Winter Snow Further Hurting Atlantic City Casino Industry

The Atlantic City casino industry just cannot catch a break these days. After losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because of the economic recession in the US, AC casinos are now dealing with another factor that is helping revenue drop, winter.

The season has had an unusually high amount of snowstorms that have devastated the Northeast this year. Due to the snowstorms, people have been unable to go out of their houses and travel to the popular gambling destination.

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is the first to show just how much money was lost due to the weather. Boyd Gaming, owners of the Borgata, released figures Tuesday that showed the casino losing $5 million in revenue during the first major snowstorm of this winter season back in late 2009.

The weather has not lightened up as the calendar turned to 2010. With more snowstorms battering New Jersey and the surrounding states, Boyd officials believe that another $5 million in revenue will be lost by the end of one of the nastiest winter seasons in years.

Atlantic City casinos have had to deal with double digit revenue declines for the better part of the past two years. The economy has played a major factor in the revenue loss, and some casinos in the city simply cannot afford to keep losing revenue at the pace of the past six months.

In addition to the economy and the weather, competition has helped revenues decline. Pennsylvania casinos had higher slot revenue that AC casinos for the first time ever in December. Then, lawmakers in Pennsylvania legalized table games for those casinos in February.

March 3, 2010
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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