Four Atlantic City casinos are planning new investments this year amid the new tax relief approved by the state of New Jersey and new challenges from neighbouring markets.
Seven of the nine casinos are seeing gambling revenue down compared with 2019, offset partially by sports betting and online gambling revenue, which, however, is shared with third parties such as platforms and sportsbooks.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy in December signed a PILOT bill into law, which gives the casinos financial relief from big increases in payments they were due to pay to Atlantic City, Atlantic County and the schools system in lieu of property taxes.
However, it is uncertain how the Covid-19 pandemic and the fast-spreading Omicron variant will affect the in-person visits of gamblers to casinos.
In addition, as New York is set to launch its newly regulated mobile sports betting market, gambling industry executives and analysts expect New Jersey to lose at least 20 per cent of its sports betting volume as New York residents who formerly had to cross over into New Jersey to bet will be able to do it closer to home.