Will Atlantic City’s Summer Sizzle Fizzle? June Numbers Are Lackluster

The usual summer sizzle down the Jersey shore failed to materialize in June, at least in Atlantic City, where brick-and-mortar casino revenue was off 0.7% from last year, but a more noticeable $8 million from last month's totals. While the $265 million in gross gaming revenue (GGR) was still impressive and the second-best June in more than a decade, it still fell short again of the internet gaming win of $276 million for the tenth month in a row.

iGaming Continues to Defy Economic Pressures

iGaming once again proved itself impervious to rising gas prices and overall inflation, booking $41 million more in revenue over last June, good for a 17% improvement. Front-runner FanDuel kept their foot on the gas, going from $53 million a year ago to $62 million last month, more than a 17% gain as well.

Operator Standouts

BetMGM, the perennial third place in the Garden State iGaming chart, also saw more than a 17% pickup. DraftKings, which has struggled this year, managed to claw out an additional 8% gain for the first true month of the summer, but that leaves them up only 1% so far for the year. On the other hand, BetFanatics continues their fantastic 2026 run—up 161% this calendar year, and a whopping 277% for June.

A Brutal Month for Sports Betting

Let’s compare that to the actual brutal sports betting month posted by these same operators, which are widely considered some of the best sports betting sites. FanDuel saw gross gaming revenue decline more than $10 million, falling from $35.8 million to $25.0 million year over year. DraftKings was down 43%, dropping from $24 million to $13 million.

BetFanatics, which had managed to pull itself into third place ahead of BetMGM among the best NJ Sportsbooks, tanked more than 76% from $11.9 million to $2.8 million. The results were so bad they pulled all three companies negative for the year overall so far.

Handle Up, but Bettors Win Big

While it's hard to imagine looking at that dumpster fire of a revenue report, the actual handle—or amount wagered on sports in the state—was actually up more than 16%, showing the continued strength of legal online sports betting. This was driven by the NBA Finals, which featured the local fan-favorite New York Knicks, as well as FIFA World Cup soccer preliminary matches. Fortunately for fans, they seemed to have taken the underdog Knicks, as well as guessed right on many of the World Cup games, to just rock sportsbooks for the month.

Retail Casinos Face New Threats

Things appeared a little brighter on the surface in the actual brick-and-mortar numbers from the nine Atlantic City casinos, with slots actually up 1.7%. The overall decline of 0.7% is mostly attributed to a 6% drop in table game revenue. But after spending hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations and advertising, the overall lackluster performance is probably worrying a few people.

The New York Competition

Resorts World Queens opened their new table games department in April, and many boardwalk operators have been keeping a weather eye on the addition of hundreds of new table games in what had become one of AC’s most reliable feeder markets. What we can say now is that Bally’s (-39%), Borgata (-17%), Golden Nugget (-14.8%), and Tropicana (-13.5%) table games were all down more than double digits. Caesars (-8%) and Resorts (-2%) managed only single-digit declines.

This comes at a time when many New Yorkers traditionally come down the shore for a weekend vacation. What those numbers may look like come Fall, when the tourists dry up and Resorts World continues to tweak and improve operations, is anyone’s guess.

Profitability and the Omnichannel Future

Actual profits across the Boardwalk had already fallen more than 23% in the first quarter of 2026, which saw similarly flat revenue but increased labor and operating costs. What those second-quarter profits will look like with new competition remains to be seen, but it’s hard to see how any of these properties could cut costs or reduce overhead in current economic conditions. Five of the nine are showing declines in Gross Revenue year to date, on top of those increasing costs, and that number will likely be higher by the time we get into Q4.

What we can be certain of is that properties like Borgata, Hard Rock, and the three Caesars properties (Harrah’s, Caesars, and the Trop) will continue to lean into their digital iGaming apps to attempt to drive not just increased in-person gambling, but trips in general to their brick-and-mortar properties.

Reversing the Acquisition Funnel

This omnichannel gaming experience allows Caesars Digital, BetMGM, and Hard Rock Digital—much like other top US online casinos—to target their most valuable online customers with ads for free hotel rooms, comped meals, and promo play IRL (in real life) at a much-reduced acquisition cost, all while knowing the expected value of that player beforehand. It’s oddly the reverse of how the first iGaming customers were targeted just over a decade ago.

This kind of crossover between digital—which continues to grow at an almost exponential rate—and the struggling retail casinos will likely determine the winners and losers in Atlantic City over the next twelve to eighteen months, as many expect two or even three brick-and-mortar casinos to close their doors.