When a loss is a gain

Come this time next month, we could easily be reporting year/year gains in Atlantic City. Last month, as Revel and Showboat were winding down operations, the Boardwalk was only 1% off last year’s pace. Internet gambling played a role in that, obviously (to the tune of $10.5 million), but fortune favored the casinos, too, their table revenues up 12% in spite of a 10% drop in play. At the slots, coin-in (-6%) roughly matched a revenue decline. Tighter hold helped Borgata report 5% more in slot play. Table play rose 5%, as did the house’s winnings, for an overall gross of $66 million.

With players fleeing Revel ($12 million, -41%), Showboat ($15 million, -24.5%) and Trump Plaza ($5 million, -45%) there were some big winners to go with the losers. Tropicana Atlantic City ($31 million, +46%) and Golden Nugget ($17 million, 34%) peeled off a lot of business, while Caesars Atlantic City ($44 million, +16%) and Harrah’s Resort ($39 million, +18%) benefited from Showboat’s travails. Bally’s Atlantic City had a harder time moving the needle, down 1%, to $26 million.

Others seeing little or no benefit from the compacting market were Trump Taj Mahal ($25 million, -6%) and Resorts Atlantic City ($15 million, +2%).

* Recommended reading for the weekend: An excellent, in-depth feature in Aljazeera America on what casinos might bring to economically hard-hit Newburgh, New York. Its chances look good: Saratoga Raceway & Casino co-owner James Featherstonhaugh is financially backing the Hudson Valley Casino proposal and is a crony of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The money quote comes from Newburgh Mayor Judy Kennedy: “Newburgh has been a city that has been suffering from collective PTSD since urban renewal, when they tore down 2,000 buildings here in the late ’60s and early ’70s.” Nothing went up in their place.