The new Oxford Casino in Maine may still have some problems as far as its permits are concerned, but that hasn’t seemed to affect their business numbers after the casino posted net revenues of almost $10 million in the first two months of its operation.
Upon opening last June 5, Oxford Casino has netted strong numbers in revenue, numbers, in fact, that have been competitive to the state’s other casino, Hollywood Casino. The latter, despite having nearly double the number of slot machines and table games, only posted $5.5 million in revenue for the month of July, a drop from the $5.9 million revenue it posted from the same time last year.
Oxford Casino’s numbers have come as a pleasant surprise for a lot of people, especially those who projected only about half of what the casino has eventually earned in the months of June and July. In particular, July was very welcoming to Oxford Casino as it earned a winning average of $2,471 per table game per day when the projection was nowhere near the $2,000-table-game-per-day average.
‘‘We had originally projected them to start out at about $1,300 per table per day and gradually ratchet up to $1,700,’’ said Clyde Barrow of the Northeast Gaming Research Project at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth.
‘‘Those numbers are comparable to Atlantic City,’’ Barrow adds.
In the long term, Oxford Casino hopes to ride the momentum of its strong start to become a legitimate competitor to Hollywood Casino, after all, the effects have already shown itself as customers who used to drive from long distances to reach Bangor, Maine now have another destination to go to.
“That was always projected to be the case because they were going to siphon off some of the convenience gamblers in the immediate area around Oxford,’’ Barrow explains.
‘‘For a small facility, Hollywood draws people from much further distances that would normally be the case, but that’s because people don’t have any alternatives. Once alternatives are presented to them, convenience gamblers will go to the closest facility.’’
