Atlantic City casinos saw gaming revenue decline in September, the final full month in which the now shuttered Trump Taj Mahal makes a contribution.
Figures released Thursday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) showed AC’s eight casinos generating gaming revenue of $210.4m in September, down 3.5% from the same month last year. Throw in the $16.2m earned by DGE-licensed online gambling sites and the year-on-year decline improves to 1.5%.
September’s slot machine win fell 4.2% year-on-year to $147m while table games slipped 2% to just under $63.4m. For the year-to-date, brick-and-mortar gaming revenue is flat at $1.85b, or up 1.6% to just under $2b counting the online contributions.
The month was evenly split between net gainers and losers, with the Taj Mahal firmly in charge of the latter category. Unionized workers were picketing the Taj the whole month, likely discouraging all but the hardiest gamblers from crossing that threshold, which helped push its gaming revenue down a whopping 51.2% to just $8.15m.
At the other end of the scale, the Borgata maintained its position atop the revenue leader board, rising 2.1% to $64.3m, more than twice the combined revenue of second- and third-place finishers Caesars and Harrah’s, which earned $29.9m (-3.9%) and $29m (-8.3%) respectively.
The Tropicana ranked a respectable fourth with $26.2m (+7.3%), while Bally’s ($18.1m, -3.6%), the Golden Nugget ($17.9m, +3.7%) and Resorts ($16.9m, +10.6%) brought up the rear.
It remains to be seen how much of the Taj Mahal’s business will be absorbed by the seven remaining properties (assuming the Taj isn’t just lying dormant, as some suspect). Regardless of how the revenue needle moves, the closure of four AC casinos in 2014 allowed most of the remaining eight to post improved profit margins, and that trend will most assuredly continue.
