{"id":27745,"date":"2020-08-13T07:05:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T15:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27745"},"modified":"2020-08-17T05:55:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T13:55:19","slug":"atlantic-city-impresses-in-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-impresses-in-july\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City impresses in July"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It reopened in somewhat raggle-taggle fashion but Atlantic City<\/strong> is back and did rather better in July than Las Vegas<\/strong> in June (the last month for which we have data, see video below). Borgata<\/strong> made a very delayed re-entry into the market, so we will discount its performance for now. Trends at the Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> quartet were a 31% slide in gross gaming revenue (and slots) and 27% less won at the tables. It outperformed the Atlantic City market as a whole, which was down 47%. But wait, the glass is even more half-full: Sports betting leapt 65%, led by Meadowlands<\/strong> with 48% of market share and Resorts Digital<\/strong> with 28%. Revenues were a very impressive $29.5 million. Internet gambling may be a hard habit for the Garden State to break: Online revenues vaulted 123% to $87.5 million. No prizes for guessing the dominant performer: Golden Nugget<\/strong> with 36% of market share, followed by Resorts Digital again. Remarked analyst Eric Ramsey<\/strong>, \u201cEspecially after the last few months, it\u2019s a sobering thought to imagine where the state\u2019s gaming industry would be without online gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

As for bricks-and-mortar gambling, Hard Rock Atlantic City<\/strong> was tops with $24.5 million, -36.5%, closely followed by Ocean Casino Resort<\/strong>, grossing $23.5 million, a 23% gain<\/em>. Harrah’s Resort<\/strong> ($21 million, -29%) led the Caesars flotilla, followed by Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> ($18 million, -27%), the underperforming Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> ($16 million, -44%) and unexpectedly strong Bally’s<\/strong> ($14.5 million, -19%). Resorts International<\/strong> grossed $12 million (-32%), Golden Nugget did a not-so-golden $9 million (-54.5%) and late-arriving Borgata scraped together $8.5 million in a few days of business, down a mere 89.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will take some time before Atlantic City rebounds from the closures of the last few months, but we have at least turned a corner in the market with the return of the retail sector,\u201d said market analyst Dustin Gouker<\/strong>. \u201cHowever, online casinos and sportsbooks should drive the overall market as long as the pandemic continues. A big month for both in July only emphasizes that reality.\u201d What’s particularly impressive about the sports-betting haul is that it was driven only two days<\/em> of NBA<\/strong> action and a week of baseball. Bettors gonna bet. Handle was $315 million, up 25% year over year, especially remarkable when one considers how much more on-field action there was at this point in 2019. Still, only $19 million of that was walk-up business. Adds Gouker, “with the college football season very much in doubt, and the NFL<\/strong> season facing significant hurdles itself, the fall offers a lot of uncertainty at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n