Atlantic City Casino Revenue Levels Out, Still Reaches $274 Million In August

After a historic performance in July, Atlantic City casino revenue came back down to earth in August. The nine retail casinos still managed a quality month, producing around $274 million in earnings.

This showing is only a mild let down, as the AC casinos nearly topped $300 million in the month prior. There’s no question that it was a solid month, though, as revenue hasn’t reached this point (besides in July) since a year ago in July 2021 ($277 million).

So while profits technically decreased by about $25 million from last month, or 8%, things are looking up for AC casinos. Compared to last year, August revenue grew by 4.4%, which is about $12 million.

Let’s take a deeper look at the monthly report from the land-based casinos, provided by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Atlantic City casino revenue impressive again

Despite not matching their incredible July, AC casinos impressed again in August. Their $274 million in revenue beat out many recent months by a sizable margin.

Before July, AC casinos averaged about just $228 million in revenue across the previous four months. Figures were even lower in the months before that.

Since pandemic rules affected these retail locations for several years, 2019 is the best comparison for recent reports. In Aug. 2019, casinos generated slightly over $286 million, about $12 million more than last month.

Although operators would love to continue to beat past figures, it’s clear brick-and-mortar betting is right back to where it once was.

Falling short of Aug. 2019’s mark isn’t really a negative, either. That month was massive and stood out among others during that time. The following month, in Sept. 2019, earnings reduced back down to about $225 million.

While profits saw an uptick from last August a little bit, the year-to-date revenue jumped up much more. The $1.88 billion in earnings showed growth of more than 14% when looking at this period a year ago. That’s an increase of over $233 million.

Atlantic City casino August revenue breakdown

This table gives a more detailed look at the August slots and table games results for the nine Atlantic City casinos:

Casino	Table & Other	Poker	Slot Machines	Total Gaming Win
Bally’s	$4,327,752	$ –	$11,408,137	$15,735,889
Borgata	$20,091,921	$1,325,219	$50,554,696	$71,971,836
Caesars	$5,942,097	$ –	$15,712,437	$21,654,534
Golden Nugget	$2,430,451	$ –	$10,510,241	$12,940,692
Hard Rock	$12,113,242	$ –	$33,693,980	$45,807,222
Harrah’s	$4,962,328	$316,649	$19,714,095	$24,993,072
Ocean Casino	$9,617,133	$ –	$26,942,052	$36,559,185
Resorts	$3,726,830	$-	$14,731,946	$18,458,776
Tropicana	$4,560,024	$213,581	$21,081,052	$25,854,657
Total	$67,771,778	$1,855,449	$204,348,636	$273,975,863

Borgata also controls retail betting

As the Borgata keeps setting the pace for online casino revenue in NJ, its retail option also continues to dominate the market.

Just last month, the operator set a new overall revenue record for a single month, bringing in $124 million in total. This new best eclipsed Borgata’s prior record of $112 million from Sept. 2021 when counting retail, online casino, and sports betting figures.

Despite coming up short of last month, its AC casino is head and shoulders above its Garden State competition.

Borgata finished August with nearly $72 million in revenue, about $4.7 million shy of July. Even so, the closest casino in the market this past month is the Hard Rock, around $26 million behind.

The Hard Rock also took a partial step back in August, completing it with almost $46 million. This ended up being close to $7 million less than July revenue.

As far as other locations go, Ocean Casino placed third with over $36 million. Only three others exceeded $20 million in earnings this past report. Tropicana led this group at nearly $26 million, whereas Harrah’s was at $25 million and Caesars approached $22 million.

The most notable aspect of the breakdown is that Borgata’s figures from last year would have already been good enough to top all others in August. Fortunately for the casino, its revenue flow didn’t slow down, as profits rose more than 38% when looking at Aug. 2021.

Ocean Casino posted the only other noteworthy increase, with revenue up just over 10%.

Table games help drive revenue

Table games provided a bigger boost than slots for the second consecutive month when considering growth.

They reached just about $70 million in monthly revenue, an upturn of more than 8% from a year ago. Of course, slots made more money overall, however, they only saw an increase of around 3%. Slots betting managed to pull in a little over $204 million in August.

Although both categories took a hit from July’s productivity, both are in great shape for the year.

Slots and table games each created plenty of revenue so far in 2022, with earnings up 14.3% and 13.8% from 2021, respectively. Through August, slots generated over $1.38 billion, with table games at $500 million.