The recent storms which battered the east coast of the US also affected the 11 casinos in Atlantic City. According to recent numbers released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Hurricane Irene managed to wreak more damage to the area’s gambling establishments than previously believed.
The numbers show that revenues in the eleven casinos in Atlantic City were down nearly 20% in August 2011, compared to a year ago.
Of course, we can’t blame it all on the weather, and there were a number of other factors which contributed to these losses, which translate into $59.6 million. For one, the economy is already weak and Atlantic City has been struggling with revenues for quite some time. In addition, these casinos face fierce competition from Pennsylvania, which managed to keep its establishments open while Atlantic City was forced to close hers down for three days.
The revenues lost are more than what AC casinos lost in July 2006, when the government forced them to shut down for three days.
Joseph Weinert, speaking for Spectrum Gaming Group LLC said: “Although difficult to quantify, Hurricane Irene effectively wiped out a whole weekend in what is traditionally one of the industry’s two busiest months of the year. We believe that Irene at least doubled the gaming revenue decline that the casinos otherwise would have experienced.”
The CEO for Tropicana, Tony Rodio had a different way of looking at things. “I’m ecstatic,” he said. “If not for the hurricane, we would have shown growth for the month of August. We were down $2.3 million for the month, but we estimate losing about $4 million because of the hurricane.”
He said that the Tropicana had the smallest decline in the market and even though Atlantic City ‘lost’ a weekend because of the hurricane, it still grew its table game business significantly which, he said, was up 21.6%.
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