The city’s 11 casinos posted a 4.2 percent revenue increase in December, the first monthly revenue increase since August 2008.
ATLANTIC CITY — The losing streak is finally over as casino revenue reports for December 2011 show an increase in gaming revenues over December 2010, the first such monthly increase for Atlantic City in 40 months.
And while the reports, released Tuesday by the Division of Gaming Enforcement, show that for the year, the Atlantic City's revenue is still down over 2010 continuing a fuve-year trend, at least the city closed out 2011 with a positive sign.
The city’s 11 casinos posted a 4.2 percent revenue increase in December. The casinos took in $246.5 million in December. Slot machine revenue was up 8.3 percent, to $174.1 million, while table game revenue decreased by 4.3 percent, to $72.5 million.
The last monthly increase in casino revenue came in August 2008.
“The positive win results are an encouraging sign of economic recovery for Atlantic City casinos,” said David Rebuck, director of the state DGE in an Associated Press report. “This is an exciting time for Atlantic City as we see more visitors enjoying the casinos and the wide-array of attractions.
“This has been the highest monthly percentage increase since December 2006,” he added. “With the regulatory reforms in place and the upcoming opening of the Revel casino, we are hopeful that this positive trend will continue and reinvigorate the excitement that is part of Atlantic City and its casino venues.”
For the year, however, Atlantic City’s casinos won $3.3 billion, which is down 6.9 percent from 2010. The figures show the city still suffered in the face of increased competition from casinos in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York and during the sluggish economy throughout 2010.
Despite that, however, there was a great deal of optimism on the resort’s future Tuesday.
“I believe we will look back at December 2011 as the beginning of the rebirth of Atlantic City,” Robert Griffin, CEO of Trump Entertainment resorts and president of the Casino Association of New Jersey told the AP. “These results in December clearly show that the future of Atlantic City is a bright one.”
Part of the December increase also seems likely linked to a much milder winter so far in southern New Jersey then in 2010, which was one of the snowiest winters on record.
In this economic climate, optimism about Atlantic City’s future can swing as wildly as the stock market does on each little bit of economic news. The city still faces growing out-of-state competition, gaming revenues are still down and the country’s persistent economic problems are keeping any tourists destination’s hopes for a rebound low.
Kevin DeSanctis, Revel CEO: "Clearly we want to go after the type of artist that can draw 5,500 people, and when you get into that genre, if you will, there’s probably only about 20 acts that can do that."
It was oh so close. Atlantic City casinos came within less than one percent of ending a nearly five year skid in gambling revenues. Figures for September released by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement showed that the city’s 11 casinos took in $294.7 million, which was down just 0.6 percent from September 2010. Most encouraging was the [...]
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1. Anonymous said... on Jan 11, 2012 at 01:19PM
“The holidays were nuts!”
2. Anonymous said... on Jan 11, 2012 at 01:21PM
“BTW What happened to Corky's at Tropicana? It's been closed almost a month now!”