Atlantic City casino revenues drop by 5 percent in July as Pa. introduces table games

Atlantic City casinos see 5 pct July revenue drop

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Atlantic City casino revenues dropped again in July as competition heated up from the introduction of table games in Pennsylvania and after a weekend air conditioning failure hurt results at two properties.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission reported Tuesday that revenue for the 11 casinos in the nation’s second-largest gambling market fell 5 percent in July, to $363.9 million.

The casinos won $252.9 million at the slot machines and another $111 million at table games. Slots revenue fell 5.2 percent from July 2009; table game revenues decreased by 4.5 percent.

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino posted a 17.1 percent revenue decrease. It was forced to close for two days when a power plant failure left it without air conditioning. Caesars Atlantic City was also affected. Its revenues fell 10.3 percent.

Pennsylvania gambling parlors began offering table games on July 8, a few weeks after Delaware did likewise. Casino analysts have predicted that the stepped-up competition could cost a quarter of its annual table games revenue, or $300 million a year.

Table games revenues fell at seven of the 11 Atlantic City casinos in July. Trump Marina posted a 30.9 percent decline. Resorts Atlantic City, which turned itself over to its lenders in December when it could no longer pay its bills, saw a 26 percent drop, and Tropicana Casino and Resort table game revenues fell by 22.4 percent.

Don Marrandino, eastern regional president of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which runs four Atlantic City casinos, said the impact of the Pennsylvania table games competition was difficult to quantify because there was such a big impact from the power problem.

Caesars lost millions of dollars on what should have been one of the most profitable weekends of the year, Marrandino said.

“It was not a problem; it was a disaster,” he said.

Two casinos saw an increase in overall revenues compared with 2009. Trump Taj Mahal was up 7.1 percent, and the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort posted a 2.1 percent revenue gain.

Atlantic City’s dominant casino, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, saw its overall revenue drop by 0.6 percent, to $64.6 million. But its table games revenue fell by nearly 13 percent.

For the first seven months of the year, the casinos won $21.4 billion, down 7.9 percent from the same period in 2009.

Casino revenue is the net amount of money won by casinos. It is not profit.