Atlantic City casino revenue down only slightly in March

Atlantic City's casinos saw their revenue decline by less than 1 percent in March compared to a year ago.

Figures released Wednesday by the state's Division of Gaming Enforcement show the casinos took in $202.9 million in March. That's a decline of 0.4 percent compared to March 2015.

Internet gambling continued its now-steady growth in New Jersey, increasing by nearly 18 percent from last March to $15.5 million.

Matt Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said the continued strength of internet gambling and a small increase in slot revenue (up 0.2 percent) helped offset most of a decline in revenue from table games.

"Gamblers did play more at the table games, but they won more, too," he said.

Slot machine revenue was $132.8 million, and table games brought in $54.6 million.

Half the city's eight casinos saw increases, led by Resorts, which was up 17.8 percent to $13 million. Bally's was up 9.6 percent to $17.4 million. The Tropicana, which on Wednesday got approval from gambling regulators to run the Trump Taj Mahal (both of which are now owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn) was up 6 percent to $25.6 million. The Golden Nugget was up 3.6 percent to $19.8 million.

The largest decline came at Harrah's, which was down 11.8 percent to $28.5 million. Other declines included the Taj Mahal, down 10.3 percent to $13.2 million; Caesars, down 4.6 percent to $22.2 million, and the Borgata. As usual, the Borgata took in the most money at $57.9 million. But even that was down nearly 4 percent from last year.

The Borgata continued to lead New Jersey's Internet gambling market with $4.2 million in online winnings, up 0.8 percent from a year ago. The Tropicana and Caesars Interactive-NJ, each with $3.16 million, and the Golden Nugget were closely competing for second place. Resorts Digital had $1.8 million in online winnings in March.

For the first three months of the year, the casinos have won a collective $597 million, which is 3.1 percent ahead of their pace over the same period last year.

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