January a weak month for Atlantic City gambling
News on 13 Feb 2016
News on 13 Feb 2016
Internet gambling was once again the only really bright spot in gambling stats released Friday by New Jersey’s Division for Gambling Enforcement (DGE).
Internet gambling revenue was up 26.5 percent year-on-year, reaching $14.63 million. And as observers commented, without that extra online revenue, the land casino operators win in January would have been limited to the $175.4 million they took in from traditional table games and slot machines…down 5.6 percent from January 2015.
“January started off strong with the New Year’s holiday weekend, but those gains were erased later in the month when a blizzard dropped up to two feet of snow in Atlantic City’s main feeder markets,” said Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.
“As a result, a lot of people just couldn’t get here that weekend. So it isn’t surprising that revenue from the slots and tables was down for the month. But the bad weather that kept people home contributed to the 26.5 percent hike in revenue from online gambling.”
Overall, Atlantic City operators took in $190.1 million in the first month of this year, a decrease of 3.8 percent compared to January 2015. Land operations reported $122.9 million won on slots, and $52.5 million at table games.
In online operations for January 2016, at 14.7 percent poker contributed less to the internet gambling total than last year (19.5 percent) whilst online casino activity delivered 85.3 percent – an improvement on the the 80.2 percent achieved in the preceding year.
However, internet gambling still accounts for only 8 percent of total win in Atlantic City.
The performance ranking on those operators offering internet gambling remained largely unchanged, with Borgata leading the market with $4.5 million in winnings in January, followed by Caesars Interactive at $3.2 million; Tropicana at $2.8 million; The Golden Nugget at $2.5 million and Resorts at $1.4 million.
Overall (including land and online) The Borgata had the highest overall monthly revenue at $56.6 million, more than twice that of its closest competitor, Harrah’s. January was a rare up month for the Trump Taj Mahal, which is in the process of being taken over by billionaire investor (and Tropicana owner) Carl Icahn. The Taj Mahal was up 2.3 percent to $12.4 million in January.
