October 2025 had one weekend day more than October 2024. That contributed to the best casino foot traffic of the year, according to Jefferies Equity Research in an investor note published November 11.
Casino visitation was still down 2.8 percent from the preceding year and 14.9 percent off pre-COVID levels, per Jefferies’s research. However, “Regional GGR numbers continued the strong trend we’ve seen since the late spring,” according to Jefferies analyst David Katz.
He contended that year-over-year comparisons will soften as 2025 wanes and that the industry has the available space for growth to continue. Katz wrote that the debuts of new Hollywood Joliet and of Roseshire in rural Virginia “should be positive drivers for traffic trends balanced by the gray games and other competitive forces impacting the sector.”
Year-over-year variances were minimal in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. But when compared to 2019, the Keystone State was up 21.9 percent in casino visitation, while the Bay State was down 12 percent, probably affected by new competition in New Hampshire.
Atlantic City visitor volumes sagged nine percent from 2024 and 21.7 percent from 2019. In Illinois, the declines were 6.8 percent and 25.6 percent respectively.
“Our take is that the monthly performance reflects the volatile path towards the normalization of traffic trends post-COVID, as well as the heightened competition and renovations in specific locations,” Katz observed.
Detroit’s three casinos were off 2.9 percent from the year previous and 26.8 percent from where they were before the pandemic. Katz blamed this on downtown construction, a particular impediment to Hollywood Greektown.
Brighter spots were Kentucky, up 3.3 percent, and Black Hawk, Colorado, where foot traffic rose 3.9 percent. Katz was reluctant to read too much into the latter, given 2022 upgrades at Monarch Black Hawk.
Katz predicted, “Regional gaming is better positioned for modest growth in the near term compared to Las Vegas, where expectations for the Strip are confirmed to be low until the group slate accelerates” in the fourth quarter.
