After a quarterly hiatus, it seems time to start covering Atlantic City again. The headline item is a $9.5 million gross from Internet gambling. At that rate, online gambling isn’t going to be a game-changer and, indeed, the Boardwalk was down 9% last month — not counting Internet play. There was 6% less table play and 8% less slot handle. Borgata bucked the tide, its gross revenue ($48 million) up 2.5% and table revenue increasing 15%.
The Atlantic Club went out with a horrid gurgle, only grossing $4 million. Revel grew revenue 23%, up to $10 million. That’s still less than the Showboat ($11 million, -17%), which Caesars Entertainment has been shopping around. The rest of the Caesars quartet performed as follows: Harrah’s Marina ($26 million, -4%), Caesars Atlantic City ($18 million, -23%) and Bally’s ($15 million, -16%). With numbers like those, the last thing Caesars would seem to need is more exposure in the Atlantic City. Revel is trending upward and the Showboat has seen better days, if that makes the bidding war for Revel any more sensible.
Just when you felt Trump Plaza couldn’t sink any lower it fell another 27%, while Trump Taj Mahal dropped 18% for a $15 million gross. Gainers included the Golden Nugget, whose $10.5 million in revenue was good for a 10% boost. Resorts International rose 2% on a modest $8 million and Tropicana Atlantic City fell 9% on a $17 million gross.
When I reposted Sheldon Adelson‘s first anti-Internet-gambling fright flick yesterday, I was too wowed by the sheer hokum of it to concentrate on its content. A good thing that Jeffrey Compton was more analytical, finding in it the kind of scare tactics casino opponents (and Penn National Gaming) use to frighten voters. If I may quote …
“The ad begins by describing supporters of internet gaming as ‘Disreputable Gaming Interests,’ in a setting that resembles a back-alley drug deal going down. It then gets worse, linking pro-internet gaming forces (and, indirectly, the entire gaming industry) to organized crime, terrorists, money laundering syndicates, and even Al-Qaeda … we’ve never before seen such overblown and inaccurate ads against gaming that were financed by the person who has made more money from the industry than anyone else in the history of the world. That’s shameful.”
Indeed. But Adelson and a sense of shame are rarely found in the same room simultaneously.
P.S.: Whoever took out Adelson’s Web sites couldn’t have timed it better if they were trying to make Sheldon’s point for him.
Ouch on A.C.! One thing, in defense of AC, is that people in the Northeast are generally staying home due to the recent re-discovery of winter. I do not typically buy many of the weather-related excuses coughed up by casino executives, but in this case, I know it is a major factor. I think the Connecticut casinos have been suffering similarly. BTW, how much longer can Trump Plaza keep its doors open? To think it was once Donald’s crown jewel!
The Atlantic Club was only open 12 days and still did better than Trump Plaza! Also, Looks like Caesars and Trop plan of closing Atlantic Club to help themselves backfired! They all declined,lol. Atlantic Club players helped Resorts, Revel and Golden Nugget.