US Casinos Report Growth for 2007

Although the US economy has been slowing down, the casino market in the United States reported significant growth for the 2007 period. The final numbers just came out, and overall gambling revenue increased by 5.3% for the year, equaling a total of $34.1 billion in revenues. Also, I’d imagine that profits rose significantly as well, because the revenue increased while casino jobs decreased by 2.3% equaling less payroll for the casinos.

The total loss of workers was 8,500 people and this brought the total amount of casino employees down to about 360,000 people. Although the broad market showed an increase in business, Atlantic City was hit hard by a few factors, leaving them with less to show for their efforts.

First of all, many slot machines were placed in Philadelphia which really cut down on the number of people traveling from Philadelphia to New Jersey to gamble as they could just do it right from their own city. Also, a new bill passed in New Jersey forced Atlantic City casinos to have a non smoking section of their casino, and this surely agitated the smokers who were alienated to only certain parts of the floor. With an even more aggressive non-smoking bill in the works, New Jersey should definitely be concerned about their gambling revenues.

Although everything went well last year for Vegas, this year is going to be tougher. Major casinos are already reporting a slow start to 2008, and citing gas prices as the issue. Many people who aren’t located in Vegas or Jersey don’t want to spend the money on gas to drive there, so there are less customers then in years past.

Another theory as to why the US gaming revenue has fallen is the fact that many players are just resorting to online casinos nowadays. Places like Rushmore Casino accept USA players and report that the majority of their revenue comes from players based in the USA. Plus, they offer all of the major games and even more variations, since they have less overhead cost than any live casino does.

Check out Rushmore Casino HERE