As more states in the Northeast open casinos, many industry experts fear the region is nearing a gaming saturation.
The saturation means more casinos, but less profits from each individual casino. An example, horseracing once contributed $240 million in taxes to Delaware. But now that amount has declined so much that Delaware Governor Jack Markell supports cutting the taxes the racetracks pay.
In the last ten years the Northeast has seen 26 new casinos open, more than any other region, including California. This has caused existing casinos in Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia to see their revenues fall dramatically. Delaware’s gaming revenues are down 29 percent in the last three years. The story is the same, although less severe, in Pennsylvania, which has the second most commercial gambling revenue of any state (that doesn’t count Indian gaming). Its gaming revenues have declined 4 percent from last year.
Despite the fact that New Jersey takes the smallest percentage of gaming revenue of any of the Northeastern states, its casinos have also seen a decline. One of its casinos, the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, declared bankruptcy and was closed.
Another dozen are contemplated in states from Massachusetts to Maryland. Many experts see this growth as the states’ way of reclaiming money that it lost to neighboring states that had casinos.
Since gaming contributes to grants that are given to municipalities, public services often must be cut when casino revenues begin to dry up.
Now that Massachusetts could open four casinos, including one slots parlor, the saturation point in the region just got a little more crowded.
