However, if those companies aren’t involved, both MGM and Orix will float up to 50 percent each. They hope to make lots of money in what many people feel to be one of the ripest gambling markets in the world.
Atlantic City Casinos See Dip in Revenue During August Compared To 2019 Numbers
The latest numbers out of Atlantic City are out and it appears that the casinos in the area weren’t able to keep up with their revenue numbers pre-pandemic numbers. Their nine brick-and-mortar casinos in the state were able to get a total of $262.4 million that month. Compared to their revenue numbers back in August of 2019, they are down 8.4 percent. They are also down 5.3 percent from their July numbers.
However, those numbers take a big jump once you include iGaming and sports betting. Those numbers shoot up al the way to $397.6 million, $58.8 million more than the amount August brought in during 2019. As a matter of fact, it represents a 17 percent increase.
Despite the solid numbers that Atlantic City casinos are bringing in right now, they are still very much in the search for more employees. Hard Rock President, Joe Lupo, said, “We’ve been looking for people all summer long…we’re looking to continue providing some jobs to the local community.” Hopefully they are able to fill the positions that they are looking for and take another jump in their operations. If you’re looking for a job, Atlantic City is the place to be.
Live! Casino & Hotel being sued by Ocean Casino Resort… For What?
Online sports betting is coming to Connecticut and Puerto Rico and Philadelphia casino property is being sued. Those are two of the main headlines we’ve been tracking in this week’s second installment of the NJ Gambling News.
Philadelphia Property, Live Casino, Being Sued by An AC Casino
Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia has gotten themselves into quite the predicament. Ocean Resort Casino was just able to file an official lawsuit against the property because they believe that their slogan was copied and used for financial gain.
- Live! is right in the middle of a marketing campaign themselves, which is centered around the phrase “Let’s Go for the Win.”
- Ocean Casino had a similar marketing campaign slogan with their “Go for the Win” phrase.
Ocean Casino had invested $140,000 into that marketing slogan a while back before then dropping another $1.5 million to get that slogan plastered all around the area. Ocean is looking for damages but there hasn’t been a determining asking price at the moment. They are also asking Live! to take down all advertising regarding their slogan, which they used on billboards and television commercials.
Online Sports Betting In Connecticut Misses NFL Start Deadline, Aiming For October
Anybody who has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sports betting market in Connecticut may be in for a good surprise. It has just been announced that state regulators could get the new market set up in the very near future. Originally, the hope was that things would get fired up before the start of the 2021 NFL season. As it turns out, online bettors in Connecticut might have to wait a little bit longer as it looks like October is now the start date that’s being targeted. The regulations for the new sports betting bill were reviewed by the Regulation Review Committee with a vote afterward that ended up resulting in favor by a 9-4 margin.
The reason this bill was able to get launched so quickly was that their governor, Ned Lamont, had listed it as an emergency regulation. Because they were passed as such regulations, the state of Connecticut could end up changing some of its rules within the next six months.
Also, state regulators decided to allow each player to register just one credit card to their account if they want to. This has been a bit of an issue lately, but it seems they have come to a final decision on the matter. However, both Venmo and PayPal won’t be supported.
BetMGM Partners with Casino del Mar In Puerto Rico
Another day, another sportsbook wins a license in a new region. However, this one is groundbreaking as no other sportsbook had opened up shop in Puerto Rico just yet.
It was a historic week for BetMGM and Casino del Mar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They were able to work together in order to get mobile sports betting into the area. It is going to be the first agreement like this to happen outside of the United States in history and could open the door for many other potential moves.
BetMGM positions themselves in a great position by entering Puerto Rico as the population there is a lot bigger than a couple of states that were on their horizon. Puerto Rico is home to 3.28 million people, far more than New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Arkansas.
This move was a massive win for Puerto Rico as they weren’t able to get their sports betting regulation process finished before the start of the MLB season. The miss ended up hurting their revenue numbers quire a bit due to the popularity of baseball there. However, this could end up making up for those losses in the long run – especially with football on the go.
Gambling News Flash: Atlantic City Casinos Have Another Amazing Month
This week’s casino news starts off in Atlantic City where the July revenue report has been released. After a long, trying year, a lot of people around the boardwalk have to be pleased with the numbers that have been announced.
