The start of 2010 has not been kind to land-based casinos. Instead of the boost that they were hoping for, revenue dropped another 3.2 percent in January 2010 when compared to January 2009.
Nevada especially is experiencing significant hardship as they have not noticed an improvement. They recently completed the CityCentre and had several conference rooms booked in advance so it appeared as though the effort would pay off. It did not, however, and Nevada’s land-based casinos continue to decline.
March is anticipated to be even worse than January for land-based casinos. They are preparing for fewer tourists and therefore less business. Some operators agree that online casinos are taking away their business while others believe it is the combination of several factors, including the recent recession. Possibly the last ditch effort to save online casinos is the World Serious of Poker tournament (WSOP), which will hopefully bring some much-needed revenue to the state.
Other major gambling sites in the US include Atlantic City, which has already lost many of their casinos to bankruptcy and Pennsylvania, which is doing surprisingly well.
Land-based casinos are discovering that they cannot keep up with people’s interest in online gambling. It is very possible that several more land-based casinos will be forced to shut their doors as things are anticipated to get much worse and may not recover at all. Bankruptcy means that those who like to gamble at land-based casinos may have to travel farther in order to do so.
