Operator News

US – Only four Atlantic City casinos making more profit than before the pandemic

By Phil - 11 April 2023

Whilst Nevada’s casinos continue to boom, their counterparts in Atlantic City are struggling to bounce back in the post-pandemic world with only four of the nine casinos reporting an operating profit that was higher than what they achieved in 2019.

Based upon filings from the casino licensees made with the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the casino licensees reported fourth quarter 2022 net revenue of $771.9m, reflecting a one per cent increase over the same quarter last year. Casino licensees reported fourth quarter 2022 Gross Operating Profit of $119.3m, a 31.6 per cent decrease compared to fourth quarter 2021. Hard Rock, Ocean, Resorts and Tropicana all did better last year than in 2019.

Compared to last year’s figures, only two casinos improved their operating profits in 2022 from 2021. Hard Rock generated over $128m, an increase of over 20 per cent and Ocean was up 5.5 per cent to $96.2m.

Of the other’s, Bally’s delivered a loss of $1.8m compared to a profit of $13.1m in 2021, Borgata was down 19.4 per cent, Caesars down 2.7 per cent, Harrah’s down 10 per cent, Resorts down 24 per cent and Tropicana down 7.6 per cent. The other casinos, Golden Nugget was down a fraction.

Mark Giannantonio, President of Resorts Casino and the Casino Association of New Jersey, sblamed infation and rising expenses.

“You have revenue that’s not growing fast enough, and couple that with expenses in some categories that are up 20 to 25 per cent or more, and you can see how quickly this can erode profits,” he explained.

For the calendar year 2022, net revenue reached $3.3bn, increasing 9.3 per cent from the comparable period last year. For the 12 months of 2022, casino licensees reported Gross Operating Profit of $731.3m, a 4.6 per cent decrease compared to the same period last year.

The hotel occupancy rate in the industry’s casino hotels for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, was 65.8 per cent, which is a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The occupancy rate for the 12 months ended December 31, 2022, was 73.4 per cent, an increase of 5.8 percentage points from the comparable period last year.