[toc]Revenue and profit was up substantially for the Atlantic City casino industry for the first half of the year, according to data from state gaming regulators.
2017 is looking good for NJ casinos so far
A report on the first half of the year from the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement mostly included good news.
For current casino operators in AC, total revenue increased nearly eight percent year over year, or more than $125 million. In 2016 those casinos generated $1.57 billion in revenue from January through June. This year, that figure stands at $1.69 billion.
The figure gets a little less impressive when you add Trump Taj Mahal into the equation, which closed last fall before being purchased by Hard Rock International this year. Including the Taj, revenue is up only about $10 million. Still, it’s impressive the remaining operators gobbled up what was coming into the Taj, and then some.
The profit for the casinos was even more impressive. Current operators saw a 20 percent spike in gross operating profit, from $257 million to $309 million. (That number changes very little with the addition of Taj to the equation, as it had just $2 million in profit for the first half of 2016.)
Winners and losers for AC casinos
The casino that performed the best over the first half of the year is clearly the Tropicana. Revenue there was up an AC high of 17 percent, an increase of about $35 million to $233 million.
The Trop’s profit margin was even more impressive, more than doubling from $17 million to $35 million.
Resorts AC also had a very good first half, up 11 percent for revenue YoY (to $112 million) and 67 percent for profit (to $9.5 million).
Only two casinos saw revenue drop over the timeframe: Harrah’s (down 13 percent to $49;8 million) and Bally’s (down six percent to $15.9 million).
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People are coming to and staying in AC
The other bit of good news for AC? Hotel occupancy was up for the first half of 2017. More from the DGE:
The occupancy rate in the industry’s casino hotels for the six months ended June 2017 was 85.8%, which is 6.9 percentage points higher than the comparable period last year.
Out of 2,030,498 room nights available through June 30, 1,741,857 had been occupied. The average rate for an occupied room was just over $105.
The numbers ticked up for the second quarter over Q1, as occupancy eclipsed 90 percent.
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