Atlantic City casinos enjoyed an overall double-digit gaming revenue gain in February, although there were more individual casino losers than winners.
On Wednesday, New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement revealed that Atlantic City’s nine casinos reported total brick-and-mortar slots and table game revenue of $196.7m in February, up 15.7% year-on-year and nearly $20m better than January’s result.
February’s slots revenue was up 12.4% to $139.5 while table games jumped by nearly one-quarter to a little over $57.1m.
February’s numbers look even gaudier when you include the nearly $3.9m the casinos earned from their sports betting operations and the $31.75m earned by their online casino and poker operations. All told, the casinos’ overall gaming revenue was up 21% to $232.3m.
But of the seven casinos that were in operation in February 2018, only two – Caesars Atlantic City ($19.5m, +10.7%) and Resorts Casino Hotel ($14.7m, +23.3%) – posted year-on-year gains. Both properties’ gains were primarily due to extra table revenue, with Resorts’ tables up nearly $3m and Caesars improving over $2.2m.
The other five casinos all suffered net declines, led by the Borgata ($50.6m, -7.9%), the Tropicana ($24.152m, -6.8%), Harrah’s ($24.147m, -14.5%), the Golden Nugget ($16m, -7.2%) and Bally’s AC ($12.75m, -10.3%).
Bally’s slide proved a net positive for the struggling Ocean Resort Casino, which finally shed its cellar-dweller status with a $13.76m result. AC’s other new casino, Hard Rock Atlantic City, had a solid month with $21.1m, a welcome rebound from January’s $15.6m, which represented a record low for the eight-month-old property.
With March Madness just around the corner, AC’s casinos (at least, those with in-house sportsbooks) are hoping to get a boost from the increased foot traffic when March’s revenue numbers are tallied. Speaking of, bookmaker William Hill just opened a new permanent sportsbook at the Tropicana, featuring eight betting windows, a 250-square-foot odds board, an array of LED screens and enough seats to accommodate up to 180 bettors’ butts.
