Atlantic City still booming; Churchill Downs wins in Terre Haute

It was another bonanza month for the Boardwalk, as casinos grossed $237.5 million in October, 17% above 2019. Slot win was up 22% on 19% more coin-in and tables won 6% on 9% higher wagering and despite lower hold. Borgata wasn’t so lucky at the tables, being down 9% yet 32% greater slot win propelled the megaresort to a 20% higher tally of $62 million, by far the highest in Atlantic City. A distant second was Hard Rock Atlantic City‘s $37.5 million, despite a 53% gain. Ocean Casino Resort accelerated 63.5% to firmly grasp third place with $30 million. The Cerberus that is Caesars Entertainment dipped 2% overall, as table win slipped 6% and slots edged 1% lower. Harrah’s Resort was 1% up, leading the CZR pack with $24 million, followed by $24.5 million, followed by Tropicana Atlantic City (-3.5%) and Caesars Atlantic City (-2.5%) with $21 million each. Resorts Atlantic City made an impressive, 20.5% gain to $14.5 million, while Bally’s Atlantic City grossed $12.5 million but slid 4.5%. That left Golden Nugget, down 3.5% to $14 million.

Sports betting and especially i-gaming also impressed, especially when their revenues were compared to house-bound 2020, when they might have been expected to flourish most. The Internet gambling haul of $127 million was 36% over last year’s and shows definitively that higher ‘net betting doesn’t detract from brick-and-mortar play. Sports betting brought in $84 million, a 44% boom over 2020. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff estimated that FanDuel led sports betting (OSB and retail) with $38 million, which would be 45% market share. DraftKings trailed with $15.5 million, as did BetMGM ($8 million), Barstool Sports ($7 million), PointsBet ($6 million) and Caesars Sportsbook ($6 million). Handle was a lavish $1.3 billion but hold was a full percentage point lower than last year at this time. Month to month, Barstool Sports put a move on BetMGM and DraftKings gained market share as well. It’s amazing the books did as well as noted, considering that NFL hold was a minuscule 2.5%.

If BetMGM was an also-ran in the sports-betting sweepstakes, it cleaned up in i-gaming with $39 million. DraftKings followed with $19 million, then Caesars with $13.5 million and Golden Nugget Online‘s $11.5 million. With the aberrant exception of DraftKings, online players clearly trust sports-centric OSB providers far more for sports betting and stick to established casino brands for i-gaming play.

Unlike New Jersey, Pennsylvania was showing signs of saturation, down 1% at its retail casinos ($292.5 million). Slot revenues dipped 4% but table games offered compensation, up 8%. Sports books splurged on promotions—$19 million—dropping their revenue to $23.5 million on feeble, 3% hold on $769 million in handle. I-gaming, however, hit a record daily pace (over $3 million) for winnings of $109 million. The catchall Hollywood Casino skin led with $40.5 million, which also redounded to the benefit of DraftKings, BetMGM and Barstool Sports. Rush Street Interactive was next with $26 million, FanDuel checked in with $19 million and FoxBet managed $5.5 million. In sports betting, FanDuel was tops with $11.5 million, followed by DraftKings’ $7 million and Rush Street’s $2 million.

At the brick-and-mortar casinos, smoke-free Parx Casino led the state as usual, grossing $52 million (+2%). Fighting over the rest of the Philadelphia market, Rivers Philadelphia was depleted 25.5% but its $18.5 million still bested Philadelphia Live‘s $17.5 million. Harrah’s Philadelphia slid 16% to $17 million but Valley Forge Casino Resort gained 15.5% to $12.5 million. The novelty factor of Pittsburgh Live ($9 million) may be wearing off as both Hollywood Meadows ($17 million, +2%) and Rivers Pittsburgh ($31.5 million, +3.5%) were up. Wind Creek Bethlehem rose 13% to a whopping $45 million and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs eked out a 1% increase to $19 million. Mount Airy, also smokeless, (+4%) won $16 million, Presque Isle Downs slipped 1.4% to $10 million. Hollywood Penn National stumbled 5.5% to $17.5 million, Lady Luck Nemacolin barely registered with $2 million (-36%) but Hollywood Casino York debuted with $7 million.

Indiana regulators wasted no time in choosing a casino operator for the Terre Haute area and, out of four finalists, went with Churchill Downs. The vote was unanimous, a crushing defeat for rival projects, especially Full House Resorts. At least Dan Lee‘s company survived the initial cull, which saw Hard Rock International and obscure Premiere Gaming rejected out of hand. Hard Rock’s smashing success in Gary may have worked against it, as CHDN lacks a Hoosier State presence and regulators may have wanted to level the playing field. That’s not to take anything away from Churchill Downs, which obviously wowed the decision makers. Its proposed, $190 million Queen of Terre Haute will hold up to 1,000 slots, 50 tables, a sports book and a 125-room hotel.

It was the only proposal not to eyeball the interchange of I-70 and Indiana 46, pitching camp instead on 21 undeveloped acres near a shopping mall. Churchill Downs’ revenue projections are not modest: $639 million in five years at nearly 1.5 million visitors per year. The other projects would have been sited seven miles closer to Indianapolis and Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen indicated he was open to moving his casino, too. As a closing flourish, he produced a check for the $5 million application fee, a gesture that can hardly have failed to impress. Expect the project to be open by March 2023 at the latest. As Mayor Duke Bennett said, “Any would have been a good fit, but in the end, I’m just thankful we’re getting a casino. It will be great to work with professionals like Churchill Downs.”

A country as unstable and authoritarian as Venezuela, where the economy is in a shambles, would seem like a shaky bet for casino investors. But 30 gambling halls have opened in the socialist, anti-gaming nation. “Critics, among them opposition leaders and economists, say the influx of cash also stems from money laundering in a country where billions in oil proceeds were looted to create a 1990s-era Russian-style oligarchy now taking advantage of economic liberalization,” reports the Wall Street Journal. The unlamented Hugo Chavez had closed all of Venezuela’s casinos but successor Nicolas Maduro has flung open the doors to places like Hotel Dubai and Bellagio (yes, they had the nerve to steal the name). It’s an incongruous adornment to a country where 90% of the population lives in poverty, but maybe there are enough kleptocrats with U.S. dollars (the unofficial currency) to burn that it will all somehow work out. But we have one word of advice for any North American casino company so desperate as to speculate in Venezuela: Don’t.