The mid-Atlantic gaming market almost like pulling on a shirt: Tug one corner and the rest of the fabric stretches to adjust.
The first Atlantic City casino opened almost four decades ago. In the early 1990s, the city’s success was impacted by Native American casinos in Connecticut, then took a good slap when Pennsylvania began offering gambling. Since then, New York has jumped in, as have Maryland, Delaware, and Massachusetts.
All of those developments make for an interest conversation, which is why Spectrum Gaming is offering a session focused on the mid-Atlantic at its annual East Coast gaming conference.
“The mid-Atlantic is a very active area, and interestingly the solution to saturation in many of these jurisdictions is to create more gambling,” said Spectrum Gaming Group Executive Vice President Joe Weinert, who will lead the session. “They’re trying to make sure they’re maximizing revenue from every nook and cranny in their state.”
He cites Pennsylvania as an example. The state now is considering slots in airports, daily fantasy sports, Internet gaming, and “satellite” slots in bars and taverns.
“It’s a paradox, really, but many of the legislatures have become dependent on gaming tax receipts as casinos revenues flatten out or even decline,” Weinert says. “They are looking at options to grow those revenues.”
This is the 21st year for the conference, making it likely the longest-running gaming conference outside of Nevada. Weinert notes that Atlantic City initially was the exception and is now the rule for gambling.
“Atlantic City really was a victim of its own success,” Weinert says “It proved emphatically that casino gambling could be properly regulated, keeping out organized crime and generating substantial tax receipts for the state. So after several years of success, the other states said, ‘Hmm, maybe we should jump in, too.’”
State legislatures are still in the mode of adding facilities. “It’s a dynamic market,” Weinert says. In the past 12 months, the mid-Atlantic region has generated about $7 billion in revenue. (That’s a little higher than the total for the Las Vegas strip.) While state’s individual accounting methods offer some challenges in making comparisons, a recent study by Spectrum Gaming put Pennsylvania’s revenue at $263 million for March, followed by New Jersey ($200 million), New York ($156 million), Maryland ($141 million), Delaware ($33 million), and West Virginia ($28 million).
“It’s the mid-Atlantic that remains a focal point in the U.S. gaming industry for the limits and tolerance of expansion,” Weinert says. “It’s a lucrative market, but everybody from the legislature to analysts to those in the market ask how much is too much One state acts, then another state tends to react. They’re continually looking at each other and deciding what their next step is going to be.”
It’s also very competitive, Weinert notes, because the states are smaller and there are plenty of people with money along the Interstate 95 corridor, especially from Richmond, Virginia, to Boston. “It’s about demography and geography. That I-95 corridor tends to be very well heeled,” he says.
Five panelists will speak at the session: Bill Fasy, president of Delaware Park; Gordon Medenica, director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency; Anton Nikodemus, chief operating officer for regional operations at MGM Resorts International; Robert Norton, president, Cordish Global Gaming & Live! Casino; and Scott Saunders, general manager of Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.
The 21st Annual East Coast Gaming Conference will be May 24-25 at Harrah’s in Atlantic City. E-sports, daily fantasy sports, social gaming, and forums by chief financial officers and regulators are also scheduled. Full information is at EastCoastGamingCongress.com.
