Atlantic City casinos start 2017 right thanks to hot gaming tables

Atlantic City’s casinos started 2017 off on the right foot as all seven gaming venues posted year-on-year gains in January.

Figures released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show brick-and-mortar gaming revenue of $185.9m in January, up nearly 6% from the same month last year. Counting the $18.8m from the casinos’ online gambling sites and the annual gain is an impressive 15.2%.

January’s brick-and-mortar gains came almost entirely courtesy of the casinos’ table games, which reported an 18.3% year-on-year surge to $62.2m. By comparison, slot machine win managed only a 0.6% rise to $123.6m.

The January numbers also got a boost due to the weather, as January 2016 was hit hard by winter storm Jonas, a deep freeze that New Jersey Casino Control Commission chairman Matt Levinson said “effectively wiped out a full weekend last year.” However, January 2017 also had fewer weekend days than January 2016, so call it a wash.