Horseshoe Casino Cleveland outpaces all but one Atlantic City casino in December

CLEVELAND - The Horseshoe Casino Cleveland brought in more in gambling revenue than all but one of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos in December. It also outpaced all nine casinos housed along the city’s famed Boardwalk, according to numbers released Thursday.

Horseshoe’s December take was $24.53 million, which when compared to Atlantic City came in behind only the market leader Borgata, which posted a total casino win in December of $54 million and just a hair ahead of its sister property Caesars, which came in at $24.43 million.

In fact, Horseshoe’s parent company, Caesars Entertainment, owns four Atlantic City properties, all casino hotels. Bally’s AC, Harrah’s and Showboat are the others.

Atlantic City casinos have been struggling in the months after Superstorm Sandy hit the Jersey Shore hard. While December was 8.9 percent off their 2011 numbers, the losses seem to be stabilizing.

The $2.4 billion-Revel Casino, which opened in April, still continues to struggle, bringing in only $9.86 million. That’s 60 percent less than the Horseshoe.

Atlantic City continues to suffer losses to neighboring Pennsylvania, where December slot revenue figures, not table games, were released Thursday. Those figures show the state’s 11 casinos dropped 2 percent in slots over 2011 figures, but remain strong.

Of the Pennsylvania casinos closest to Cleveland, Presque Isle Downs in Erie continues to feel the biggest impact of the competition. Their slot revenue for December was down 22 percent at $9.9 million compared to the Horseshoe’s $15.2 million slots take.

Not impacted it seems is The Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, which was up 2 percent with slot revenue of $23.2 million in December, third among the state’s casinos behind Parx outside Philadelphia and Sands in Bethlehem.