• Atlantic City Casino Revenue January 2019 2018
• Atlantic City Casino Revenue January 2019
• Atlantic City Casino Revenue January 2019 2020

• Rebounding Atlantic City casinos see $3.3 billion revenue in 2019. January 16, 2020 - 6 months ago. It marked the first year since 2012 that Atlantic City’s casinos had won more than $3.
• ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City's casinos won almost $3.3 billion from gamblers in 2019, helped by surging sports and internet bets as the seaside resort continued to rebound from a.

It finished the year as the No. 2 casino in Atlantic City in terms of revenue. The perennial leader, Borgata, was up 3.5% to $797.8 million. There was no year-to-year comparison for the newest casinos, which had not been open for a full year in 2018. For 2019, Hard Rock won $350 million, and Ocean won $238 million.

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Two reopened casinos and half a year of sports betting helped push Atlantic City’s casino revenue up 7.5 percent in 2018 to nearly $2.86 billion, state gambling regulators said Monday.

Atlantic City Casino Revenue January 2019 2018

But the news was bad for most of the casinos that existed before the Hard Rock and Ocean Resort casinos opened in June. Of those seven casinos, six won less in 2018 than they had in 2017, the latest of several recent indications that concerns about whether Atlantic City was re-expanding its market to an unsustainable size were valid.

Sports betting saw the casinos and two racetracks take in $1.24 billion since the first wagers were taken in June. For the less than six months that sports betting was legal last year, it generated just over $94 million in revenue for casinos and tracks. The state got $10.4 million in sports betting taxes.

Ocean Resort is the former Revel, which closed in 2014; Hard Rock is the former Trump Taj Mahal, which closed two years later. Both reopened the same day last year, June 27.

After a brutal stretch that saw five casinos shut down between 2014 and 2016, Atlantic City had been doing reasonably well as a slimmed-down market with less competition and a boost from internet gambling. Increased competition from casinos in neighboring states including Pennsylvania and New York cannibalized Atlantic City’s casino revenue, helping lead to the shut downs.

When plans were announced for Hard Rock and Ocean Resort to open, elation about the restored jobs, tax revenue and additional weekend hotel rooms was tempered by concern that Atlantic City might be making the same mistake twice in having more casinos than the market can support.

James Plousis, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, noted that 2018 was the third straight year that Atlantic City’s gambling revenue increased. But he did note the impact on the older casinos from the arrival of the two newcomers.

“While the city had a good year, market adjustments from competition occurred and will continue into 2019,” he said in a news release. “The continuing strength of internet gaming plus a growing sports wagering market will provide the industry with tools to compete.”

Of Atlantic City’s seven casinos that operated before the two new additions last year, only the Golden Nugget showed a revenue increase for the year. It was up 13.7 percent to $327.8 million.

Even the Borgata, Atlantic City’s perennial market leader, saw its casino revenue decline in 2018. It was down 4 percent to $771.1 million.

Tropicana was down 2.5 percent to nearly $381 million, but it remained the city’s No. 2 casino in terms of gambling revenue.

Resorts was down 3.3 percent to $184.2 million; Harrah’s was down 8.4 percent to almost $333 million; Bally’s was down 9.1 percent to nearly $192 million, and Caesars was down 13.5 percent to $281.3 million.

Hard Rock won $166.7 million from late June through the end of the year, while Ocean Resort won $101.1 million during that same period.

Ocean Resort changed hands last week, with an as-yet unannounced company assuming a majority ownership stake in it in return for making a $70 million investment to help keep it running. The ownership change was widely seen as another indication that the market was not ready for the kind of expansion it underwent last summer.

Internet gambling took in nearly $300 million last year, an increase of 21.6 percent over 2017 and one of the true bright spots for New Jersey’s gambling market. Of the two internet-only gambling entities in the state, Resorts Digital was up 76.3 percent to $75.7 million, and Caesars Interactive-NJ was up 5.9 percent to $45.5 million. The Golden Nugget won $104 million online last year, about twice what its nearest competitor, the Borgata, did.

Among racetracks offering sports betting, the Meadowlands earned $31.3 million in sports betting revenue, and Monmouth Park earned $12.4 million.

(©Copyright 2018 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Atlantic City’s casinos won almost $3.3 billion from gamblers in 2019, helped by surging sports and internet bets as the seaside resort continued to rebound from a mid-decade meltdown that saw five casinos close.

Figures released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show the nine casinos collectively won $3.29 billion in 2019, an increase of over 15% from 2018.

When an additional $300 million in sports betting revenue is added to the equation, the casinos and two racetracks that offer sports betting won $3.46 billion last year, a figure that does not include money from horse racing bets.

It marked the first year since 2012 that Atlantic City’s casinos had won more than $3 billion from gamblers.

That was right before a brutal stretch from 2014 to 2016 that saw five of the then-12 casinos shut down, and more than 11,000 jobs lost.

The reopening in 2018 of the former Trump Taj Mahal as Hard Rock and the former Revel as the Ocean Casino Resort has brought added revenue and jobs to the market.

But those same two new casinos also are diluting the profitability of the seven casinos that were in business before they reopened. For the first three quarters of 2019, the nine casinos reported a cumulative gross operating profit of $484 million, down 4.5% from the same period in 2018.

“The revenue increase is a positive,” said David Schwartz, a gambling historian with the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “Right now the industry should be in ‘grow-the-market’ mode rather than seeking to consolidate profits, so a decrease in profits isn’t necessarily the worst news we could get. Overall, what Atlantic City needs right now is to improve its image and marketing and become a destination in a crowded Northeast casino market.”

Rummy Pandit, a gambling analyst with Stockton University, said Atlantic City has successfully diversified its gambling offerings, particularly through sports betting and internet gambling. Those two products, developed since November 2013, now account for more than 18% of Atlantic City’s winnings, he said.

The news was not all positive. Five of the nine casinos won less money in 2019 than they did in 2018. Tropicana was down 8.2% to $349.5 million; Harrah’s was down 6.1% to $312.6 million; Bally’s was down 5.4% to $181.5 million; Caesars was down 3.7% to $270.9 million; and Resorts was down 3.2% to $178.4 million.

The Golden Nugget was up 15.4% to $378.4 million. It finished the year as the No. 2 casino in Atlantic City in terms of revenue. The perennial leader, Borgata, was up 3.5% to $797.8 million.

There was no year-to-year comparison for the newest casinos, which had not been open for a full year in 2018. For 2019, Hard Rock won $350 million, and Ocean won $238 million.

New Jersey had a banner year at sports betting, with nearly $4.6 billion wagered on pro and college games.

The state won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 2018, clearing the way for all 50 states to offer legal sports betting should they so choose. Since the first bets were taken in New Jersey in June 2018, more than $5.8 billion has been wagered on sports, putting the state right behind Nevada in the race to lead the burgeoning market.

The Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, just outside New York City, was the runaway leader in sports betting revenue with just under $150 million. It is partnered with the FanDuel sportsbook. The other racetrack to offer sports betting, Monmouth Park in Oceanport, won nearly $26 million in sports bets. Resorts Digital, which is affiliated with the DraftKings online sports book, won nearly $80 million on sports.

Atlantic City Casino Revenue January 2019

Atlantic City Casino Revenue January 2019 2020

Internet gambling also continued to be a bright spot in 2019, with $482 million won online from gamblers, an increase of more than 61% over 2018. In the month of December, nearly $558 million was wagered on sports in New Jersey, the second-best month ever, trailing only November’s total of nearly $563 million. WAYNE PARRY, AP