Casinos in Atlantic City are finally catching up with the rest of gaming’s recovery. Last month they were only 3% off the 2019 pace. They grossed $213 million, a substantial improvement over April. Slot win was $158 million on 8% less handle, while tables won $53.5 million on 2% higher wagering volume. Borgata was a trifle unlucky, with table win down 6% and slots off 15% for a 7% overall decline. The Caesars Entertainment threesome slipped 13% but did fairly well at the tables, down only 2%, while slot win dropped 17%. Broken out by individual casino, Caesars Atlantic City held steady at -2% for $22.5 million, Harrah’s Resort slid 15% to $21.5 million and Tropicana Atlantic City stumbled 21% to $20 million. Borgata’s $49 million gross put it comfortably in first place but the only revenue-positive casinos were Hard Rock Atlantic City, vaulting 22% to $35 million and Ocean Resort, rocketing 51% to $24.5 million (a higher gross than any Caesars property, it should be noted). Resorts Atlantic City hung in there pretty well, down 5% to $15.5 million, while Bally’s Atlantic City skidded 21% to $12 million (to its credit, new management acknowledges that the place needs a refit) and Golden Nugget shed 23% but stayed out of last place with $13 million.
Sports betting was feeling the same May slump-let as everyone else, although handle was a healthy $814 million, up April’s $748 million. NBA action can be thanked, what with the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks all in the playoffs, engendering $217 million in handle. Major-league baseball was responsible for another $186 million in handle. FanDuel/PointsBet was the revenue leader with $30 million, followed at some great distance by Resorts Digital/DraftKings/Fox Bet‘s $9.5 million. BetMGM held $5 million, Monmouth/William Hill/SugarHouse/TheScore scored $2 million and William Hill’s Ocean Casino outpost snagged another $1 million. Nobody else came close to the million-dollar threshold. Internet casinos held steady, grossing $108 million. BetMGM came in first with $33 million, then Caesars/WynnBet with $15.5 million, DraftKings with $14 million and Golden Nugget Online with $10 million. Concluded PlayUSA analyst Eric Ramsey, “Online revenue has clearly been resilient, but hopefully the retail market can sustain this return to pre-pandemic levels.” Amen.
Before we leave the Boardwalk, our A.C. bureau reports, “Caesars has some small areas of new carpet, and removed a bunch of slot machines, wow, such large improvements just as they promised.” Hard Rock’s players-club lounge was described as “busy” (we bet!) and Ocean was “not quite as crowded.” That was better than Philadelphia Live, which “somehow managed to turn a positive location near the Phillies stadium into a negative, as the casino was near empty.” There’s not even a lounge for members of the players club (Rivers Philadelphia has one) and “They served tiny burger sliders, a single shrimp on a cracker, plus an unknown something, this for the $1,000,000+ Jade Members. Wow, truly memorable, but not in a positive way.” We are underwhelmed, too. When we declined to cover a circus at Bart Blatstein‘s Showboat on the grounds that we have issues with clowns, a correspondent replied, “but without clowns there would be no government in New Jersey.” Touché.
Massachusetts casinos grossed $87 million last month. It was an 133.5% increase on 2019—considering that Encore Boston Harbor wasn’t operational back then. On a same-store basis it was a 9% dip. Encore beat analyst estimates and scored $53 million, balanced between $30.5 million at the slots and $22.5 million from table games, while Plainridge Park eked out $12.5 million (-16%) and MGM Springfield took in $21 million, down 4.5%. That’s all a little better than April’s numbers but casino comebacks in the Bay State appear to be more of a thaw than a rebound, with casinos making a few million more each month. It probably did not help the May tallies that casinos were restricted to 40% of capacity. (Occupancy limits were lifted on May 29.) Meanwhile, Encore President Brian Gullbrants is moving out and up, on to run Wynncore in place of Marilyn Winn-Spiegel. His successor is Jenny Holaday, about whom CEO Matt Maddox didn’t have a lot to say, lavishing most of his praise on Gullbrants. However, this is far from Holaday’s first rodeo, having earned her spurs with Mandalay Resort Group (long since subsumed into MGM Resorts International) and Caesars Entertainment back when it was still Harrah’s Entertainment. She’s a second-generation member of the gaming industry and says that her first task will be to staff up Encore for post-pandemic business conditions. Can you say ‘job fair’?
Purple is the new color of choice at Harrah’s Las Vegas, both inside and out, where the casino-hotel will be bathed in lavender light. Although Harrah’s has long been one of our leading Las Vegas Strip candidates for implosion (not least because of its cramped interior), we’ll give its new-look incarnation the benefit of the doubt. The resort’s mammoth 2,542 rooms have been in renovation for the past five years, including a $70 million completion of the Mountain Tower. It sounds as though you should spring for a suite if you simply must stay at Harrah’s: “Those accommodations now feature oversized tubs, a separate living and dining room with a wet bar, and the option to connect to two bedrooms.” Try and schedule your visit around August 31, when Donny Osmond kicks off his residency.
Jottings: The owner of the Lucky Duck Internet Cafe in Madison, North Carolina, was a pretty unlucky duck. The sheriff’s office nabbed him on nine counts of illegal gambling, including operating more than five video gaming machines. We’re always pleased to see law enforcement cracking down on black-market slots. Good going … Bill Hornbuckle may be starting to sour on Japan but Genting isn’t. It’s teaming with Sega Sammy to propose a casino megaresort for Yokohama. Interestingly, the latest lowball estimate of the Nipponese casino market is $8 billion a year. No wonder there’s talk of cutting the three casino megaresorts to two.
