Atlantic City Casinos Earn $211m in February 2024

Leap years are always a guessing game for New Jersey casinos and their revenue earnings. Some years are good, while others are not so good. This year, the casinos failed to gain any ground, seeing a 1.6% decrease in year over year totals. The casinos in Atlantic City generated just over $211 million for the month, showing zero improvement when compared to pre-COVID totals.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has provided the February 2024 totals, showing land-based gambling for the Atlantic City venues coming in at $211 million. Three of nine casinos saw a profit in February 2024 compared to 2023.

An even bigger problem, aside from the poor performance of most venues, is that casinos earned over 3% less in February 2024 than in February 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

So far this year, casinos in Atlantic City are down 2.4% compared to last year. For 2024, four casinos have reported a double-digit decline percentage.

Most of the nine casinos in operation failed to see a solid month of earnings in February. The top-performing casinos are Borgata, Hard Rock, and Ocean Casino. Borgata generated over 53.6 million, with the bulk coming from slot games.

Hard Rock was up next with $41.1 million, featuring $28.1 million from Slots and $12.9 million from table games. Ocean Casino is next, providing $31 million in February.

From there, the state sees a significant drop in earnings. Harrah’s produced only $18.2 million, while Tropicana brought in $16.6 million. Caesars earned $16.4 million.

Resorts with $12.1 million are rounding out the list, and Golden Nugget with $11.6 million. Bally’s with $10.6 million. Harrah’s dropped 14.7%, while Caesars was down 13.7%. Bally’s was also down 13%, and Resorts at 3.6%.

So far this year, land-based casinos in Atlantic City are struggling. It is unclear what is causing the issue, but we know that the gaming venues are not turning a profit as expected. Something will have to change over the next few months to bring in more earnings, or we may see an even bigger problem as the casinos start to struggle to make ends meet.

While Atlantic City land-based venues are struggling, the online casinos are doing quite well. For February, the gaming operators generated over $182 million, a 28% increase from 2023. The amount helps the state see a 24% increase for the year compared to last year's time frame.

The month was so close to setting a new record that it barely missed out on the $183.3 million earned in January 2024. Golden Nugget, Resorts Digital, and Borgata were the state's top earners.

Operators under the Golden Nugget license earned just over $51 million. Resorts Digital was not far behind, as its partners contributed $48 million. Borgata Casino also did well in February, bringing in $40 million.

With the online sector producing massive revenues month after month and land-based casinos falling behind, are we seeing a new trend for New Jersey? Is the online sector going to become the top earner?

When you look at all areas of gambling as a pie, the iGaming sector produces a larger percentage of total gambling revenues. Year to date, the state has seen just over $872 million in revenues.

Of that amount, online casinos and sportsbooks have produced a combined $456 million. This is around 52% of the market share. If this trend continues, we may see an even larger split between the two sectors, and iGaming gain an even larger share.

Only time will tell, and we should see some indication of how things are going over the next few months as more revenue reports start to roll in.