Hope on the Boardwalk

Down four casinos and counting, Atlantic City suffered a 9% dip last month but a 14% gain on a same-store basis. A 13% fall in slot win and a 12% decline in coin-in seems to have driven the slippage: In spite of 19% less table play, luck was with the casinos and they came out 5% ahead. Online play continued to slide (7% off from last year), as PokerStars remains on the sidelines. This development (or lack of one) has inspired much innuendo but little hard knowledge.

Borgata ($52 million) exceeded expectations, posting a 9% revenue increase. It had no trouble scaring up play (+8%) and win rose 15%. Heavier coin-in at the slots (+5%) drove an 8% increase in slot revenue. The only property to lose business was Trump Taj Mahal, down 17% for the month. (And to think it used to be one of the top performers in the city.)

The casino closures had their desired effect of propelling new business to the remaining ones. Bally’s ($17.5 million) only picked up 1% while Tropicana Atlantic City ($22 million) and the Golden Nugget both surged 57% (at $15 million last month, one no longer need make allowances for the Nugget’s revenue base). Somewhere in between were Caesars Atlantic City ($30 million, +13%), Harrah’s Resort ($32 million, +17%) and Resorts Atlantic City ($12 million, +15%). Congratulations to everyone who improved their business in October and, as for Trump Entertainment Resorts, they really know how to screw things up, don’t they?

* In the continuing Caesars Entertainment-bankruptcy saga, the company has moved to temper fears of heavy job cuts. While 600 or so unfortunate Caesars employees will still get the boot, cash flow will be manufactured from “a variety of initiatives in operations, marketing and corporate expenses,” according to a corporate spokesman.