Atlantic City casino gaming tables felt a revenue chill in September, just as the market prepares to welcome the return of its long-shuttered live poker rooms.

On Thursday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) reported that AC’s nine casinos generated combined slots & table revenue of $190m in September, a 15% decline from September 2019 and $9m below August 2020’s total.

The decline was entirely the fault of the casinos’ gaming tables, where revenue tumbled 28.7% year-on-year to $46.55m, which was also $8.35m below August 2020’s table tally. Slots were down a more modest 9.6% year-on-year to $144m, effectively unchanged from August 2020.

However, combined with the over $100m generated in September by the state’s online casinos and AC’s sports betting partners, total gaming win was up 3% to nearly $291.7m. All things considered, things could be much, much worse.