Atlantic City Casinos Up 8.1% to $215M in April

Atlantic City’s eight casinos generated revenues of $215 million in April, an 8.1% increase compared to the same month in 2015. While AC’s gambling operations benefitted from having two more weekend days last month, the main reason for the improved results was their businesses becoming more competitive following the closure of four of their competitors in 2014. Such was the conclusion of Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, who subsequently commented:
“Part of the increase was the result of a favorable calendar, but part of it is also the result of casinos doing a better job of attracting new customers in a challenging business environment.”
Leading the market in terms of growth was Resorts which posted a 14% increase in revenues to $13.8 million in April, followed by the Golden Nugget up 13.3% to $20 million, and Bally’s up 12.2% to $18.1 million. Also reporting gains was Caesars up 9.7% to $24.7 million; Tropicana up 9.5% to $27.6 million; and the Borgata up 4.2% to $60 million. Bucking the trend, however, was the Trump Taj Mahal which saw its revenues fall by 4% to $14.9 million, and Harrah’s whose revenues shrunk by 1.1% to $29 million compared to April 2015.
In addition, New Jersey’s online gambling market continues to go from strength to strength, and last month generated $16.9 million in revenues, representing a huge 34% increase compared to the $12.7 million that was collected in April 2015. From that tally, online casino games generated $14.39 million, with the vertical now accounting for 84.8% of overall iGaming revenues, while online poker produced $2.58 million, or 15.6% of iGaming revenues.
After PokerStars entered the New Jersey market in March, the site instantly was propelled to the top of the state’s online poker market, and in April the PokerStars/Resorts partnership collected $1.177 million in revenues, compared to Borgata/PartyPoker ($745,919), and Ceasars/888/WSOP ($664,189). PokerStars also increased iPoker traffic by 30% post-launch, but according to PokerScout the numbers have since returned back to their pre-launch numbers of roughly 330 players over a 7-day period.