Atlantic City casinos posted modest revenue gains in November, and for once the numbers are asterisk-free.
On Wednesday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) posted its casino figures for the month of November, during which AC’s casinos generated land-based gaming revenue of $185.8m, up 3.2% from the same month last year. Slots revenue improved 1.5% to $131.8m while table games jumped 7.6% to $54m.
This is the first time this year that the year-on-year monthly figures are directly comparable, and don’t require one to factor out contributions from the Trump Taj Mahal, which closed its doors in October 2017.
The numbers look even better when you add the $20.6m generated by the casinos’ online gambling sites, which brings November’s total gaming win to $206.4m, up 4.6% year-on-year. For the year-to-date, brick-and-mortar gaming revenue at the market’s seven surviving casinos is up 6.5% to $2.23b, while total gaming win is up 8.1% to $2.45b.
All but two of AC’s seven casinos were in positive brick-and-mortar territory in November, led (as usual) by the Borgata ($60m, +5.3%). Harrah’s managed to hold on to second place with $28.5m (-7.6%), with the Tropicana not far back at $26.4m (+4.4%). The rest of the pack finished thusly: Caesars ($22.9m, +7.7%), Golden Nugget ($17.5m, +4.3%), Bally’s ($15.5m, -4.7%) and Resorts ($15m, +18.6%).
Meanwhile, the turgid soap opera that is Revel continues to unfold in truly melodramatic fashion. On Monday, Moody’s Investors Service reported that the shuttered $2.4b resort had been sold for $200m to Colorado developer Bruce Deifik (pictured), yet this report – the third such report in as many months – was (as usual) vehemently denied by Revel’s owner, Florida developer/lunatic Glenn Straub.
On Wednesday, the Press of Atlantic City reported that the Deifik-controlled AC Ocean Walk LLC had filed for a New Jersey casino license, an application that by law must be accompanied by a nonrefundable $100k fee. Which means that we’re only hours away from Straub declaring that he’s never heard of Deifik, or New Jersey for that matter, and anyway, where the hell are his slippers?
