This doesn’t make the decline in Atlantic City’s nine casinos operating profit any better. The collective numbers dropped by 15% in the first quarter of the year compared to their performance in Q1 2022 giving some substance to the claim that the sector has not recovered completely.
Various Factors Contribute to Atlantic City’s Casino Results
The information was confirmed by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement which said that the operating profit of the nine properties in the Garden State stood at $135.4 million, which was short of the $159 million that was posted last year.
New Jersey Casino Control Commission chairman James Plousis explained the numbers, arguing that the state’s casinos were faced with higher costs, which impinged on their financials and suppressed results. One of the reasons why is the increase in worker wages that was agreed upon recently, and which covered a number of casino employees, including beverage servers, porters, bartenders, and housekeepers.
Plousis said that the costs of wages were not the only contributing factor. Casinos were also employing more people, which meant that as operators continue to grow and expand, so do the associated costs. Other factors include inflation, says Casino Association of New Jersey president Mark Giannantonio.
Inflation, Higher Wagers, and More People Working
In the meantime, though, some companies have managed to improve their overall performance. Bally amassed $88,000 in operating profit – a small figure, indeed, but much better than the $6.8 million loss that the company posted in 2022. The Ocean Casino Resort’s profit was also up by nearly 28% and sat at $23.6 million.
Of course, not every profit was registering improved results. Resorts, for example, saw its profit drop to $284,000 from $527,000 last year. Borgata also registered a 50% decline in its profit to $22.8 million.
The Golden Nugget registered perhaps one of the smallest downticks of all, with profit sitting at $4.8 million in Q1 of 2023 compared to $5.6 million in Q1 of 2022. Caesars Entertainment on the other hand saw its results contract by 13.2% to $6.8 million. Resorts Digital inched up by 6% to $8 million.