Atlantic City’s eight casinos had relatively flat casino revenue in May compared to 2015, which officials attributed to the calendar, which had one less weekend this year.
The city’s eight casinos collectively won $219.8 million from gamblers, a decline of just 0.6 percent compared to May 2015.
“Gaming win fell slightly in May, but a quirk in the calendar masks the continued improvement in the revenue picture,” said Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in a press release. “It’s common knowledge that weekends are the busiest time for Atlantic City’s casinos and this year, May had four Fridays and four Saturdays compared to May 2015, which had five Fridays and five Saturdays. That alone is more than enough reason for a relatively flat performance for the month.”
Table games revenue was up 4.5 percent at the eight casinos, to $53.9 million. Slot machine winnings were $149.3 million, down 4.9 percent from May 2015.
Online gambling revenue increased by 32.6 percent from May 2015 to $16.5 million. That was down, however, from April when online gambling topped $17 million for the month. Though down from April, online gaming revenue for the year is at $78.4 million, up 305 percent from 2015.
Online poker brought it $2,570,853, with the rest of the revenue coming from online slots and casino games.
The figures suggest a cooling down for PokerStars, which launched in the state in late March and quickly took the lead in the state’s online poker market. PokerStars still led all online poker operators with $1.15m for the month, but that was down about $30,000 from April, or relatively flat.
Resorts Digital—which includes PokerStars and Resorts.com and MoheganSun.com—saw online revenue slip from $3.5 million in April to just under $3 million in May.
Figures for online gaming in neighboring Delaware have also been trending upwards. The Delaware Lottery announced that the state’s online sites set a new revenue record in May, collecting a total of $282,112 from players. That beats the previous record of $267,801, which was set in April this year.
Two of the city’s eight casinos saw increases in May, led by the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which brought in $65 million, up nearly 16 percent. Bally’s Atlantic City was up by 0.2 percent to $18.2 million.
MGM Resorts and Boyd Gaming currently own the Borgata, but MGM Resorts is buying out Boyd Gaming’s stake.
The other six casinos saw monthly declines, from a 2 percent dip at Tropicana, which won $27 million, to 18.2 percent at the Trump Taj Mahal, which won $15.1 million, according to the AP.
So far this year, Atlantic City’s casinos have won just over $1 billion, which is up by 3.3 percent compared with the same period in 2015.
