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Over the past year, Atlantic City has grown to become one of the most profitable gambling hubs in the country. New reports show that Atlantic City casino revenue increased massively in 2019’s third quarter. It’s fantastic news for the state and casino companies operating here. When Atlantic City’s nine casinos were open in May 2019, gamblers got their fix at the land-based resorts. Online GGR that month totaled $38.3 million. Sportsbooks won $9.9 million last month. Heneghan covered the casino beat for the Press of Atlantic City for 20 years before moving to the Casino Control Commission in 1996. He retired this past May. He retired this past May. He’s a big, friendly guy with a mustache like a push broom and a habit of lowering his voice and pausing near the end of his sentences, as if he’s telling.

Another Year-Over-Year Increase for NJ Casinos

Overall June was another positive month for Atlantic City casinos, collectively speaking, with total gaming revenue showing a 21.5 percent increase year-over-year according to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

After earning $233.6 million in June 2018, the state's casinos' revenue totaled $283.8 million, marking a 13th-straight month of increases in the Garden State.

The Press of Atlantic City points out, however, that the streak of revenue increases may be coming to an end soon, given that June will represent the last full month of year-over-year comparisons between seven operating casinos (in 2018) and nine (in 2019).

Both the Hard Rock Hotel Casino Atlantic City and the Ocean Casino Resort first opened their doors during the last week of June 2018.

Industry observers echoed that point, including Rummy Pandit of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton University. Pandit noted to the Press how 'this... trend [of increases] we should expect to see through 2019 and beyond, however year-over-year and month-to-month comparisons will likely be less pronounced.'

Gaming consultant Bob Ambrose, an adjunct professor at Farleigh Dickinson University, likewise speculated that 'we'll see a level of consistency going forward, [though] perhaps (without) these large double-digit spikes that we've seen in the last (year).'

When looking at total gaming win (combining casino win, internet gaming win, and sports wagering revenue), two casinos showed year-over-year increases in June — the Borgata (up 7.7 percent) and Golden Nugget Atlantic City (up 2.2 percent).

Meanwhile showing decreases were the Resorts Casino Hotel (down 5.1 percent), Caesars Atlantic City (down 5.8 percent), Bally's Atlantic City (down 7.9 percent), the Tropicana Atlantic City (down 13.9 percent), and Harrah's Atlantic City (down 17.3 percent).

The Ocean Casino Resort enjoyed its best month ever in June with total gaming revenue of almost $21.5 million, while Hard Rock Atlantic City earned more than $32.5 million, nearly matching its best-ever month of $32.7 million in July 2018.

The overall casino win was up 13.7 percent year-over-year, with the internet gaming win also well ahead of a year ago, totaling $38.1 million in June 2019 versus $22.7 million in June 2018 for a 67.8 percent increase.

That said, online gaming revenue was down slightly from the $38.3 million earned in May. Sports wagering revenue was down month-to-month as well, from over $15.5 million to $9.7 million in June, although the latter total still represents a big increase over June 2018's $3.45 million (the first full month of sports betting in the state).

Of note — almost 83 percent of wagers made on sporting events in New Jersey in June were made via online or mobile platforms, the Press reports.

Stars Come Out for NYC Charity Tournament

Rounders co-writer Brian Koppelman, bestselling author and Team PokerStars Pro Maria Konnikova, and actor Kevin Pollak were among the participants in the Take 'Em to School Poker Tournament in Manhattan on Wednesday.

The event raised more than $550,000 for Education Reform Now, a charity designed to promote standards and accountability in public eduction, in particular for students of color and those coming from low-income families.

Bloomberg was there to provide a detailed report of the event which also saw a number of deep-pocketed hedge fund managers take part, among them Marc Lasry of the Avenue Capital Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital.

Also participating were former New York Knicks players Charles Smith and John Starks. The annual event was again presented by World Poker Tour Foundation, and the WPT's Vince Van Patten, Lynn Gilmartin, and Tony Dunst were on hand as well.

With billionaires among the participants, the scene as described by Bloomberg sounded not that far removed from one that might appear in an episode of Billions, the Showtime series created by Koppelman and his Rounders co-writer David Levien along with Andrew Ross Sorkin. In particular it evokes one from a second season episode featuring a Wall Street charity poker tournament called the 'Alpha Cup.'

Theatrical producer Ayal Miodovnik ultimately won the tournament.

