SEARCH NEWS:

 

Atlantic City Casinos Feeling Pressure

"For the first six months of this year, Atlantic City's 12 casinos generated revenues of $2.1 billion, a decrease of 1.1 percent from the same period last year.

"…In Atlantic City, overall casino revenue dropped 2.8 percent in June from the same month a year earlier, although slot machine revenue rose 3.8 percent.

"In Connecticut, where the Indian casinos report only slot revenue to state regulators, Mohegan Sun recorded an increase of 14.3 percent over June 2000 to $52.6 million, and Foxwoods was up 9 percent to $64.5 million.

"`My theory is the bigger we get and the more diversity of products that we and Foxwoods offer, Connecticut becomes more and more of a force,' Mitchell Etess, Mohegan Sun's executive vice president of marketing, said Thursday.

"…Robert DeSalvio, the executive vice president of marketing at Foxwoods, said it is difficult to measure the effect of Connecticut's casinos on Atlantic City because the two markets overlap only in the New York metropolitan area. He suggested one factor could be advertising.

"…Combined overall revenue generated at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun is estimated at about $2 billion a year, compared with $4.3 billion last year in Atlantic City, where the first casino opened in 1978. But the Connecticut market has plenty of room to grow because it is regarded as comparable to Atlantic City, with 10 million adults within 100 miles of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun and more than 20 million adults within 150 miles…"

< Gaming News