Another bad month for AC casinos

Another bad month for AC casinos

	Published : Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:44 By : Agencies Print this Story

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - With half the year now in the books, 2007 is shaping up to be a year Atlantic City's casinos would rather forget.

The city's 11 gambling houses took in $2.44 billion over the first half of the year, down 4 percent from the same period last year. It is all but certain that 2007 will be the first year that revenues decrease since casino gambling began here in 1978.

The casinos won $419.8 million in June, or a 1.9 percent decline from June 2006. And the numbers probably would have been worse had there not been a fifth Saturday this June. Weekend days are the most profitable for casinos.

It was just the latest indication of the continuing strain that new slots parlors in Pennsylvania and New York are putting on Atlantic City.

Slots revenue in Atlantic City fell 4.9 percent last month, coming in at $303 million.

One bright spot, however, was the 6.9 percent increase in the amount the casinos won at table games.

And to put the numbers in perspective, despite the decline, this was still the second-best June the Atlantic City casinos had ever had.

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino posted the biggest decline last month, at 13.9 percent, followed by the Atlantic City Hilton Casino resort at 10.1 percent, Resorts Atlantic City at 6.8 percent, and The Tropicana Casino and Resort at 5.5 percent.

For the first six months of the year, seven of the 11 casinos reported declines, led by the Hilton at 7.9 percent, and Trump Plaza at 7.7 percent.

On the plus side, Caesar's Atlantic City posted a 22 percent increase last month, by far the largest in the city. The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was up 6.9 percent, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa was up 4.7 percent, and Harrah's Atlantic City was up 4.2 percent.

For the first half of the year, Caesar's was the biggest gainer at 11.1 percent, followed by The Borgata at 5.4 percent, Harrah's at 5.1 percent and Resorts at 2.5 percent.

The casinos paid nearly $195 million in taxes over the first half of the year, and another $30.4 million in state-mandated community reinvestment funds.