Atlantic City Casino Revenue Tops 2019 Levels as Gaming Industry Continues Growth
Atlantic City, the seaside resort town in New Jersey, is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. The city has been a popular destination for gamblers and tourists for decades, but it also faced many challenges and hardships in the past. In 2014, four of its 12 casinos closed, and the city’s gaming revenue plummeted to its lowest level since 1989. The city also struggled with debt, crime, and corruption and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
However, in recent years, Atlantic City has shown signs of recovery and resurgence, thanks to the legalization of sports betting and online gambling in New Jersey, as well as the reopening of two shuttered casinos in 2018. The city’s gaming industry has been growing steadily, and in 2022, it achieved a remarkable milestone: it surpassed its pre-pandemic revenue levels.
Revenue Breakdown
According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), Atlantic City casinos won more than $2.78 billion from gamblers at the nine resorts in 2022. That’s a 9% improvement from 2021 and 3.7% higher than what the casinos won in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the industry. The 2022 revenue figure is also the highest since 2012 when the city’s casinos won $3.05 billion.
The growth in 2022 was driven by several factors, including the increasing popularity of sports betting and online gambling, the reopening of the city’s casinos to full capacity in May, the pent-up demand from customers who were eager to return to in-person gaming, and the ongoing investments and improvements made by the casino operators to enhance their properties and amenities.
Sports betting and online gambling have been a boon for Atlantic City’s gaming industry, as they have attracted new customers, diversified the revenue streams, and boosted the overall gaming market. In 2022, the city’s casinos generated nearly $1.66 billion from online gambling, a 22% increase from 2021 and a 244% increase from 2019. Online gambling accounted for 37% of the city’s total gaming revenue in 2022, up from 26% in 2019.
Sports betting, which was legalized in New Jersey in 2018, also saw significant growth in 2022, as the city’s casinos and their online partners won nearly $763 million from sports wagers, a 10% increase from 2021 and a 123% increase from 2019. Sports betting accounted for 21% of the city’s total gaming revenue in 2022, up from 14% in 2019.
The brick-and-mortar casinos also performed well in 2022, as they won more than $2 billion from slot machines and $741.7 million from table games, a 9.5% and 6.4% increase from 2019, respectively. The casinos also benefited from the lifting of the pandemic-related restrictions on capacity, operations, and amenities in May, which allowed them to resume their normal business and offer a full range of entertainment options to their guests.
Property Highlights
The casino operators also continued to reinvest in their properties and improve their offerings, such as adding new restaurants, bars, lounges, sportsbooks, hotel rooms, and convention spaces. Some of the notable developments in 2022 included the opening of the $400 million Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena, a 7,000-seat entertainment venue at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino; the completion of the $170 million renovation of the Ocean Casino Resort, which added 250 new guest rooms, a high-limit slot area, and a VIP lounge; and the launch of the $150 million Caesars Forum, a 125,000-square-foot meeting and event space at the Caesars Atlantic City.