Atlantic City Casino July Numbers Soar
After 15 incredibly difficult months, Atlantic City casinos are finally thriving again. Gaming regulators announced that the casinos on the boardwalk have picked up $276.9 million in gross gaming revenue, which is less than one percent away from their total back in July of 2019. In that month, they reeled in $277.1 million. These casinos haven’t even been close to nearing that mark up until this past month as the pandemic has ravaged tourism in the area.
Online casinos were reportedly responsible for bringing in $118.6 million, which was a massive 35.7 percent increase when talking about year-over-year revenue. It is also a brand-new monthly record in gross revenue, surpassing the previous record of $113.7 million.
The recovery isn’t officially successful just yet, though, as we are going to have to see more positive results in August. Of course, now the Delta variant is being passed around, so it’s unclear if we’ll get past the COVID-19 pandemic or not. However, early results look good as there were around 38,000 people headed to Atlantic City during a three-day Phish concert, so that was a big boon to the area.
Spieth Strikes Deal With FanDuel
One of golf’s most popular players is partnering up with sports betting giant FanDuel Sportsbook. Jordan Spieth is one of the most recognizable faces in the PGA Tour right now and decided to start working with the NJ gambling website, FanDuel. The agreement lets FanDuel use Spieth’s image to promote their sportsbook and he is even going to be appearing in their upcoming commercials.
In return, FanDuel plans on doing everything they can to support the Jordan Spieth Family Foundation, which hones its efforts on helping out military families, special needs children, and junior golf. The PGA has been focusing a lot of their attention to sportsbooks lately, seeing a number of their players and tournaments strike deals with FanDuel, BetMGM, PointsBet, and DraftKings.
In honor of Spieth’s new deal, FanDuel announced that they are boosting the odds for the superstar in the BMW Championship. His odds went from -200 to +100, which makes a $100 wager eligible to win $100 instead of just $50. He didn’t end up winning, though, as Patrick Cantlay earned the tournament win as a 25/1 long shot.
DraftKings Becomes Official Sports Betting Partner of The Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are another professional sports team that is dipping into the world of sports betting. The Ravens were able to strike a deal with DraftKings Sportsbook in order to promote the legal sports gambling brand. DraftKings is going to be frequently mentioned in the organizations weekly podcast titled ‘The Lounge’ and is going to be the new title sponsor for their pregame show.
This is the fifth NFL team that DraftKings has been able to come to an agreement with. They are already an official sports betting partnership with the NFL as well.
There’s an absolute arms race going on right now in terms of partnerships in North America ranging from sports teams and leagues to content providers and much more. Although it’s still early, expect all 32 NFL teams to sign pacts with sportsbooks in the coming years as well as every professional, major sports franchise in all of the big sports. All of the sportsbooks are tossing around billions of dollars in marketing and advertising as they try to attract as many players as possible.
DraftKings Purchases Golden Nugget & One NFL Fan Buys Up All Tom Brady NFT’s
DraftKings has been in the news this week for a couple of big reasons. We’ll start off with their latest acquisition as they’ve shelled out well over a billion to bring another company into the fold.
DraftKings Makes Huge Move With Golden Nugget Purchase
Sports betting giant DraftKings has just expanded portfolio with the purchase of Golden Nugget. Variety has reported that DraftKings was able to buy Golden Nugget Online Gaming for a whopping $1.56 billion. It is going to be an all-stock type of agreement and should give DraftKings a major boost in players – especially on the casino side of things. Golden Nugget usually maintains around five million players, which will all be making the switch to DraftKings now.
The deal has already been approved by the board of directors and should be finalized in the first quarter of the 2022 year. Golden Nugget was only worth around $745 million back in June of 2020, yet they were able to flip the script and sell it for double 14 months down the line as online business grew throughout the pandemic.
The Golden Nugget has been one of the most consistent platforms in New Jersey, consistently ending months with just over a third of the total market share. This company also recently launched over in Michigan, a state that created a new online gambling market not too long ago.
DraftKings NFT Marketplace Allowed One User To Grab Every Tom Brady Autograph Issue Available
Sticking with DraftKings, another area where they have been expanding is non-fungible tokens in the cryptocurrency space. Their inclusion into the NFT world didn’t really go as they had hoped as one buyer was able to scoop everything up. Up for auction were a number of different types of sports memorabilia, including some Tom Brady-signed items. One user was somehow able to obtain all five Tom Brady autographed NFTs that were available. They were numbered 100 (twice), 50, 25 and 12.
