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Atlantic City Loses Money in Record Amounts (2 of 2)

Pennsylvania’s fledgling slot machine casino industry has taken business away from Atlantic City’s older casinos, says Robert LaFleur. The casino analyst for the Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP of Stamford, Connecticut said that the slots in Pennsylvania might be a bit more accessible for overworked gamblers with a lot less money in their respective pockets. A La Fleur pointed out, it takes time and money to travel to Atlantic City to gamble for a few hours. Both of these are commodities that people have less and less of, these days. Yonkers, New York, has also recently added fruit machines for the first time and demanded its own share of the regional gambling market, said LaFleur.

All eleven of the sites with slot machines in Atlantic City lost business in September. Records show that the big resorts took the brunt of the impact, with losses of thirty-three percent. Harrah’s Entertainment, owners of the Marina hotel casino, saw a drop of more than eight percent. The Borgata Hotel Casino and Spat lost just five percent, which was the best performance of any of the properties meeting the criteria.

Atlantic City is so concerned about the plummeting slot machine revenues that they are taking drastic action. A full smoking ban on casino floors was set to take effect this week, but the City Council voted to put it off, and hopefully forestall the decline in visitors that is expected to result from the controversial measure. Some have said that the council will even go so far as to repeal the smoking measure entirely.

Back to October 2008 Archive.