This year turned up to be the worst ever for the gambling industry in New Jersey. Four casinos were closed and the middle of November may see the closure of the fifth one. The situation doesn’t seem to be too optimistic. Last month, Atlantic City-based casinos that are still available for players, reported a decline of 13% , compared to September last year when the casino owners haven’t supposed anything about the upcoming hard times the gambling sector would face up to.
According to the latest report, the income for September 2014 also includes the money, accumulated through online gambling activities – something that was not available an year ago, and the total amount of earnings is $209 million, which is $31 million less than September 2013.
Obviously, the closure of the four casinos had a devastating impact on the local gambling industry. Revel and Trump Plaza shut down in September, the Showboat closed at the end of August. It has been almost an year since the Atlantic Club closed doors for visitors. Taj Mahal might be the next venue to close unless the requirements of Carl Icahn are met. If Taj Mahal files for bankruptcy, hundreds of people will lose their jobs and the total number of Atlantic City residents, unemployed due to the problematic gambling industry will go over 10, 000.
However, casinos, that were working in the period September 2013- September 2014, reported more than 9% increase in the income. The total amount is almost 208 million, a wonderful result, bearing the shaky gambling industry in the region, in mind.
Despite the decline in the online gambling activities, the income of more than $10 million is a decent achievement.
Unfortunately, the report of the Division of Gaming Enforcement claims that the situation with the slot machines and table games is not very bright as well. The decline is respectively 17% and 18,5%.
As far as the Internet gambling activities are concerned, Borgata took the leadership and earned well over $3 million from online gambling services. Caesars Interactive is next with earnings, equal to two and a half million dollars. Tropicana was ranked third with a revenue of $2 million. The Golden Nugget is next to last with an income of $1 million. Trump casinos were the ones with the weakest income. Anyway, they no longer work in collaboration with an online gambling operator.
At the end of September, there were almost half a million gambling accounts created. Despite the fact that the Golden Nugget was not a champion in providing online gaming services, things are pretty different in the land based casino, which has the biggest revenue for September. Tropicana comes next and Borgata is ranked at third place.
Contrary to the optimistic statistics, Taj Mahal reports a serious decline of nearly 23%. If the venue closes in two weeks, there will be only 7 operating casinos in Atlantic City.