There was over 20,000 people sitting and waiting for nearly a half an hour before the autograph could become live. Unfortunately, one person got access and bought them all, which has people wondering if there was a glitch in play.
The user, named SweetBabyNicco, turned around and flipped all of the NFT’s but one of them. In total, he earned $75,500 profits after his sales compared to the $3,250 that he spent to obtain all of them. He still holds one of the NFT’s, which is up for sale.
Upcoming New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Has Great Ties Within Gaming Industry
This past week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has agreed to step down. Leaving the politics aside for now, a number of people in the gambling sector have wondered where the state is heading with Kathy Hochul set to take over. New York could now be headed in a completely different direction in the next couple of months – especially with sports betting.
Hochul will not only be the first female governor of the state, she could also bring new light to the gambling industry up there. Her husband, William Hochul, has a terrific job at Delaware North, one of the biggest gaming firms in the country. That’s led the early speculation to suggest that she’ll be far more friendly to gaming.
Hochul now has an opportunity to oversee the New York State Gaming Commission, which is already reviewing applications from a few gaming companies who want sports betting licenses. Many entities have been trying to bring online sports betting to the state but things have mostly stalled. We’ll see if something changes now that she’s in charge.
Gambling News Flash: Fixed-Odds Horse Betting Heading to NJ, Penn Buys The Score
A new form of horse betting is coming to New Jersey. Those looking to bet on the ponies are going to be happy with the news. We’ll start there as we recap this week’s key casino headlines.
Gov. Murphy Signature Legalizes Fixed-Odds Horse Racing
Fixed-odds horse racing is finally set to touch down in New Jersey. With New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signing this bill, residents of age in the Garden State will soon be able to lock in horse odds at the time of betting. This bill was supposed to be signed a couple of months ago but there were too many bills trying to get thrown together towards the end of their legislative period, which ended up delaying it.
What NJ Tracks Will Offer Fixed-Odds Horse Betting?
Monmouth Park intends to be the first of the three NJ racetracks to offer fixed odds, possibly before the 2021 horse racing season comes to a close. Freehold Raceway and Meadowlands Racetrack are the other two Garden State locations. As far as how fixed-odds wagering will be rolled out, Monmouth Park plans include designated betting windows on the grandstand and clubhouse levels. Additionally, there will be TV screens displaying current odds.
The minimum wager is set at $1 for now and anybody over the age of 21 can place bets.
BetMakers, an Australian-based horse betting company, recently signed a 10-year deal with the state of New Jersey to handle the betting lines for the tracks. DraftKings, BetMGM and FanDuel are all likely to join the mix of sportsbooks for horse racing in the near future as well, so if you see it pop up on their websites, you’ll now know why.
Nevertheless, New Jersey is set to become the first state to officially legalize fixed-odds horse racing.
Penn National Purchases Score Media
Penn National Gaming has decided that they want to take a massive step forward with their acquisition of Score Media and Gaming. They had to shell out $2 billion in cash and equity in order to finalize this transaction, which adds to their growing portfolio of content and gaming, including Barstool Sports. Penn National seems to be looking to take advantage of single-game betting makings its way to Canada as this could pave the way for them to make inroads in the North.
In case you’re wondering about the gaudy figure, it is quite the impressive haul for TheScore. Penn had previously acquired Barstool Sports for roughly $163 million. theScore has reset the market for these types of acquisitions, so other companies can now look to surpass their figures.
The combination of theScore and Barstool Sports now gives Penn access to plenty of content as well as potential customers. Sports fans love both brands and now if Penn can convert them into sports betting customers, they’ll easily be able to justify these purchases.
Women’s Sporting Events Fueled Olympic Betting
The Olympics aren’t often a big event in the sports betting community. Other than a few events like golf, tennis, and basketball, it’s mostly amateurs participating and it’s hard to handicap the matchups. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to note that it was the women’s events that fueled betting at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
According to PointsBet Sportsbook, Women’s Soccer and Women’s Beach Volleyball were among the surprising leaders in bets, coming in second and third, respectively. A big factor may have been the time difference between the United States and Japan. The men’s basketball team, which eventually did win the gold medal, played most of their games in the hours of the early morning on the East Coast in the Eastern Time Zone. The men’s basketball team did end up pulling in the most action at PointsBet in terms of the Olympics as they reeled in 26% of the bets.
