Atlantic City casinos continue to battle

Atlantic City’s 12 embattled land casinos took in $3.05 billion in 2012, an 8 percent decline over 2011’s tally and a 41 percent decline from a peak of $5.2 billion back in 2006.

The figures were released Thursday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, which reported that in December Atlantic City casinos suffered an 8.9 percent decline from the previous month, with revenues dropping to $223.5 million.

The continued decline is the sixth consecutive year of diminishing returns, with 2012 annual revenues less than the monthly earnings of the booming Macau land gambling operations in December, which topped $3.53 billion .

Extremes of weather like Hurricane Sandy, along with fierce competition from casinos in the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania have been cited as contributors to the dismal performance in 2012, with Sandy reportedly responsible for AC’s single largest monthly revenue decline (27.9 percent) in November.

The Atlantic City casino industry paid $15.7 million in taxes on gross revenues.

Competition may increase if New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is successful in his legislative proposal to approve the building of three new casinos in upstate New York cities.

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