Eleven of the casinos posted annual declines, and it was only a statistical quirk that enabled the Golden Nugget to show a 67 per cent increase, to $130 million. The city's 12 casinos took in $3.05 billion last year, a decline of 8 per cent from 2011. But who knew that 2012 would be worse when we had this horrible hurricane?' 'Actually, that's what we said about 2011, too. 'I'm glad it's over,' Tony Rodio, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said of 2012. Though it did not physically damage them, the storm scared away visitors for weeks, and damaged the homes of many of the resort's prime customers in New Jersey and New York, who presumably won't be back gambling for quite some time. The year was marred by Superstorm Sandy, which shut the casinos down for the second time in just over a year. That title now belongs to Pennsylvania, which passed Atlantic City last year. Since 2006, when the city's gambling halls took in an all-time high of $5.2 billion, Atlantic City has lost more than 41 per cent of its gambling revenue, thousands of jobs, and its status as the nation's second-largest casino market. Atlantic City's casinos endured a sixth straight year of plunging revenues in 2012, taking in just over $3 billion.