One big factor favoring the ladies at the 2020 games is that many of this year’s stars were females. That includes swimmer Katie Ledecky, gymnast Suni Lee, and women’s volleyball duo Alix Klineman and April Ross.
Lead image credit: AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Gambling News Flash – MGM Sued By Michigan Woman After $3 Million Jackpot
Imagine winning $3 million in a casino only to find out that they’re not going to pay you out. That’s the story for one woman as the casino is currently refusing to give her the winnings.
There’s more to the story, though, so read below for all of the details as we start this gambling websites news.
MGM Grand Detroit Sued By Michigan Woman After $3 Million Glitch
It’s been a rollercoaster of a week for Detroit native Jacqueline Davis. She entered the MGM Grand Detroit with $50 and after playing the Luck O’Roulette for five consecutive days, Lady Luck was on her side. She was up nearly $11 million dollars but kept going, and eventually tumbled down to $3 million in winnings. That’s still not bad, though, as she still ended up being a multimillionaire…or so she thought.
Davis picked up $100,000 to start collecting on her winnings, but when she went to pick up the rest the next day, she was told that a glitch caused all of her winnings and that she wouldn’t get anything. She claims that she kept winning and had no idea the machine was malfunctioning because she was there to do exactly that: to win.
Typically, casinos win these cases as there are loopholes for software glitches but there is a catch here. According to the license, the casino has the opportunity to check the machine every 24 hours to make sure there are no problems and in some cases, the license even requires a check. Davis played for five days straight, so the casino had ample time to make changes if they thought something was wrong.
We’ll see if anything comes of it but for now, Davis has done well to flip her $50 bet into $100,000.
Gaming Payments Processor Paysafe Reaches Several Partnerships
Paysafe, a payment processor for sportsbooks, has made a number of strategic partnerships that should allow making a deposit even easier for potential bettors. Not only have they partnered with FOX to make things smoother for their customers, they have also reached a deal with Microsoft, which will allow anyone using an Xbox in 22 different countries to make a deposit. On top of that, the payments processing company is planning to offer a digital wallet for sports bettors in the state of Michigan as well.
Paysafe makes these moves at a tremendous time, given how the sports betting market alongside the esports market is hitting new highs. It was reported that $58.7 billion in bets have been made since 2018 while video game spending is up to $56.9 billion according to 2020 numbers.
Paysafecard vouchers will be coming sooner rather than later to a state near you (that has legal and licensed sportsbooks) and will provide gamblers the option to transfer funds. Bettors will be able to find these vouchers at a few places, including CVS, Fred Meyers and even Krogers.
At the end of the day, more onboarding methods for consumers is great both for bettors who want to play and for the companies that are running the operations. The more the merrier.
Connecticut Law Causes A Few Fantasy Sports Sites To Freeze Operations
There have been quite a few smaller fantasy sports sites choosing to stop their operations on account of the brand new Connecticut laws. However, the two biggest sports gaming companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, have decided to go in a different direction and continue to keep going for the time being.
The new law requires all real-money operators to have a license, which is why DraftKings and FanDuel are still operational because they were given provisional licenses. Although the law also allows the Connecticut lottery, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the Mohegan Tribe to offer both retail and online sports gambling, these provisional licenses are set to expire on September 30th, so they will need to battle through the licensing process to operate in the state full time.
This type of issue has happened before with the most recent coming in the state of Florida. Though their laws ended up being pushed back, meaning the situation is likely to pick back up sometime in 2022.
Want To Play The Hottest Online Slots In NJ? Here’s The Best Of The Best…
No matter which New Jersey gambling website you frequent, the lobby will be filled with spinning reels of all shapes and sizes. From classic three-reel offerings to video slots and giant progressive jackpots, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to the best online slots in NJ.
Online Slots With The Best RTP
However, just as it is in life, not all slots are created equal. In fact, when you start to review the facts, some games stand out more than others. In this guide, we’re going to show you the best online slots and the top five high-paying slots in New Jersey.
