A.C. Slots Still Suffering Against Pennsylvania Slots

On November 10th, 2007, the slot facilities in Pennsylvania continued to affect the Atlantic City casinos for the month of October. It was the eighth successive time that profits in Atlantic City's casino industry slide down. The casinos reported a total of $384.4 million in profits for the month, a 7.5% improvement slide from October 2006.

The total profit for the first ten months of the year was $4.2 billion compared to $4 billion in the same period ago, a 5% slide. Andrew Zarnett, an analyst working for the Deutsch Bank, said that the operators from Pennsylvania will continue to threaten Atlantic City casino because of the growing sophistication of the gambling technology.

The six slot establishment currently in operation in Pennsylvania earned a total of $103.5 million in October and about 55% goes to Pennsylvania. The slot parlors opened in November 2006. The state of New Jersey taxes its casino facilities 9.25%. Eight out of the eleven Atlantic City casino facilities reported profit declines, from 3.0% at the Caesars casino, 15% at the Tropicana casino and the Atlantic City Hilton.

The Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, which is considered to be Atlantic City's profit leader at $60.4 million was the biggest gainer at 7.3%, followed by Harrah's Marina at 1.7% and Resorts at 1.4%. Of the combined profit of more than $384.4 million, the casinos in Atlantic City won a total of $270.3 million from their slot machines and $114.1 million in casino table games.

Showing the effect of the slots parlors in Pennsylvania, slot profits slide down by 12.6% while casino table games profits improved 7.3%. Tony Rodio, the president of the Atlantic City Hilton and Resorts said that it has really been a difficult month for the casinos especially with the slot machines. Rodio said that the Resorts experienced a 0.5% decline on their slots profits for the month and 7.3% improvement in their casino table game profit after constructing 63 more hotel rooms.

Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Caroline Mitchell