August Casino Revenue Down 5 Percent In Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City's casino revenue fell 5 percent in August compared with a year ago, but that may be due largely to a quirk in the calendar.
The city's eight casinos won $258.6 million in August, compared with $272.3 million a year ago. But Friday through Sunday of the Labor Day weekend in 2014 fell during August, while all of this year's holiday weekend came in September.
"Atlantic City's gaming industry has changed dramatically since this time last year, going from 11 casinos down to eight," he said. A fourth casino, the Atlantic Club, closed in January 2014.
"But Atlantic City's operating casinos had a 2.4 percent increase in gaming revenue this summer compared to last," he said. "August was down, but the existing operators still are up approximately 3.2 percent for the first eight months of this year."
When the four casinos that closed last year were included in the comparison, Atlantic City's winnings of $258.6 million for August 2015 were 15.2 percent lower than the $305 million reported in August 2014.
August 2014 was the month that the Showboat Casino Hotel shut down.
Internet gambling continued a steady, if unspectacular, rise last month. Its take was $12.2 million, up from $10.5 million in August a year ago, an increase of 15.8 percent.
As usual, the Golden Nugget had the highest increase in casino revenue for the month, bringing in $22.4 million, up nearly 28 percent from a year ago.
The newly profitable Resorts took in $17.5 million, an increase of 18 percent from a year ago. Its Internet arm, Resorts Digital, won $735,000 for the month.
Caesars showed the biggest decline for the month, down 28.6 percent to $31.3 million. Caesars Interactive, its online division, took in $2.7 million, an increase of 2.2 percent.
The Trump Taj Mahal, which is facing a strike threat from its largest union, was down 24.2 percent to $18.9 million, compared with $24.9 million a year ago.
So far this year, the eight operating casinos have won $1.73 billion, a 3.2 percent increase from the same period in 2014. But when the 12 casinos that operated for all or part of 2014 are included in the comparison, the Atlantic City casino industry is down 10.3 percent for the year to date.
(© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)