By looking at everything from a game’s RTP (Return to Player) payout percentage to its special features, we’ve managed to tease out a quintet of slots you simply have to try.
1. Jack Hammer 2: 97.10 percent RTP
An industry classic that’s been big in Europe for years, NetEnt’s Jack Hammer 2 is the impressive sequel to Jack Hammer (no surprises there). On the surface, this video slot doesn’t have as many bells and whistles are some of its counterparts.
Indeed, when you look at a modern spinner like Planet of the Apes with its big-budget animations and sound effect, Jack Hammer 2 looks fairly sedate. However, when you peek under the hood, the mechanics of this beast shine, and you soon realize why this is one of the best online slots at NJ casinos
For starters, the RTP is 97.10 percent which, in comparative terms, is one of the best payout percentages in the state. Secondly, there are 99 pay lines crisscrossing the five reels. The average video slot has 40 paylines, so to find 99 is impressive. Finally, in addition to 99 ways to win, you’ll get free spin bonuses, sticky wilds, and even wilds that appear at random as you shoot for the 500X jackpot.
Play Jack Hammer 2 now at Golden Nugget online casino.
2. Steam Tower: 97.04 percent RTP
Steam Tower is a live-action adventure slot that harks back to the days of gold ole’ fashion steam power and mechanical muscle. The reason we’ve called this game a live-action adventure is because the main character (we’ll call him Mr. Tower) is there beside the reels. Wielding some sort of steam-powered hooking device, Mr. Tower watches over the game and springs into life when anything exciting happens.
Once you pay at least the minimum bet (15 cents), the five reels and 15 paylines are capable of generating wins worth 2,000X your payline stake. However, if you really want to get the most out of the game, you need to roll in a stacked wild. When the stacked wild (Mr. Tower) covers an entire reel, you’ll get 10 free spins and, depending on the floor you’re on, a multiplier. The more floors you climb, the better your multiplier becomes and the more cash you’ll win.
Take a trip up Steam Tower at Tropicana Casino online.
3. Fruit Spin: 96.84 percent RTP
If a sleek slot is what you’re after, Fruit Spin from NetEnt is the game for you. Currently, on offer at three New Jersey online casinos (Betfair Casino, BetMGM, Golden Nugget, and Virgin Casino), this game has a solid RTP and, more importantly, it’s a nod to the old school. While today’s online slots are fantastic examples of what technology is capable of, the oldies never get old. By plastering traditional fruit and bar symbols across five reels and 40 paylines, NetEnt’s designers have created a modern classic.
However, as much as we love to see a classic fruit machine come to life on our screens, it needs to be worth something to hold our attention. Fortunately, Fruit Spin has that ability. As well as a 300X jackpot, nine scatters in view activates the Lucky Wheel feature. This bonus is great because it calls up three bonus wheels. Once active, the wheels spin and reveal one prize each, ranging from free spins to 80-coin prizes.
To get one or more of your five a day, play Fruit Spin at BetMGM online casino.
4. Blood Suckers II: 96.94 percent RTP
Another high RTP slots from NetEnt, Blood Suckers II is another successful sequel. The obvious reason this is a hot online slot game on the NJ online casino scene is the fact it has a payout percentage above 96 percent. However, the most significant reason this game is worth a spin is for its mobile app.
Designed to work on all platforms but looking best on your mobile, this game’s clever interface and the massive jackpot can all be activated with a touch. That’s right, when you want to unlock the 10,000X line bet jackpot, Blood Rose free spins and Hidden Treasure Bonus, you can tap your mobile screen and this vampiric delight will roar into life.
Sink your teeth into Blood Suckers II at Virgin NJ online casino.
5. Guns N’ Roses 96.30 percent RPT
We could wax lyrical about NetEnt’s Guns N’ Roses slot game all day long. We could talk about the 96.30 percent RTP, we could sing the praises of the two free spins bonuses and scream about wilds that take wins to the max, but we won’t. The reason you should play this game is that it rocks, quite literally.
Thanks to a licensing deal with one of the best rock bands in history, the Guns N’ Roses slot contains a full set list. From hits such as Sweet Child O’ Mine to Paradise City, this is a game where you can crank up the volume, hit the spin button and rock out as you roll in wins worth as much as 750X your line bet.
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