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ATLANTIC CITY - Slumping revenues and another June swoon suggest a lackluster summer is in store for Atlantic City's casino industry.

Revenue generated by the slot machines and table games plunged 13.6 percent in June compared with the same month last year. Normally, June is one of the strongest money-making months for casinos, but the recession and extra competition from Pennsylvania slot parlors in recent years have dampened the city's summer tourism season.

Gaming executives said June was consistent with the downward trends of the previous five months of the year, but they expressed some optimism that July and August will be stronger.

"I wouldn't say weak. I would say it will be a steady and consistent summer. It's not going to be a barn burner," said Mark Juliano, chief executive officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., operator of three casinos.

Dan Nita, Mid-Atlantic president for Harrah's Entertainment Inc., owner of four Atlantic City casinos, predicted business will improve in July and August, but noted that the entire summer likely will be down compared with last year.

"I think it's going to be similar to the trends for the second quarter," Nita said.

Overall, the 11 casinos took in $322.7 million in June. Slot winnings slipped 14.5 percent to $227.5 million, while revenue from table games decreased 11.3 percent to $95.3 million, according to figures released Friday by the state Casino Control Commission.

Battered by the recession and competition from Pennsylvania's casinos, Atlantic City has had 10 straight months of falling revenue. For the first six months this year, revenue is off 15.3 percent, to $1.94 billion.

June, historically a good month in the city's 31-year history of casinos, has been down the last three years in a row amid sluggish summers. This June, all of the casinos posted lower revenue. The Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort took the biggest hit, down 24 percent, followed by Trump Marina Hotel Casino, off nearly 21 percent.

Only Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort avoided double-digit declines. Borgata led the market with $57.8 million in revenue, off 4.2 percent from its performance in June 2008. Revenue at the Taj Mahal came in at $32.9 million, down 8.1 percent.

Juliano said the new hotel towers built by Borgata and the Taj Mahal last year are attracting more customers to the casinos despite the faltering economy. Visitors, however, are tighter with their spending for gambling trips, he added.

"You're seeing plenty of volume, but people are cautious about what they spend," Juliano said.

In addition to the soft economy, Atlantic City also had to contend with some exceptionally soggy weather in June and the opening of new Pennsylvania slots parlor, the Sands Bethlehem Casino Resort.

"We had an awful lot of rain throughout the month of June. But I don't know if it had a significant impact on business," Juliano said.

The new Sands casino is strategically located along the Interstate 78 corridor, a critical link to Atlantic City feeder markets in New York and northern New Jersey. Despite predictions the Sands would cut deeply into Atlantic City's customer base, the casino's first full month of operation did not seem to have a major effect here, executives said.

"I don't see much of a change with the opening of Bethlehem," Juliano said. "This seems pretty consistent with the prior months. This looks like the same kind of decreases that we've been seeing."

The Harrah's casinos noticed no big declines in the number of visits or level of spending among their customers from New York and northern New Jersey connected to Bethlehem's grand opening, according to Nita.

"The Bethlehem property is still getting its legs underneath it. We haven't seen a substantial change in business coming from that area yet," he said.

E-mail Donald Wittkowski:

DWittkowski@pressofac.com

20 comments:

• Psychodad (1) posts 2:41 pm

  Yes, I smoke, but as a pipe smoker, I gave up smoking in the casinos years ago. However, the last time my wife and I were at Harrahs (a holiday weekend), we were surprised and disappointed to discover that although we are "rated" players, we were expected to pay for parking. The young lady collecting stated this was due to the holiday weekend, and that we were certainly not the first to complain. Let's see: three hour drive from Long Island, stick $3-4,000 in the machines, buy breakfast, lunch and dinner (usually in the casino) and then get charged $5.00 per day to park? Per the missus, never again!

• Grampy (32) posts 4:01 pm

  Good news Reality! This ignorant lowlife drug addicted second class animal piggy citizen is now taking his 5 smokes a day habit and his non-smoking wife to Vegas twice a year instead of AC. I hope those employees are healthier, even the ones scheduled to be unemployed soon.

