Profits fell for NJ casinos in first quarter of 2024, despite filling more rooms

New Jersey’s nine casinos — all based in Atlantic City — saw their combined profits fall by nearly 10% in the first quarter of 2024, public filings show, as the casinos struggled to maintain a profit during the winter and face the prospect of losing business to a casino in North Jersey or New York City.

The casinos made $140 million in profits during the first three months of 2024, compared to over $155 million at the start of 2023 — or a decline of 9.6% — according to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, which regulates gambling in the state.

With the inclusion of online gambling, the decline shrinks a bit, by 8.7%, according to state regulators.

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“The first quarter was a little rough,” James Allen, chief executive officer of Hard Rock International — which has a hotel casino in Atlantic City — said in April at the East Coast Gaming Congress, held in Atlantic City.

Casinos struggled with increased costs of doing business, as well as inflation, said Jane Bokunewicz, director of Stockton University’s Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism, which studies New Jersey’s casino market.

And, she said, there’s been a “potential shift in revenue mix to operations like lodging and food and beverage that traditionally have narrower profit margins.”

For example, the casinos sold 10,000 more room nights in January, February and March of 2024 than that same time in 2023, despite an $8 increase in year-over-year room rates.

James Plousis, chair of the Casino Control Commission, another regulatory body, cited similar reasons in a Wednesday statement.

“Maybe as the weather gets better, hopefully more people will choose to come in person,” Bokunewicz of Stockton said.

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Regional competition

State officials in New York are offering three casino licenses in the New York City area.

Mark Giannantonio, president of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City and of the Casino Association of New Jersey, a trade group, referred to such a prospect as a “threat” to the South Jersey gambling city.

Allen has estimated that between 20% and 30% of Atlantic City’s visitors come from North Jersey and the New York area, said the gambling trade publication PlayNJ.

New Jersey already faces competition from several casinos close to its borders: Empire Casino in Yonkers, just north of New York City; Resorts World in Queens; several casinos in Philadelphia and another in Delaware.

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is lobbying state officials for his plans to build an $8 billion casino with Hard Rock near Citi Field in Queens. Sands has plans for a sprawling casino resort on Long Island, having already completed a long-term lease purchase of property at the site of the Nassau Coliseum.

Meanwhile, Wynn Resorts and developer Related Cos. are partnering with plans for a $12 billion casino at Hudson Yards in Manhattan along the Hudson River.

Another casino has been proposed for Times Square, and another on the East Side close to the United Nations world headquarters.

And Jeff Gural, owner of the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, wants to revisit the idea for a casino in the racetrack’s backyard, with a price tag as high as $2 billion.

“I can’t imagine that people in northern New Jersey are going to be happy driving over the George Washington Bridge and paying $18 in tolls and sitting in traffic in order to get to the casino,” he told NorthJersey.com last month.

A smoking ban?

A group of casino workers, meanwhile, are pushing to entirely ban smoking on casino floors in Atlantic City. Smoking is currently allowed in certain parts of the gambling halls.

The workers have been urging state legislators to pass a bill that would ban smoking, and they sued New Jersey in April to overturn a law that gives casinos an exemption for indoor smoking.

“A pure smoking ban is one of the greatest threats to our business right now,” Giannantonio said.

Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record. 

Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ casinos profits fall in first quarter of 2024. Here's why