We can expect year-over-year gambling revenue increases for Atlantic City in the final quarter of 2013, but that's only because the resort town was affected last year by the worst storm in New Jersey history.

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Flickr User Rob Boudon
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The city's 12 casinos were closed for a week, from late October until early November, due to Superstorm Sandy. Following that, numerous polls showed folks from New Jersey and across the Northeast region mistakenly believed Atlantic City's boardwalk was destroyed by the storm. The poor perception kept many people away for a while, resulting in poor gaming revenues that should pave the way to very positive 2013 figures for October, November and December.

Atlantic City casinos saw their gambling revenue drop by nearly 13 percent last month, compared to September 2012. All but one casino, the Atlantic Club, posted a gaming revenue decrease.

Roger Gros, publisher of Casino Connection AC, said the poor revenue report is obviously bad news, but it's not the only factor that can spell success for Atlantic City.

"If you look at non-gaming revenues, they're on the increase," Gros said. "They've been up double digits the last two years."

Internet gambling starts late next month, but full operation may take months to roll out.

"You're not really going to be able to gauge the impact of internet gaming until the spring," Gros said.

The casinos themselves will only receive a small percentage of the online winnings; the larger share goes to the gaming site operators.

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