It’s no secret that Atlantic City casinos have suffered, particularly over the past year. Three have closed since this time in 2014: Revel Atlantic City, The Showboat, and the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel also closed in January of 2014. The city itself is dealing with financial turmoil and the backlash of a recent emergency management team report, which showed just how much needs to be done for Atlantic City to get back to healthy budget management.
But while some casinos have fallen on hard times or have had to close their doors altogether, others have found a way to maintain and still offer a quality gaming experience while still turning a profit.
Some Optimism
Despite the fuss about the struggles that Atlantic City casinos have been going through, the first two months of this year have shown some promise. According to state Casino Control Commission Chairman Matthew Levinson, six of the eight remaining casinos still present in Atlantic City have reported increases. And Bally’s Atlantic City, which like the Trump Taj Mahal didn’t report increases, was only off by four percent.
The overall outlook isn’t necessarily as bad as publicized, either. Of the eight Atlantic City casinos still up and running, the decrease in comparable revenue is down a mere two percent, and until a frigid month of February, those revenues were actually up one percent year-to-date.
Four out of the eight casinos experienced growth during the month of February, despite the snow and below-average temperatures: the Golden Nugget, Tropicana, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, and Resorts Casino Hotel Atlantic City. The Golden Nugget was the biggest winner, with a 44% growth since the beginning of 2015.
Online Gambling
While revenues for table games and slot machines decreased to the tune of 16%, rising online gambling revenues are keeping industry insiders hopeful. Spurred by casinos like the Golden Nugget tripling online revenue over the first two months to $1.5 million and Tropicana more than doubling its online gambling efforts to $2.6 million over the same period of time, Internet gambling has seen an 11% overall increase to start the year with $22.0 million in accumulated revenue.
It should be noted that responsible gambling features have been put in place for online players. Those features range from putting caps on how much can be placed into a gambling account to actually placing a self-imposed five-year ban from betting sites.
Casinos Looking at New Ways to Invite Gamblers
Casino operators in Atlantic City aren’t just going to sit back and watch their businesses fail, especially seeing the pitfalls of some of their competitors. Instead, they are constantly looking for ways to improve their current services and expand to add new ones that would attract a wider audience. These changes are being discussed as a solution to attracting a younger generation to actually partake in casino gaming rather than skipping to the nightclubs and restaurants.
Skill-based games are the route some casinos will be taking this year, introducing games like free-throw shooting and other sports-based tournaments, while others are finding ways to implement mobile devices, with suggestions like “tablet-based arcade fare.”
The LGBT crowd is another focus of casinos, and of Atlantic City as a whole. The association to this community has been a long one, but with the recent prominence of the LGBT community and their infusion into mainstream culture, now is a good time to refocus the campaign towards the demographic.
Casinos have already taken steps to align themselves with the LGBT market, partnering with such events as Sand Blast and Miss’d America, and have launched their own gay-themed promotions, including the “Out in the Atlantic” party series and a $50,000 gay wedding giveaway.
Casinos Still Enjoyable Entertainment
Regardless of all that’s gone on with casinos in Atlantic City, they are still great sources of fun and entertainment and the city still draws huge amounts of tourists from all over the world looking to enjoy themselves at any one of the current casinos. And now that spring is here and the warm weather will become a mainstay for the next few months, it’s a great chance for adults of any age to visit casinos and see just how much fun they can be.
And for all those tourists who are lucky enough to win substantial amounts of money, Refund Management Services offers a simple, professional, and trusted service for winners claiming back taxes from casinos. And with our One Simple StepTM process, long-standing relationship with the IRS, and helpful customer service agents, retrieving your full winnings is easier than ever. Contact Refund Management Services today for more information.
Sources:
Wittkowski, D., “Atlantic City casino revenue falls $3.4 Million in February,” PressOfAtlanticCity.com, March 13, 2015; http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic/atlantic-city-casino-revenue-falls-million-in-february/article_e8b3aa50-c8e6-11e4-bd44-93ce19b0724f.html.
McQuade, D., “5 Charts That Show Just How Screwed Atlantic City Is,” Philadelphia web site, March 26, 2015; http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/03/26/atlantic-city-financial-crisis-charts/.
Dawsey, J., “Atlantic City Tries Its Luck Offering Skill-Based Games,” The Wall Street Journal web site, March 15, 2015; http://www.wsj.com/articles/atlantic-citys-gambling-sector-looks-at-offering-new-skill-based-games-1426468950.
Wittkowski, D., “Atlantic City beckons LGBT tourists,” PressOfAtlanticCity.com, March 30, 2015; http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/communities/atlantic-city_pleasantville_brigantine/atlantic-city-beckons-lgbt-tourists/article_3d6ec6e0-d681-11e4-b91f-43f6bd4b66a4.html.