Atlantic City casino revenue falls in September thanks to troubled Taj Mahal

Atlantic City casinos saw gaming revenue decline in September, the final full month in which the now shuttered Trump Taj Mahal makes a contribution.

Figures released Thursday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) showed AC’s eight casinos generating gaming revenue of $210.4m in September, down 3.5% from the same month last year. Throw in the $16.2m earned by DGE-licensed online gambling sites and the year-on-year decline improves to 1.5%.

September’s slot machine win fell 4.2% year-on-year to $147m while table games slipped 2% to just under $63.4m. For the year-to-date, brick-and-mortar gaming revenue is flat at $1.85b, or up 1.6% to just under $2b counting the online contributions.

The month was evenly split between net gainers and losers, with the Taj Mahal firmly in charge of the latter category. Unionized workers were picketing the Taj the whole month, likely discouraging all but the hardiest gamblers from crossing that threshold, which helped push its gaming revenue down a whopping 51.2% to just $8.15m.