from the New York Business Journal April 10, 2014:
Apr 10, 2014, 8:47am EDT
Atlantic City casino revenue plummeted in 2013
Last month, there were early warning signs that New Jersey’s online gambling experiment was going poorly, but now, with the release of figures from all of 2013, we can see the state’s entire gambling industry is sliding.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the state’s 12 casinos, together, pulled in a gross operating profit of $235 million in 2013, a steep drop from the previous year’s $360 million. One of those casinos, the Atlantic Club, has since shut down, the AP added.
The report pointed to the proliferation of casinos throughout the northeastern United States in recent years, especially in Pennsylvania, as the primary cause for the decline of Atlantic City’s gaming industry. In that light, it’s somewhat puzzling that Governor Chris Christie is considering a push toward even more casino activity in the state. As the AP described, the governor is putting effort into reviving Atlantic City’s economy, but could also approve casino gambling in the northern part of the state, at the Meadowlands.
Philadelphia Magazine looked at some of the issues facing Atlantic City’s local economy and concluded that the state's casino gambit has failed. Instead, the post suggested, Atlantic City and other places that are now struggling with a casino-centric economy amid a larger scene where there is casino over-saturation ought to, instead, focus on the basics of urban planning, which boils down to encouraging diverse entertainment options that appeal to far wider swathes of the population.