New Jersey no longer making bets on online gambling revenue

That's a change from last year. Christie predicted then that online betting would become a booming industry for New Jersey in its first year, producing us$ 180 million in tax revenue for the state budget.

New Jersey legalized Internet gambling in November, but the boom hasn't happened yet. In fact, the Republican governor so far has had to lower his revenue forecast for the first year of online betting by more than us$ 100 million. Treasury spokesman Chris Santarelli declined to take questions today, noting that "the treasurer will appear in hearings with the Legislature later this month to discuss the budget and revenues."

Scrapping the revenue predictions for online bets could save Christie a few headaches in the coming fiscal year. In March 2013, Christie anticipated that online gambling would yield us$ 180 million. A few months later, the Christie administration lowered the number to us$ 160 million when the governor signed the state budget that took effect July 1.

Sidamon-Eristoff changed the number again last month. Casino revenue in total — from both online and on-site wagers — would rise only us$ 34 million for the fiscal year, he said. "We were told by industry at the time that the introduction of online gaming would help energize Atlantic City's ongoing recovery," Sidamon-Eristoff said last month, adding later: "We're pretty bullish on this in the medium-to-long term. But clearly, this hasn't met our expectations for the first fiscal year."

The treasurer told Sarlo, who is chairman of the Senate budget committee, that there are "complex connections" between online gambling and traditional casino betting. But the state collects the data separately. For example, the Division of Gaming Enforcement reported that the state brought in us$ 2.96 million in tax revenue from online gamblers from the first clicks in November to the end of February.

"As of February 28, 2014, 248,241 Internet gaming accounts have been created since the beginning of soft play on November 21, 2013," a more than 25 percent increase from January, the gaming regulators reported. The DGE also noted that "Internet gaming win per day was us$ 368,110 for February 2014," up 20.6 percent from January.