Atlantic City’s net revenue continues to demonstrate stability, exceeding $3 billion for
three consecutive years.
Based upon filings from the casino licensees made with the Division of Gaming Enforcement — which were released Monday — for the calendar year 2023, net revenue reached $3.33 billion, increasing 0.8% from the comparable period last year.
For the fourth-quarter 2023, casino licensees reported a net revenue of $781.9 million, reflecting a 1.3% increase over the same quarter last year. Meanwhile the licensees reported Q4 2023 Gross Operating Profit of $148.5 million, a 3.6% decrease compared to Q4 2022.
Modest growth in 2023 succeeded in pushing net revenue to its highest figure in the past six years.
Each casino hotel reported positive gross operating profits in 2023 while facing strong competition for customers. The casinos are reinvesting in their properties to add exciting new attractions and appealing accommodations.
Comments from Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism, Stockton University School of Business, gave a little more insight and suggested it is getting more expensive for New Jersey’s casinos to operate, and patron spending may not be keeping pace.
“Although total net revenues for the year surpassed prior years, they did not translate into gains in gross operating profit. The same forces that might be tightening visitors’ purse strings (inflation, increased consumer prices, etc.) are also forcing operators to dig deeper into their pockets. Higher operational costs (wages, cost of goods, etc.) combined with increased spending on customer acquisition and retention (marketing, comps, etc.) have not been balanced by as significant an increase in consumer spending as the industry might have hoped for,” she said.
