This week’s casino news offer a range of stories across the United States. From a casino donation that was rejected to a big win on the penny slots, here’s a look at the biggest casino news of the week:
Alabama Church Returns Donation From Casino After Being Damaged By Tornado
In a conflict-of-interest story, an Alabama church decided it was not worth it to live with conflict.
The First Baptist Church of Wetumpka, Alabama, located just north of Montgomery, was damaged by a tornado on January 19. In the aftermath of the tornado, the local Wind Creek Casino – which also donated to the Wetumpka Police Department – made a $25,000 donation to First Baptist Church. After considering what to do with the money, the church community decided to return the donation to Wind Creek because of a professed belief that gambling is morally wrong. The church, through its pastor, said that it hopes the money could be used to help other people in the town and the area who were affected by the tornado.
It’s raised the question whether the church should (or does) examine each and every donor to see what their background is before accepting money. It’s a bit of a sad ending as the church was more likely to put the money to good use.
Slot Player Wins Over $610,000 on Penny Slot In Mississippi
A penny slot turned into a lot of pennies – over 66 million of them – for a lucky casino player in D’Iberville, Mississippi.
A man playing a Buffalo Stampede Penny Slot machine at the Scarlet Pearl Casino won over $610,000, which would amount to more than 66 million pennies. Most people simply hope for a win in the hundreds or thousands playing the penny slots but this proved to be a dream come true.
No further details were provided on the player as he preferred to stay anonymous.
Atlantic City Makes Substantial Year-On-Year Gains In January 2019
The public perception is that Atlantic City is a bit of a forgotten gaming zone but the numbers tell a different story.
The outlook for Atlantic City’s nine casinos at the end of this January is much better compared to January of 2018. Atlantic City casinos posted a year-over-year increase in gross gaming revenues of nearly 20 percent. The final amount of January 2019 revenue was $229.6 million, made possible in part by a 53-percent increase in online gambling revenue at $33.5 million.
These figures, provided by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, marked the eighth straight month of growth. The accomplishment was spearheaded by Golden Nugget Atlantic City, which notched a 14.3-percent year-on-year increase in revenues relative to January 2018. The Golden Nugget’s revenues for January of 2019 was $26.7 million.
This Atlantic City figure of $229.6 million represented the seventh consecutive month of double-digit percentage improvements from local casinos. This included a 66.9-percent year-on-year increase in revenue from iGaming activity at the Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
AC is still not viewed as quite the same type of gambling destination as Las Vegas. And generally speaking, it seems to be falling behind the curve in terms of places that players want to visit – especially with so many new options opening up. At the same time, the numbers don’t lie and it looks like a lot of people love gambling in Atlantic City.