Atlantic City operators suffer miserable August

ntic City operators endured a tough August as the likes of Caesars and Trump Taj Mahal suffered double-digit declines and total casino win in New Jersey fell 16.3%.

Total casino win for the month was $246.4m, compared with $294.5m in August 2014, as five of Atlantic City’s eight operators experienced falling win, according to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

The worst hit was Caesars, which dropped 28.6% to $31.4m compared to the same period last year, while Trump Taj Mahal fell 24.2% to $18.9m.

Harrah’s, Bally’s and Tropicana all fared worse this August than in August 2014, but market leader Borgata bucked the trend by growing win 7.9% to $71.1m.

That leaves Borgata’s win as more than double that of its nearest rival, Harrah’s.

Golden Nugget and Resorts were standout performers, growing 20.4% and 18% respectively.

Overall slot win was down 14.6% and table game win was down 20.3%.

But online gaming win grew 15.8% to $12.2 million and other authorised game wins were up 23.4%. This negated some of the poor performance from land-based operators, leaving the state’s overall win down just 5% to $258.6m.

In the year to the end of August 2015, total gaming win in New Jersey was down 10.3% to $1.73bn. In that period slots were down 11.2% and table games were down 12.4%, but online win grew 15.6% to $96.7m.