The Atlantic City casinos enjoyed a solid first month to the summer of 2022, generating $229.1 million of revenue in June. The Garden State’s nine AC casinos keep seeing consistent earnings as they begin the first normal summer since 2019.
Pandemic restrictions took a major toll on all of the retail casinos, but it appears tough times might be in the rearview.
Based on figures provided by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, June’s performance topped its profits from this time last year by 6.8%. It also easily exceeded the AC retail casino revenue pulled in prior to shutting down in 2020.
With Feb. 2020 right around $208.3 million, in-person betting just might be back to where it once was. June marks the fifth consecutive month in which AC casinos reported at least $212 million in revenue.
Atlantic City casino revenue looks strong in June
AC casinos are doing well at the perfect time of the year. Naturally, most summer months produce a lot of casino revenue with the beautiful weather and increased vacationers.
While June 2022 didn’t necessarily match June 2019’s showing, it came very close. AC casinos managed slightly over $236 million three years ago, resulting in a 3% drop off to this latest month.
That is not far off at all, and an encouraging sign for operators in the state.
Borgata took the top spot in terms of individual casinos once again. It led all others with more than $54 million in total retail earnings, although its edge isn’t as strong as it once was.
Borgata actually endured a 4.1% decrease in revenue from June 2021, while the Hard Rock’s profits soared by 26.6%. The Hard Rock finished the month with about $44.5 million, just around $10 million shy of the market leader.
Ocean Casino featured a substantial rise in revenue over the last year, too. It nearly reached $30 million in June, a jump up of 29.4% year-over-year.
Bally’s represented the only other casino location whose revenue moved that much. It grew profits by 20.3%, completing June with over $13.5 million. The property recently unveiled $100 million in upgrades, so the performance could be the result of gamblers checking out the new amenities.
It’s not a huge surprise that the two casinos expanding the most over the last 12 months are outdoing their pre-COVID figures. Both Hard Rock and Ocean Casino earned more to start this current summer than in June 2019, the only AC casinos to do so.
Hard Rock’s revenue surged 48%, whereas Ocean Casino is up 47%.
Atlantic City casino June revenue breakdown
Here is a closer look at the June slots and table games results for all nine Atlantic City casinos.
Casino | Table & Other | Poker | Slot Machines | Total Gaming Win |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bally's | $3,343,527 | $ - | $10,203,953 | $13,547,480 |
Borgata | $10,736,950 | $1,106,634 | $42,410,161 | $54,253,745 |
Caesars | $5,616,634 | $ - | $13,608,881 | $19,225,515 |
Golden Nugget | $2,633,728 | $ - | $9,937,643 | $12,571,371 |
Hard Rock | $16,009,581 | $ - | $28,547,996 | $44,557,577 |
Harrah's | $4,092,231 | $273,107 | $15,779,863 | $20,145,201 |
Ocean Casino | $7,814,714 | $ - | $21,855,700 | $29,670,414 |
Resorts | $2,214,029 | $- | $11,501,529 | $13,715,558 |
Tropicana | $4,029,397 | $199,216 | $17,227,374 | $21,455,987 |
Total | $56,490,791 | $1,578,957 | $171,073,100 | $229,142,848 |
Slots carry the bulk of AC casino revenue
The total AC casino revenue sits at $1.31 billion through June. This is 18% better than the year prior, when earnings hit just $1.11 billion in the same time frame.
As usual, slots betting created the most profits, but they carried even a bigger portion of the revenue this time around. Overall, slot machines at AC casinos surpassed $171 million in earnings last month.
This is now the third straight month where they’ve seen a minimum of $170 million. The three months before that, slots revenue averaged closer to only $145 million.
So even though table game earnings fell from June 2021 by 3.9%, the 11% increase for slots more than made up the difference.
Looking ahead to the rest of Summer 2022
AC casinos will need to expand off of their successful June even more in order to keep pace with pre-pandemic output. The first month of summer came close to revenue figures from three years ago, but July and August previously took off from there.
Revenue from 2019 boosted up over 17% from June to July, then another 3% in August. That final full month of summer totaled almost $286.5 million, before dropping about $60 million the following month.
It’s quite possible the casinos can keep up with these trends this summer. Health restrictions are fairly low all around the country, so there should be lots of bettors looking to get out there.
It should also help that many AC casinos underwent recent changes. Several include new restaurants, as well as renovated casino floors and hotel rooms.