• OperaDovi (5) posts 9:12 am

  I live in Baltimore but grew up in New Jersey. I happen to enjoy taking 2-3 trips to Atlantic City a year (sometimes more if my job and performance schedule allow it). With this economy sadly I have only been once this year but am planning a trip soon. I have two suggestions to make Atlantic City more attractive to tourists. 1. Knock down the blight. Baltimore and Atlantic City seem to suffer from a major case of far too many abandoned and run down properties. Knock them down, plant a park or two and some new affordable housing for the actual citizens make it less like a war zone. 2. Dump the horrible jitney's they are dirty and smell, build a proper transit rail. Atlantic City is relatively small and unlike Baltimore could truly benefit from a circular light rail connecting the casinos, the boardwalk, airport, convention center and the business areas (try to limit the stops so that it only takes 25-40 min for a full circuit). Just so you don't think I am throwing stones from paradise, I am not blind to the ills of Baltimore! Sadly Baltimore suffers the same mass transit problems. Maryland is sadly inept when it comes to mass transit planning. we have an antiquated buss system, a north / south running light rail and a subway that runs from down town to a north west suburb. they never connect in a proper way and are a Joke! by building a proper subway we could turn this city around!

• BernieSchwartz (645) posts 7:59 pm

  Idiot, that would be more than Langfords doing.

• PPisPork (52) posts 6:08 pm

  Hey you all, "Jessie Kurtz has great ideas to turn the casino's economic slide around." Well lets list them, 1. He proposes to to stand outside of the new Bethlehem Casino with a megaphone and give out free Hilton Buffet tickets. 2. He will stand in front of Mohegan Sun with a sign saying Put the Indians back in the Reservation. and 3. He will be the Mayor known across the nation to flash at cars entering the city if they honk at him. Can he be anymore stupid than powdered water?

• Jamesy (80) posts 3:25 pm

  they can always build another Wawa...that way Business Editor Kevin Post will have something to write about...lol.

• layoffvictim08 (18) posts 11:03 am

  The "beatings" in revenue only mean more beatings for the casino employees and their benefits as if they haven't taken enough beatings already. And we all know what this spells come September and October. Yup, another round of layoffs! What an industry it has become! It's the same song and dance and a continuous downward spiral into a black hole!

• Andy2009 (6) posts 9:25 am

  '' they expressed some optimism that July and August will be stronger.'''HAHA...they are living in fools paradise,I work at one casino,its July 12th,no biz at all,so what you have left in summer is AUGUST ,it will not change anything.

• KURTZ4Mayor (145) posts 7:43 am

  Once elected Mayor THIS November 3rd, 2009, Jesse Kurtz will meet with ALL of the heads of the casinos and enact he plans to turn the city around and STOP this downward spiral that we are currently experiencing. He has great ideas to attract people to the region and give them a reason to want to come to Atlantic City, instead of the current administrations lackadaisical attitude and care free manner. We respectfully ask for your vote on November 3, a vote for an independent is a vote for the current Mayor and we just can not afford 4 more years of this mess.

• BernieSchwartz (645) posts 3:41 pm

  The Casinos and City officials need to take action! Watching the numbers go down month after month won't solve anything. Do something, anything!

• Bobstake (244) posts 12:52 pm

  The economy will get better and revenues will go up a little soon. However, to survive AC & the casinos need to have a mutually acceptable long term master plan.What is the right way to counter the competetion? Is it lower room rates, better & cheaper buffets & restuarants. Since people who gamble & drink want to smoke let them! How about NO PARKING FEES at a casino with validation. Somebody said a mono-rail from the airport to city (sounds good if its do-able). We all need AC to succeed.

• todfiat (0) posts 12:01 pm

  The Sands of Bethlehem? the sands of time are running out on A.C. Table games in other states are inevitable as govts. find new & innovative ways to suck revenue from a dwindling base. Once the camel gets its nose under the tent.... As to a virtual DisneyWorld, etc., amusement piers, whatever -- you have to shutter them for the winter months. Just like the boatyards and marinas. What then? The dead of winter is much more tolerable in woodsy PA and upstate NY than at the shore. Frankly, it's a sticky wicket for A.C. in the coming years. No palmistry needed to suss that out.

• MikeElbedewy (22) posts 10:52 am

  Smarten up AC: NO tolls NO pay to park Full pay VP and single-deck BJ Cheap, good buffets, not $23.95 Free rooms with no "tax" on free. and---get RID of the scumbags on the BW. When PA and Del. get table games half the joints in AC will go bye-bye unless they smarten up.

