About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

21 GLR 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/gmglwr21 and id is 1 raw text is: DOI: 10.1089/glre.2017.2111 Gambits News in brief about the gaming world ATLANTIC CITY'S 2016 BETTER THAN ITS 2015, DUE TO ONLINE GAMBLING; CITY STILL FACES ENORMOUS ECONOMIC CHALLENGES DUE TO GAMBLING'S ALMOST- DECADE-LONG DECLINE For the first time in a decade, Atlantic City had an up year: its 2016 gambling revenue was just shy of $2.6 billion, a slight year-over-year increase from its 2015 revenue of ap- proximately $2.56 billion. (Atlantic City last saw a year-over-year increase in 2006, before the Great Recession.) The gain was powered by a 32% year-over-year increase in Internet gambling revenue, which climbed to $196.7 million for 2016, partially offset by a 0.3% decline in land-based gam- bling revenues at Atlantic City's seven surviving casinos. It may not do the new president's ego any good to know that the closure of a casino bearing his name (the Trump Taj Mahal) did not significantly hurt At- lantic City, and that in fact, the venue did better on an aggregate basis-even if only fractionally- without his namesake casino. Good news for Atlantic City's casi- nos is good news for Atlantic City: ca- sinos are-even after the closure of five of 12 of their number-the city's largest employer (both directly and in- directly, in terms of the businesses that service them) and largest contributor to municipal revenue. Atlantic City, in fact, is a cautionary tale about the danger of over-reliance on any one in- dustry, especially something as fickle as entertainment/tourism, which is very vulnerable to changes in taste, to competition from newer offerings, and to economic downturns reduc- ing potential customers' discretionary spending. Since the Great Recession, which was more or less contempora- neous with the start of Atlantic City's precipitous casino revenue decline, the poverty rate has risen to 37%/- almost four-in-ten residents earn less than the depressingly low federal pov- erty levels of $11,800.0 for an individ- ual and $24,300 for a family of four. That poverty level is almost three- and-a-half times New Jersey's average poverty level (11%) and more than two-and-a-quarter times the national level (15.47%). NEVADA CASINOS SWING FROM NET LOSS TO NET PROFIT In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, Nevada casino resorts had $24.6 billion in revenue but a net loss of $662 million. A year later (fis- cal year ending June 30, 2016), the state Gaming Control Board's an- nual report shows that the casinos had revenues of $25.2 billion and in- come of $979 million. The $600 mil- lion in additional revenue (2016 over 2015)1 led to a $1.6 billion swing from loss to profit-obvi- ously, more was going on than just the revenue increase (though the revenue increase, a gain of 2.4% year over year-obviously helped). With the revenue gain, Nevada casi- nos came in just a hair (0.1%) under 2007's record $25.3 billion revenue. Continuing a now long-standing pattern in Nevada, most of the casino revenue is non-gambling: for fiscal 2016, gambling revenue accounted for only 34.2% of total revenue- barely more than a third-and was the lowest percentage to date, declin- ing slightly from fiscal 2015, when gambling revenue was 34.9% of total revenue. It's been almost 20 years (fis- cal year ending June 1998) since gam- bling brought in more than half of Nevada casino revenue. As Gaming Law Review and Economics Editorial Board Member David Schwartz put it, Nevada casino resorts have al- ways been about more than just gam- bling. The truth of that can be seen in looking at how the revenue grew in fiscal 2016: gambling revenue only grew around 0.25%, but room reve- nues grew 8%, while dining revenue grew nearly 3%. MARYLAND CASINOS SET STATE REVENUE RECORD FOR DECEMBER 2016 Maryland's casinos brought in $133.5 million in revenue in Decem- ber 2016, soaring past the previous record ($104.3 million) set in May 2016, according to the Maryland Lot- tery and Gaming Control Agency reported. The increase was powered largely by the opening of the new MGM National Harbor casino resort. The $1.4 billion complex was open for 23 days in December, bringing in $41.9 million in gambling revenue, a significant number that helped push the state casinos' aggregate re- sults over the top-though still sec- ond to the $48 million brought in by the Maryland Live casino. However, while the aggregate num- bers were record setting, that doesn't mean the news is good for all six of the state's casinos. Maryland Live's $48 million was down 11.4% on a year-over-year basis from December 2015, which decrease is attributed at least in part to a loss of customers to 'For convenience, in this article, we will denominate a fiscal year according to the year in which it closes, so the year ending June 30, 2016 is denominated fiscal 2016. 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most