Normally a 1.5% jump in casino revenue wouldn’t be cause for dancing in the streets and maybe today’s numbers aren’t reason to get carried away. Given that there’s a quadrennial aberration (i.e., Feb. 29) in play, the +0.1% in slot revenues can probably be discounted outright. But with tables up 4.9%, we see continuing evidence of Atlantic City being reinvented as a tables-driven market. Slots, after all, you can get in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and (sort of) in New York.
Mind you, Atlantic City is still -4.4% from last year’s pace. And $384 million, while scarcely chicken feed, is a good ways off of the Boardwalk’s highest month: $504.8 million in July ’05. On a happier note, casinos are likely to be insulated from any further government shutdowns in Trenton.
Except for Trump Plaza’s 13.8% jump, few of the upward fluctuations were dramatic, with second-best going to Harrah’s Marina, closely followed by the same company’s Showboat and — a little further back — Caesars Atlantic City, putting three of Harrah’s four properties in the “plus” column for the month. Led by Trump Plaza, those properties were distinguished by dramatic gains at the tables. Except for the Plaza, revenue declines at the slots tended to keep all the other gainers in the single-digit column.
It would have been a banner month for all three Trump Entertainment Resorts casinos (at a time when the company could really use some good news) were it not for Trump Taj Mahal getting clobbered at the tables (-11.4%), for an average Trump gain of 6.1% (still better than Harrah’s Marina). Borgata, as usual, had a good month, up 3.4% and leading the market in volume of win ($60.88 million). Low man on the win volume totem pole was Trump Marina, at $18.67 million.
Not only was Resorts Atlantic City near the bottom of the win-volume spectrum, it posted the worst revenue decine, -7.8%. (A $2.8 million gain at Trump Plaza was the closest February came to a dramatic revenue fluctuation.)
Although it’s still in seventh place, in terms of win, the Tropicana finally appears to have stanched the bleeding. Under the guidance of among others, a returning Pam Popielarski, a state-appointed transition team has slowed the catastrophic revenue slide that characterized the mismanagement of ousted operator Columbia Sussex. A bad month at the slots wiped out a gain at the tables. However, given the Trop’s recent history, a -3.7% Y/Y decline really is cause for dancing. May the turnaround continue.
