Atlantic City’s eight surviving casinos bounced back from their weather-related woes to record a small gaming revenue increase in March.
The eight AC casinos that didn’t shut their doors last year generated gaming revenue of $190.7m in March, up 1.3% from the same month last year. The figure doesn’t include the $13.2m the state’s regulated online gambling sites brought in last month. Sticklers will note that the month’s total is down 12.6% if you count the four walking dead casinos that were still operating in zombie mode in March 2014. Regardless, the March total is a significant gain from February’s $168m, so cheer the fuck up.
In purely land-based terms, just three AC casinos posted revenue gains in March, led by the market-leading Borgata. In a case of the rich getting richer, the Borgata’s brick-and-mortar revenue was up 8.8% year-on-year to $56m. The month’s biggest gain came at the Golden Nugget, which rose a hefty 25.9% to $16.2m. Harrah’s was the month’s only other gainer, rising 11.4% to $32.3m.
The month’s decliners finished as follows: Caesars ($23.3m, -4.1%), Tropicana ($21.1m, -4.8%), Bally’s ($15.9m, -11.1%), Trump Taj Mahal ($14.8m, -22.8%) and Resorts Atlantic City ($11m, -1.5%).
The Tropicana was the only decliner whose online revenue was sufficient to push its overall revenue total into positive territory. The property’s casino-only site earned just over $3m last month, a 60.5% improvement over the same month last year. Counting its online contribution, the Trop’s overall revenue improved 0.4% year-on-year.
THE LAST WORD ON REVEL…
Meanwhile, the tragicomedy series that is bankrupt AC casino Revel has apparently been renewed for another season. Florida developer Glenn Straub recently received court approval of his most recent purchase of the $2.4b Revel – for $82m this time, down from $95m in February – but Revel’s telenovela just keeps adding new plotlines.
Straub’s victory was more or less immediately undone by the architects of his previous comeuppance, i.e. ACR Entergy, the dedicated power plant that keeps Revel’s lights on. Last Thursday, ACR cut off Revel’s juice, leaving even the property’s emergency fire-safety mechanisms offline. Atlantic City officials promptly began fining Straub $5k per day until he could reactivate the systems.
Straub vowed not to give in to ACR’s hardball tactics and on Tuesday, the first of his portable generator trucks arrived outside the property, although reports say Revel’s lights remain dark. Straub has also taken legal steps to evict ACR, as their plant sits on land that Straub now owns. ACR has responded by saying Straub may own the land, but ACR owns the gear, so even if they’re evicted, Straub can’t touch their switches.
And with that, we hereby take a solemn vow not to report any further updates in this turgid melodrama until Revel reopens as an actual gaming establishment and takes its first wager since shutting its doors last September. You’re welcome.
