Online gaming may have saved the month of November for Atlantic City’s eight casinos as a 51 percent increase in online revenue gave the city a revenue increase over November 2014.
Four of the city’s eight casinos—all involved in bankruptcies—saw revenue decline, however.
According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the casinos took in $204.3 million in November, an increase of 0.9 percent from Nov. 2014.
Online gaming, however, took in $13.2 million for the month, up from just $8.7 million in November 2014. That offset a 1.4 decrease in revenue on play at brick-and-mortar casinos.
Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, pointed to the “healthy increase in Internet gambling” as turning November into a positive month for the city, in a press release.
He also aid November would have been even better had it not been for a small decrease in slot machine revenue, and the fact that November had four Saturdays this year compared with five last year.
According to the Associated Press, the Tropicana was up 10.4 percent to $25.5 million; Resorts was up 4.4 percent to $12.5 million; the Golden Nugget was up 3.8 percent to $18.5 million; and the Borgata was up 3.4 percent to $61.2 million. All four properties have online gambling components.
The Trump Taj Mahal—which is still in a lengthy bankruptcy and does not have an online gambling venture—was down 12.8 percent to $12.8 million.
Bally’s, which is also in bankruptcy, was down 11.7 percent to $15.2 million; and its sister property Caesars, which also is under Chapter 11 protection, was down 5 percent to $24.3 million. Harrah’s was down 3 percent to $30.1 million.
The Borgata held onto the top online gaming revenue with $4.1 million, but the Tropicana Casino Resort took over the No. 2 spot at $2.9 million, replacing Caesars Interactive which won $2.7 million, an increase of more than 147 percent from a year ago.
The change is significant as the Tropicana and its online partner Virgin Inc. do not offer online poker on their respective online gaming sites, instead offering only slots and table game play.
The Golden Nugget won $2.2 million online and Resorts Digital won $1.2 million. Neither site offers online poker, but Resorts is planning to launch a site with partner PokerStars in 2016.
So far this year, the casinos have won $2.37 billion, a decrease of 7.1 percent from the first 11 months of 2014, according to the AP.
