Atlantic City Casino Revenue Drops Again, Totals Around $252 Million In September

For the second consecutive month, Atlantic City casinos witnessed their revenue fall. Although September earnings didn’t match the past few months, they still reached about $252 million last month.

This performance finished up around $22 million short of August’s production, or a decrease of 8%. Even so, this latest AC casino revenue report shows that the nine establishments topped their September from a year ago. Revenue saw an uptick of 1.3% from Sept. 2021, up $3.2 million.

This slower month is expected for the most part, as the summer season always brings more action to the retail locations. Let’s examine the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement’s monthly report for September more closely.

Atlantic City casino revenue tops $2 billion for 2022

Last month marked the second straight in which the AC casino revenue took a solid decline. Unfortunately, this appears like it should be the trend going forward as the summer is over and colder weather arrives in the state.

Still, the brick-and-mortar AC casinos put up a quality showing last month. The revenue totaled about $47 million less than in July, however, the near $252 million is respectable for this time of year. In the four months prior to the heart of the summer, casinos averaged only $228 million.

So while September didn’t break any records, it’s certainly not a disappointment. In fact, AC casinos can actually celebrate. After banking September’s profits, their overall earnings for the year now exceed $2 billion.

Again, betting operators remain ahead of their pace from a year ago. The $2.13 billion in revenue for the year-to-date figure is 12.5% better than this time in 2021. Casinos accounted for just $1.9 billion during the previous period.

Comparing the betting figures to a few years ago is also always helpful, too. Since 2019 is the last time no pandemic rules existed before this year, it’s useful to see how the numbers stack up against these.

Figures from three years ago hit just over $224 million. That puts this latest month 12% in front of Sept. 2019, another promising sign for the market.

Atlantic City casino September revenue breakdown

This table provides more information on the September report, including results for slots and table games at Atlantic City casinos:

Casino	Table & Other	Poker	Slot Machines	Total Gaming Win
Bally’s	$5,867,284	$ –	$10,024,871	$15,892,155
Borgata	$14,466,041	$1,271,138	$46,598,396	$62,335,575
Caesars	$7,710,632	$ –	$14,706,106	$22,416,738
Golden Nugget	$2,942,102	$ –	$10,555,975	$13,498,077
Hard Rock	$13,267,918	$ –	$30,405,985	$43,673,903
Harrah’s	$4,574,750	$272,970	$18,373,753	$23,221,473
Ocean Casino	$6,471,242	$ –	$24,120,185	$30,591,427
Resorts	$3,642,230	$-	$13,078,336	$16,720,566
Tropicana	$4,588,138	$192,919	$18,607,160	$23,388,217
Total	$63,530,337	$1,737,027	$186,470,767	$251,738,131

AC casino revenue in line to keep falling

Previous trends show that revenue is likely to keep reducing in the coming months. With fewer guests around the area in the fall and winter, revenue simply can’t keep up with the popular vacation months.

Last year’s transition from September to October provided a drop of about $11 million. This became even more severe as you go into November, with an additional regression of more than $30 million. That month posted a revenue of nearly $207 million.

Fall betting from 2019 looked similar. Oct. 2019 finished with around $22 million less than the month prior.

AC casinos can expect a sluggish few months going forward, before things pick back up at the start of spring.

Borgata leads charge in yearly growth

As always, the MGM-owned Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa led all others in revenue by a sizable margin. It eclipsed $62 million in earnings for the month.

Of course, this is down almost $10 million from August, but the majority of the land-based locations also saw declines.

Hard Rock Hotel Casino Atlantic City is the only other that remains anywhere in range of the market leader. It completed September with about $44 million in revenue.

Ocean Casino Resort came in as the only other to best the $30 million mark, as it barely did so by close to $600,000.

As for each establishment’s growth in 2022, Borgata also holds the top spot there. The AC casino earned 23.7% more so far this year through September compared to 2021. Its total for this year sits at a little over $546 million, a difference of about $105 million.

Borgata isn’t the only one expanding quickly, either. Several others recorded notable positive change upward of 20% in the last year, as well.

Ocean Casino is next on the list at 20.9%. It produced over $46 million more so far to surpass $268 million on the year.

The Hard Rock is up more money overall (about $60 million), but its growth didn’t quite equal Ocean’s. Its rise of 18.6% is still substantial, though, as the casino generated a healthy $380 million to this point.

The only other retail location above 15% for the year is Bally’s. The casino’s 15.3% jump up now has it with more than $122 million in 2022 earnings, around $16 million more than 12 months ago. This could be attributed to gamblers giving the property another try following the $100-million reinvestment by Bally Corp.