Atlantic City’s casinos made something of a comeback in August, as all but two of the nine properties reported year-on-year revenue gains.
Last week, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported that AC’s nine casinos generated total brick-and-mortar slots and table game revenue of just under $286.5m in August, a 6.1% rise over the same month last year and $9.3m higher than July 2019’s total.
August’s gains were evenly spread out, as market-wide slot machine revenue rose 6.1% to $208.3m while table games improved 6.3% to $78.2m. Through the first eight months of 2019, brick-and-mortar gaming is up 10.1% to $1.83b, with slots rising 9.3% to $1.3b and table games 12% higher at $519m.
The above figures don’t include August’s record $41.1m in online gambling win and the $11.2m earned from the casinos’ sports betting operations. Add up those verticals and total casino win for the month of August was up a solid 13% to $338.8m.
This year’s slots-and-table casino win has been a repetitive tale of across the board year-on-year declines for most venues, with the exception of the Hard Rock Atlantic City and the occasional strong showing by the Borgata. For a change, only two casinos – Harrah’s ($31.1m, -0.5%) and the Tropicana ($31.7m, -1.6%) – were negative nellies in August.
The market-leading Borgata showed no signs of relinquishing its crown, eking out a mild 1.5% year-on-year gain to $71.9m. Second place went to the Hard Rock, which boosted its take by one-quarter to nearly $38.5m, just $200k shy of the property’s record performance in July.
The month’s second-biggest rise went to AC’s other newcomer, Ocean Casino Resort, which grew by 22.7% to $24m, its best showing in the property’s 14-month existence (following its June 2018 rebirth from the ashes of Revel).
The rest of the market was a mixed bag, with Bally’s ($18.7m, +0.2%) and the Golden Nugget ($20.7m, +0.8%) barely qualifying for inclusion in the positive momentum category. Caesars was up 10.6% to $30.9m while Resorts Casino Hotel rose nearly 5% to $18.9m.
