Atlantic City’s nine casino hotels and one additional licensee reported net revenue of $844.5 million for the second quarter of 2026, a 0.9% increase on the same quarter last year, according to filings submitted to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE). Gross operating profit over the same three months fell 10.1% to $164.9 million.
The DGE defines gross operating profit as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation, charges from affiliates and other miscellaneous items. It is the measure the regulator uses to compare operating performance across licensees, and it is the number that moved.
Net revenue grew by around $7.5 million year on year. Gross operating profit fell by around $18.5 million over the same period. The quarterly margin dropped from 21.9% to 19.5%, a fall of 2.4 percentage points.
Borgata, Hard Rock and Ocean take most of the market
Borgata reported net revenue of $218.4 million, up 3.6%, and gross operating profit of $60.1 million, down 4.7%. Hard Rock took $148.4 million in net revenue, down 0.9%, with gross operating profit of $29.1 million, up 10.5%. Ocean Casino Resort posted $142 million in net revenue, up 9.2%, and $30.1 million in gross operating profit, up 12.2%.
Those three properties account for $508.9 million of quarterly net revenue, 60.3% of the market total, and $119.4 million of gross operating profit, 72.4% of the total. Hard Rock and Ocean were the only licensees to grow profit by double digits.
Profit fell at seven of ten licensees
Resorts recorded the sharpest decline. Net revenue dropped 20.3% to $39.6 million and gross operating profit fell 95.2% to $473,000, leaving a margin of 1.2% for the quarter. Golden Nugget’s gross operating profit fell 43% to $2.9 million on net revenue of $36.3 million, down 6%.
Caesars and Ocean were the only licensees to grow both lines. Caesars reported net revenue up 7.7% to $68.1 million and gross operating profit up 2.9% to $13 million. Harrah’s grew net revenue 2.7% to $69.6 million but saw profit fall 6.8% to $11.1 million. Tropicana reported $66.6 million in net revenue, down 0.5%, and $13.6 million in profit, down 8.7%. Bally’s took $47.5 million, down 3%, with profit of $2.1 million, down 8.8%.
The pattern across the ten reporting licensees is uneven at the revenue line and consistent at the profit line. Five operators grew net revenue and five did not. Seven reported lower gross operating profit than in the second quarter of 2025.
The tenth licensee
Caesars Interactive Entertainment New Jersey (CIENJ), the only licensee in the reporting group without a casino hotel, reported net revenue of $8.1 million, down 28.2%, and gross operating profit of $2.5 million, down 43.5%. It is the steepest revenue fall of any licensee in the quarter.
The DGE’s quarterly financial release folds each licensee’s share of internet gaming and sports wagering into its net revenue figure rather than reporting the verticals separately. Operators and suppliers tracking the online contribution have to read it out of the DGE’s separate monthly revenue reports.
Six-month figures and hotel occupancy
Across the first six months of 2026, the licensees reported net revenue of $1.57 billion, a 0.2% increase on the comparable period last year, and gross operating profit of $269.6 million, down 15.5%. The half-year margin was 17.2%, against 20.4% a year earlier. The half-year profit decline is steeper than the quarterly one, which puts the weaker part of the year in the first quarter.
Hotel occupancy ran at 73.2% across the second quarter, a 0.6% increase year on year, and 69% across the six months, up 1.2%. Rooms filled slightly better than last year while the profit produced per dollar of revenue did not.
What the third quarter has to answer
The DGE publishes monthly gaming revenue figures ahead of the next quarterly financial release, which covers July through September and captures Atlantic City’s summer trade. Those months will show whether the margin compression in the second quarter is a cost cycle the operators can work through or the shape of the full year.
For European operators, suppliers and investors with New Jersey exposure, the numbers describe a mature market where top-line growth has effectively stopped and the cost of producing that revenue is rising. New Jersey remains the reference point for regulated online gaming in the United States, and a flat revenue line with a double-digit profit fall behind it sets a different benchmark for anyone modelling US expansion on the state’s earlier growth years.
Source: New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
