Atlantic City’s casino revenue figures for February require some context in their analysis as the city saw a slight increase of 0.3 percent in revenue compared to last year.
That was helped by a nearly 27 percent increase in online casino revenue over 2016. Without the online bump, revenue for land-based gambling was down by about 2 percent.
However, taking out the 2016 revenue figures for the Trump Taj Mahal, which closed in October, the city’s remaining casinos saw an overall 6.6 percent increase in revenue.
And finally, February 2016 was a leap year with an extra day.
According to figures from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and analyzed by the Associated Press, the city’s seven casinos won $205.3 million for the month—a 0.3 percent from February 2016. Online gambling took in $18.7 million in February, an increase of nearly 27 percent over 2016.
The online figures were buoyed by an increasingly significant player in the market, Rush Street Interactive, which runs playsugarhouse.com—named after its Philadelphia Sugarhouse casino—in partnership with the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. The site has seen an about 25 percent increase in monthly revenue since launching six months ago.
“Online gaming represents a growth vehicle for the gaming industry as it attracts a new and younger demographic,” Richard Schwartz, Rush Street’s president told the AP. “Plus, industry data shows that existing brick-and-mortar casino players, who subsequently become online players too, return more frequently to the brick-and-mortar casino and spend 15 percent more on the casino floor.”
The Golden Nugget’s sites now lead the state’s online market taking in $5.1 million in revenue, a 66 percent increase over 2016. The Borgata, Caesars Interactive-NJ, Resorts Digital and the Tropicana all made between $3 million to $3.7 million, though Resorts take constituted a 131 percent increase, according to the AP.
Online revenue was up only slightly over January of this year—$16,481,232 to $16,551,663—but still set another revenue record for the state.
Poker, both online and live, stayed steady for the resort compared to February 2016. Live poker revenue came in at about $2.1 million while online poker brought in $2.2 million. The entire poker market was about $4.3 million, down slightly from $4.4 million last year.
The seven surviving Atlantic City casinos won $186.6 million in land-based revenue, an increase of 4.9 percent from a year ago.
“The current operators continue to show resiliency in a challenging gaming market and have been able to increase the New Jersey gaming market,” said Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in a press statement.
The Tropicana was up 25.5 percent to $31.5 million; Resorts was up 21.4 percent to $15.1 million; the Golden Nugget was up 15.2 percent to $21.5 million; Caesars was up 0.9 percent to $22.8 million; and Harrah’s was up 0.5 percent to $29.5 million.
Bally’s was down 4.7 percent to $16.3 million and the Borgata was down 1.5 percent to $61.9 million, according to the news service.
For the first two months of the year, Atlantic City’s casino revenue is up nearly 4 percent from the same period last year.
