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Aug 10, 2007 4:03 pm US/Eastern
July Revenue Declines For Atlantic City Casinos
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) ―
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The state's Casino Control Commission reported Friday that casinos won $469.6 million last month, down 2.3 percent from July 2006. (file image)
AP
A three-day shutdown amid a state budget standoff in July 2006 made that a tough month for Atlantic City's casinos.
Though the doors were never locked in July 2007, the month was even worse.
The state's Casino Control Commission reported Friday that casinos won $469.6 million last month, down 2.3 percent from July 2006.
Faced with increased slot machine competition in Pennsylvania and New York and a new partial smoking ban on casino floors, New Jersey's gaming industry is slumping.
For the first seven months of 2007, casinos won $2.91 billion, down 3.7 percent for the same period last year. If the trend continues, this year would become the first in which gambling revenue for Atlantic City's casinos was lower than the year before.
Slot machine winnings were down in all but three of the resort's 11 casinos, but table game revenues were up in 10. Overall, four casinos brought in less in July 2007 than July 2006.
The biggest year-to-year decline has been at the Tropicana Casino, where revenues were down 11.4 percent. On Thursday, that casino's owner, Ft. Mitchell, Ky.based Columbia Sussex Corp., named Mark Giannantonio the property's new president and general manager.
He replaced Frank Buro, who confirmed to newspapers that he had been fired. The casino has laid off about 1,000 employees this year.
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