• Nikynewark (117) posts 10:28 am

  So the excuse this time is "battered by the recession and comptition from Pennsylvania casinos", THERE ARE NO CASINOS IN PENNSYLVANIA, only slot parlors! Yet "table games decreased by 11.3 percent". How can PA, NY or Delaware slot parlors take ANY AC table business? DUH! About the Sands, Bethlehem...a beautiful clean mostly smoke free place with a better location for the 16,000,000 (that's 16 MILLION) New York and north Jersey slot and video poker players, so of course they are squeezing AC. Unlike the Sands AC which is only a hole in the beach. Me? I'll take Monticello NY with it's clean smoke free better playing machines and FREE parking. Or Yonkers NY just 10 TOLL FREE minutes from those millions of people.

• shoes6952 (1) posts 8:25 am

  First of all they are less and less smokers in the casinos--so get over it Reality!!! You are the third class citizen speaking the way you are! You are rude and boring---YOU ARE THE PIG!! Get an education and learn how to speak nice of all people.

• RubberBand (4) posts 7:03 am

  This town needs to become a family resort destination. A monorail from the airport to the city and around the city stoping at every casino. Piers and Piers of amusement rides and games owned by casino operators and individuals. Water Sports motorized and non motorized. Beach Facilities. The whole nine yards. Day care , Night Care. A virtual Disney world. If PA gets table games we are toast. We have to spend the money to make money. The party scene just does not cut it. Do or Die.

• JokersWild (20) posts 2:28 am

  Yeah, there you go... lets absolutely kick the hell out of the casinos while they are struggling! You guys are on the right track now. Lets all band together and try our hardest to eliminate the ONLY industry that has managed to keep Atlantic City on the map. (sigh... idiots) Anti-smoking zealots, greedy politicians in Trenton, out-of-state competition, money grubbing bums/residents in Atlantic City, inept City Councilmen, dynastic and myopic Mayors, and the biggest of the silver bullets -- the UAW. Anybody else have any ideas for how we can politely ask the casino industry to take a long walk off of Steel Pier. After all, we don't really need them, right? I mean, come on... Detroit is doing just fine. We should send a fact finding committee to Michigan and take notes.

• BernieSchwartz (645) posts 9:35 pm

  Maybe if the CRDA invested the 1.25% wisely the slide would stop, but hey, let's build another parking garage and let the boardwalk rot.

• weisenthal (293) posts 9:29 pm

  Ms. Scott continues to struggle with her mental illness. It's unfortunate, that Atlantic city has been plagued with more than it's fair share of the feeble minded and mental ill, like "reality", that is Ms. Scott. Her people should get her into care before she does something more dangerous than participate in campaings to have the state take over the casinos and direct how they should be run, I.E.: ban 30 to 40% of their best losing customers left since this abandonment, which, obvious to all but the sick-in-the-head crowd, the control freak antismoking nazi criminals, began at precisely the time when Atlantic City fell victim to these fascist lunatics, last summer and fall, and quit Atlantic City to avoid this repression and stayed in their own states, the free ones. They are entirely to blame for the free-fall, and are lucky that the numbers aren't down double the present rate. They've ruined the industry, the city and sent thousands into the streets, begging for a crust of bread for their familys. I wonder how many hookers and drug addicts this tragedy spawned? Institutionalization should be mandatory for these criminal antismoking nazis.

• Reality (35) posts 6:07 pm

  Atlantic City needs to ban these drug addicted smokers once and for all. This will improve the win percentage. The quality of the casino customer will improve once you rid the casino floor of these cigarette junkies. These druggies are the bottom dwellers of society, banned from nearly every business in this state but the casino floor. These junkies are not wanted anywhere in this state. They are a menace to society. Who wants to be next to one of these lowlifes at a table game or a slot machine? These people are ignorant, and stink. Their breath, clothes, and hair wreak of tobacco. The casino will have happier, healthier customers and workers once these druggies are banned. These drug addicts will still come to gamble, they are animals, and animals adapt to their surroundings. It's time for these drug addicts to go where they belong, to smoke with their other fellow druggies. You junkies think you are being treated like second-class citizens? Wrong, you addicts have NO class, so being treated like second-class is a step up for you losers! This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home. Do us a favor piggies- stay home!

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