New Jersey publishes Atlantic City Q1 2026 gaming revenue report
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, alongside the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), have published Atlantic City’s total gaming revenue report for the first quarter of 2026.
In the report, the DGE stated that, based upon filings submitted by casino licensees, the net revenue for Q1 2026 was reported to be $725.6 million. It said that this reflected a 0.6 per cent decrease over the same quarter last year. The DGE said that casino licensees reported a gross operating profit of $104.7 million for the first quarter, which it said was a 22.9 per cent decrease compared to Q1 2025.
The sports wagering operations at racetracks, which were included in the previous report covering total gaming revenue for the month of March, were not included in the statistical data provided in this report.
Looking closer at net revenue and gross operating profit
Detailing the results of the report, the DGE explained that net revenue, as it pertains to the report, reflects casino, rooms, food, beverage, and other net revenue. It added that the impact of promotional allowances is reflected in each revenue category and does not reflect the cash revenues for each category.
The report included the revenue results for nine major hotel casinos operating in Atlantic City. The hotel casinos included in the report were Bally’s, Borgata, Caesars, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, Harrah’s, Ocean Casino, Resorts, and Tropicana.
Of the listed hotel casinos, the one which generated the most net revenue was Borgata, with a reported total net revenue of over $182.3 million for Q1 2026. This was up from the same period in the previous year, when its net revenue was $174.1 million.
Borgata was among the three casino hotels of the seven included in the report which showed an increase in net revenue from Q1 2025. The other four reported a downturn.
The casino hotel with the second-highest reported total net revenue for Q1 2026 was Hard Rock at over $127.8 million, which had reported a revenue of just under $135 million during the same period in 2025.
Rounding out the three highest revenue-generating casinos was Ocean Casino, which reported a net revenue of $115.8 million, up from the previous year’s $113 million.
In total, adding up the net revenue reported from all seven hotel casinos for Q1 2026 comes to just under $717.7 million, a decrease of around $2 million from Q1 2025’s reported $719.9 million.
Whilst the variance with regard to total net revenue was relatively small at 0.3 per cent, the gross operating profit difference was considerably greater at 22.6 per cent.
To note, the DGE stated that the gross operating profit indicated in the report reflects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, as well as preceding charges from affiliates, and other miscellaneous items.
In Q1 2025, the aforementioned seven hotel casinos had a reported gross operating profit of $132.7 million, while in Q1 2026, this had gone down to $102.8 million.
Two of the seven hotel casinos reported losses, those being Bally’s and Golden Nugget. Despite this, Bally’s, alongside Caesars, were the only two hotel casinos which reported a positive gross operating profit variance when compared to Q1 2025, with Bally’s actually reporting the most positive variance at 73.3 per cent.
The DGE clarified that the statistics included in the report encompassed each licensee’s share of the net revenue and gross operating profit associated with internet gaming and sports wagering operations.
Casino hotel occupancy rate
Detailing the hotel occupancy rate for casino hotels in Atlantic City during Q1 2026, the DGE said that the occupancy rate was 64.6 per cent.
Although the net revenue, as indicated in the report, has gone down compared to the previous year, the hotel occupancy rate has actually increased by 1.7 percentage points when compared to the same quarter in 2025.
Of the seven hotel casinos, Hard Rock had the highest occupancy rate with 78.2 per cent, followed by Ocean Casino at 74.6 per cent, and Caesars at 69.9 per cent.
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