Three Pennsylvania Online Casinos Now Open, No Poker As Yet

A couple of weeks ago in this space we were on the edge of our seats readying for a 'soft launch' of the first online casinos in Pennsylvania. After all, anticipation had built up considerably since state regulators had announced in April that the 'live period for interactive gaming will commence on July 15, 2019.'

That date finally arrived, and as anticipated both Parx Casino and Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course were both up and running with online casinos by the target date, with the Sugarhouse Casino also joining the fun with the launch of their online casino a couple of days later.

All three sites are offering a number of different types of online slots as well as some table games like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat. While there are some video poker games available as well, none has as yet offered online poker per se.

All three have licenses to open online poker rooms along with their casinos, as do Harrah's Philadelphia Casino & Racetrack, Mount Airy Casino Resort, Valley Forge Casino Resort, and the Wind Creek Casino and Resort (formerly Sands Bethlehem).

Speaking for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board just before the first online casinos' launch, Doug Harbachtold The Philadelphia Inquirer the sites would begin with slots and table games 'played against a computer,' and that 'online peer-to-peer poker, which involves human competitors, is more complicated and will be launched at a later date.'

Speaking to pokerfuse a couple of days later, Harbach reiterated that as far as online poker in Pennsylvania is concerned, 'we cannot predict a timeline on that now' and that 'poker will be rolled out when operators are prepared to do so.'

^{Photo: 'Stacking chips,” World Poker Tour, CC BY-ND 2.0.}

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How bad are the second quarter revenue figures for the Atlantic City casinos?

The state Division of Gaming Enforcement, in its press release filed on Monday afternoon, declared, “In light of the casino closures, the Net Revenue and Gross Operating Profit (Loss) for the 2nd quarter and year-to-date are not comparable to the 2019 period.”

So, that bad.

Instead of its quarterly listing of gross operating profits, the period of April, May, and June — when all of the casinos were shuttered the entire time due to the COVID-19 crisis — the DGE had to report a gross operating loss for once, of $112 million.

DGE won’t compare that figure to Q2 2019, but we will: In that period, the casinos had gross operating profits of $159.3 million. (The latter figure was down slightly compared to Q2 2018, by the way.)

For the year, the casinos have lost $82.4 million, while in 2019 the first six months generated $245.1 million in profit to those casinos.

Hotel occupancy rates for the period were zero, of course, compared to 81.5% in Q2 2019.

Market leader Borgata, which at $55.4 million had just over one-third of the industry’s profits in Q2 2019, this time had the same proportion of the industry’s losses — $40.2 million.

Every casino lost money except Golden Nugget, whose remarkably strong online casino product enabled it to eke out a $3.1 million profit for the quarter. Still, that was down two-thirds from Q2 2019’s $10 million in Golden Nugget profits.

Tropicana’s “variance” of the two second-quarter numbers of minus 152% qualified as the second-least worst of the casinos. Ocean Casino’s industry-worst figure of 885% reflects a loss of $1.2 million in 2Q 2019 — the only AC casino to show a loss in that span — and then $11.8 million in this year’s second quarter.

All of 2020 is a bust for AC casinos

The first quarter 2020 numbers only included two weeks of March when the casinos were closed due to the pandemic.

But that period normally would have included the NCAA men’s basketball March Madness tournament, which is a large driver of both gambling on the games and also hotel stays by groups of fans who annually also spend plenty of additional money on casino game play, food and beverage, and shopping.

So in that first quarter, the casinos’ net revenues decreased 14.5% to $595.7 million compared to Q1 2019, while the gross operating profit of $29.6 million was a drop of 65.4% compared to the same period in 2019.

The hotel occupancy rate in first quarter 2020 also slipped by 4.5 percentage points to 68.1% occupancy.

What’s next?

Eight of the nine casinos reopened on July 4 weekend, with Borgata following three weeks later. So all of the casinos will have two months of operation and most will have nearly the entire third quarter with hotel guests.

But casino capacity is limited to 25%, and neither alcohol nor substantial food offerings are allowed inside the casino walls.

Atlantic City Casino Revenue May 2019 2020

Still, industry observers have estimated that the casinos will recoup more than 25% of Q3 2019 figures, because the “high rollers” who stay in luxury suites can have high-end food and drink brought to the room. Those same players have plenty of disposable income, and a pent-up demand to play after 3 1/2 months away from their familiar haunts.

Atlantic City Casino Revenue May 2019 Solicitations

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