Atlantic City Casinos up 7% in September

By Kwame
Published October 19, 2022

Casinos, horse tracks, and the online counterparts that offer these gambling services online took $485 million in September this year, up nearly 7% from September 2021.

Even more important news, Hard Rock and Ocean brought the collective takings of Atlantic City’s Casino industry past the amount taken in September 2019, before COVID restrictions were put in place. Their collective takings last month amounted to $252 million, up 1.3%.

Takings from in-person gamblers is a key metric, as the seaside gambling resort works to recover from the economic impact of COVID restrictions. It’s a pleasure to report that Six of the nine casinos won more from in-person gamblers last month than they did in September 2019.

“September’s mild weather helped contribute to a strong start to the fall season for Atlantic City’s casino operators,” said Jane Bokunewicz, director of the Lloyd Levenson Institute at Stockton University, which studies the Atlantic City gambling market. “At this rate, Atlantic City’s casino operators are likely to meet and potentially exceed pre-pandemic end-of-year totals for both brick-and-mortar and total gaming revenue.”

Over the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in September 2019, Bally’s was down 10.3%; Borgata was down 1.2%; Caesars was down 9.3%; Golden Nugget was down 25.2%; Harrah’s was down 17.2%; Resorts was down 5.9% and Tropicana was down 16.8%, according to the Casino Association of New Jersey.

Atlantic City’s three horse racing tracks that offer sports betting took nearly $867 million, to keep $98 million in revenue. This pushed the sports betting’s revenue sector up 19% over September of last year.

Online casinos brought in $135 million last month, an increase of over 10% from September of last year:

  • Bally’s: $3.7 million online, compared to $337,000 last year, $905,000 from sports betting, compared to $126,000 and $15.9 million from in-person gambler.
  • Borgata: $41.1 million online, up 7.6%. $10 million from sports betting, down from $13.4 million last year. won $62.3 million from in-person gamblers, up 3.5%.
  • Caesars: $1.5 million in sports bets compared to a $380,000 loss last year and $22.4 million from in-person gamblers, up 1.8%.
  • Golden Nugget: $34 million online, up 10%, $224,000 from sports betting, up almost 100% and $13.5 million from in-person gamblers, up 4.3%.
  • Hard Rock: $5.7 million online, down 2%, $1.8 million from sports betting, a negiligable difference from last year and $43.6 million from in-person gamblers, up 6.3%.
  • Harrah’s: lost $83,000 online, compared to a take of $386,000 last year, and $23.2 million from in-person gamblers, down 15.5%.
  • The Ocean: $2.4 million online, doubling last year’s take, $536,000 in sports bets, down from $1.6 million and $30.6 million from in-person gamblers, up 5.2%.
  • Resorts: Its online affiliate, Resorts Digital, took $34 million, up 20.5%, $229,000 in sports bets, half of last year’s take and $16.7 million from in-person gamblers, down 3%
  • Tropicana: $4.9 million online, down 32% and $23.3 million from in-person gamblers, down 4%.
  • Caesars Interactive Entertainment: $9 million online, down 11%.