The city’s casino industry continued to grow moderately through the first four months of 2016, generating 4.4 percent more gambling revenue than during the same stretch last year, state regulators reported Thursday.
The eight casino operators and their online affiliates produced $812.8 million in gambling revenue through April. Growth was buoyed by large year-over-year gains in online gambling revenue, which rose 29.3 percent to $61.8 million. Brick-and-mortar gambling revenue rose 2.7 percent, to $750.9 million.
The $812 million is seven percent less revenue than the industry generated through the first four months of 2014 and 35.6 percent less than the same period in 2009, when there were 11 casinos here.
The proliferation of casinos in the Northeast, particularly in Pennsylvania, desiccated the city’s pool of “convenience gamblers” – East Coast daytrippers who came to the city in droves. That revenue is likely gone for good; those gamblers now have easy access to casinos in their home states.
The city’s casino industry has seen gambling revenue halve from its $5.2 billion peak in 2006.
But the eight remaining halls are benefiting from a less-crowded market. Operating profits are trending upward – every city casino posted an operating profit last year – and operating profit margins are rising too. A Press analysis showed that the eight casinos averaged a 17.2 percent operating margin in 2015, up from 11.6 percent in 2011.
“Stabilization” has been the watchword used by regulators and analysts to describe the state of the third-largest non-tribal casino market in the U.S., though it would not be overly-optimistic to say a mild recovery is afoot here. Business is brisk at many of the properties, which spent tens of millions of dollars on renovations in recent years.
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, the city’s lodestar, did $216 million in operating profit last year on more than $1 billion in gambling, hotel, dining and entertainment revenue.
This year, through April, that casino produced $237.4 million in gambling revenue, up $10.2 million, or 4.5 percent, from the first four months of 2015.
Other gainers were Tropicana Atlantic City, which did $102.4 million, up $8.4 million, or 9 percent. Bally’s did $66.5 million, up $4.3 million, or 6.9 percent. Golden Nugget Atlantic City did $77.8 million, up $6.6 million, or 9.3 percent. Resorts Casino Hotel did $50.7 million, up $5.7 million, or 12.7 percent.
Three casinos reported year-over-year declines through April.
Harrah’s Resort did $114.7 million, down $5.1 million, or 4.3 percent. Caesars Atlantic City did $89.5 million, down $4.5 million, or 4.3 percent. Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort did $52.7 million, down $1.8 million, or 3.4 percent.
Caesars and Resorts operate Internet gambling through affiliates. Online revenue generated by those affiliates is not included in the totals above.