Atlantic City’s eight surviving casinos had a mixed June, with four posting year-on-year gains and four posting losses.
Total gaming revenue at AC’s elite eight casinos came to $204.9m last month, not counting the $11.7m contributed by the state’s regulated online gambling sites. Compared to the same eight casinos’ performance during June 2014, this year’s total is up 4.4%. However, add in revenue generated by the casinos that have closed since last June and the numbers are down 9.5%.
The Borgata continued its market-leading run, with brick-and-mortar gaming revenue rising 17.9% to $56.7m. That was nearly as much as the second and third ranked operators combined, as Harrah’s rose 7.3% to $31.2m while Caesars fell 2.4% to $28.2m.
The Tropicana slipped 4.8% to $24.7m, while Bally’s fell 3% to $17.4m. The Golden Nugget posted the month’s biggest gain, rising 19.6% to $17.1m. The Trump Taj Mahal’s recent rescue from bankruptcy wasn’t enough to remove the aroma of failure, as it posted the month’s biggest loss, falling 23.5% to $15.3m. Resorts Atlantic City rounded out the chart with $13.7m, up 19.2%.
Meanwhile, plans to expand casino gaming to other areas of New Jersey were put on pause on Tuesday. Stakeholders have been promoting the idea of authorizing up to three casinos in the northern part of the state but the state’s constitution limits casino gaming to Atlantic City. On Tuesday, State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said there would be no ballot referendum on amending the constitution this November.
In order to have the question on this year’s ballot, lawmakers would have to approve the necessary legislation by Aug. 3. Speaking to reporters, Sweeney said there wasn’t enough time to have sufficient debate on the legislation. Sweeney, who supports the idea of casino expansion outside AC provided the city gets a cut of the revenue to offset expected declines at its own gaming venues, declined to say whether he would revive the expansion effort next year.
