ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City heads into 2020 with some optimism , buoyed by an expanded casino market with more jobs and more revenue.
But there is also some concern over whether all nine casinos will make it to the finish line of 2020, and whether nearby states will eat into Atlantic City’s main strengths right now: online gambling and sports betting.
2019 was the first full year that all nine casinos have been operating. Hard Rock, the former Trump Taj Mahal and the Ocean Casino Resort, the former Revel, both opened in June 2018. Largely because of the two additional casinos, Atlantic City’s in-person casino winnings at brick-and-mortar casinos were up 7.7% from January through November, to $2.4 billion. Adding internet gambling and sports betting money, the total rises to over $3 billion over that same period.
But the presence of the two new casinos was also a major factor in declining gross operating profits for the Atlantic City casino industry as a whole, down 4.5% to $484 million over the first nine months of the year compared to the same period a year ago.
How the city navigates the changing tides of the industry will determine the kind of year 2020 will be.
“I think we will see the city continue to adjust to the new gambling landscape,” said David Schwartz, a gambling historian with the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “Sports betting and online betting will continue to grow in importance. Anything that gives people a reason to visit Atlantic City in person when there are plenty of places to gamble closer to home — including home — will be key.”
The flip side of the concern about the effect the two new casinos are having on profits is the uptick in employment they brought. Nearly 6,700 people work at Hard Rock and Ocean, jobs that did not exist just a year and a half ago.
The new jobs come amid an already booming sports betting industry in New Jersey. Atlantic City’s casinos and two racetracks elsewhere in the state have made more than $111 million in sports betting revenue so far this year, compared with $40.8 million a year ago and nothing the year before that. Since the first bets were taken in June 2018, gamblers have plunked down more than $5.2 billion on sports bets in New Jersey.
And internet gambling revenue continues to increase as well, with $433 million taken in online by the casinos from January through November this year. That’s 60% better than the same period last year.
But the presence of the two new casinos was also a major factor in declining gross operating profits for the Atlantic City casino industry as a whole, down 4.5% to $484 million over the first nine months of the year compared to the same period a year ago.
How the city navigates the changing tides of the industry will determine the kind of year 2020 will be.
“I think we will see the city continue to adjust to the new gambling landscape,” said David Schwartz, a gambling historian with the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “Sports betting and online betting will continue to grow in importance. Anything that gives people a reason to visit Atlantic City in person when there are plenty of places to gamble closer to home — including home — will be key.”
The flip side of the concern about the effect the two new casinos are having on profits is the uptick in employment they brought. Nearly 6,700 people work at Hard Rock and Ocean, jobs that did not exist just a year and a half ago.
The new jobs come amid an already booming sports betting industry in New Jersey. Atlantic City’s casinos and two racetracks elsewhere in the state have made more than $111 million in sports betting revenue so far this year, compared with $40.8 million a year ago and nothing the year before that. Since the first bets were taken in June 2018, gamblers have plunked down more than $5.2 billion on sports bets in New Jersey.
And internet gambling revenue continues to increase as well, with $433 million taken in online by the casinos from January through November this year. That’s 60% better than the same period last year.
