ALBANY — New York’s four upstate casinos aren’t hitting the jackpot quite yet, but they have made steady gains in attracting customers and boosting their revenue.

The casinos all had revenue increases in 2019 compared to 2018, led by Resorts World Catskills where gross gaming revenue jumped 48% in its second year in business, records reviewed by the USA TODAY Network from the state Gaming Commission showed.

The improvement is good news for the casinos after struggling when they first started opening in 2017. Their boost came even as the state’s overall lottery revenue stagnated in 2019, largely because a 37% drop in Mega Millions sales.

Overall, the four casinos’ revenue jumped 18% to $618 million in 2019, the review found.

“If you look at the history of regional gaming properties over their lifetime, it’s about two years for them to really click in,” Bob DeSalvio, president of Genting New York State, which owns Resorts World Catskills, said in December.

“A 24-month ramp up period is not unexpected in today’s environment.”

A better 2019 than 2018

New York bet big in 2014 when it issued gaming licenses to three upstate bidders: del Lago in the Finger Lakes; Rivers in Schenectady and Resorts World in Sullivan County. A fourth license was ultimately issued to Tioga Downs in the Southern Tier.

But they were all slow out of the gate. None of them met their early, rosy revenue projections, and two had been near bankruptcy: the $400 million del Lago in Seneca County and the $1 billion Resorts World Catskills near Monticello.

In fact, both were sold last year. Tom Wilmot, the Rochester-area mall magnate, sold his interests in del Lago, and Resorts World’s owner, Empire Resorts, sold the gleaming 18-story casino to Genting, the Malaysian-based casino giant.

In its own study released to the USA TODAY Network New York, del Lago said the casino’s economic impact hit $270 million last year, including its $157 million in gaming revenue, a 4% increase from 2018. It employs about 1,200 workers.

“Del Lago Resort & Casino remains committed to the communities we serve in Tyre, Seneca County and the Greater Finger Lakes Region,” Brent Stevens, chairman of Peninsula Pacific, the California-based firm that owns the casino, said in a statement.

The local governments and the state get a piece of the casino’s revenue. Stevens noted the facility is still a work in progress.

“Our company recognizes that the del Lago property has not met all benchmarks laid out when we first opened our doors in 2017,” Stevens continued.

“However, our economic and fiscal impact study has shown that we are fulfilling New York State’s vision of spurring local economic activity by generating revenue and creating rewarding, local career."

Tempered success

While the casinos had growth, they were still far off from the projections they gave in 2014 that helped them win the gambling licenses.

Tioga Downs, for example, estimated in 2015 it would produce gross gaming revenue of $107 million last year, records show, but ended up at $83 million, which was 22% off.

Tioga Downs owner Jeff Gural said he is pleased with the progress of the casino, which has added a hotel and other amenities since opening.

“Tioga has turned the corner with all of our revenues up significantly,” he said. “We are booking quite a few new events and hotel occupancy is up significantly. I think the fact that we are also family friendly is helping us as well.”

While the revenue less than projected, Tioga Downs was still closer to its target than the other three.

Del Lago’s $157 million last year was 44% off the $282 million it estimated in 2014, state records.

Resorts World said it would hit $302 million but ended up at $209 million, which was 31% less than projections. It opened in February 2018, so it had an extra month of revenue in 2019 than in 2018.

And Rivers brought in $169 million last year, but told the state it anticipated hitting $222 million in 2019, which was 24% off.

All the casinos last year cut the number of slot machines it originally opened with, so their average win per day per machine were up in 2019 — which is a widely used industry measurement.

The highest was $282 per machine at Rivers, followed by $213 at Tioga Downs; $192 at Resorts World and $180 per machine at del Lago.

An important year

The casino’s gains come in the backdrop of what could be a critical year for New York’s gambling industry.

The casinos all want to be able to add mobile sports betting because they can currently only have on-site sports betting.

Several of them have also been clamoring for lower tax rates, saying the current structure hurts their profitability and long-term future as they compete in a crowded Northeast casino market.

“While we continue to make progress in growing our gaming revenue,” Rivers general manager Justin Moore said in a statement, “we operate in a highly competitive and expanding regional gaming market where we pay the highest effective tax rate of all the commercial casinos which makes it difficult for us to compete effectively.”

The first draft of a study on the future of New York’s gambling industry is expected to be released in April, and it could serve as the impetus for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature to revisit its gambling laws before the legislative session ends in June.

The two massive downstate betting halls with video-lottery terminals, the MGM-owned Empire City in Yonkers and Genting’s Resorts World New York City in Queens, are pressing state leaders for full-scale gambling licenses in order to add table games and sports betting.

Senate Racing Committee chairman Joseph Addabbo, D-Queens, is pushing for state approval of a bill that would allow for sports betting at arenas, racetracks with video-lottery terminals and Off-Track Betting parlors.

But Cuomo didn’t include any gambling expansions in his state budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1, and he been cautious to support any new measures after supporting a referendum in 2013 that led to the new upstate casinos.

Lottery sales stayed flat

Revenue from the casinos and New York’s lottery system are used to fund education aid, which Cuomo proposed in his budget to increase 3% in the next fiscal year to $28.5 billion —by far the most per capita in the nation.

In 2018, lottery sales and revenue from the state’s 10 VLT parlor hit a record $10.2 billion in 2018, but dropped 0.8% in 2019, records from the Gaming Commission showed.

The main reason was Mega Millions sales slumped 37% in 2019 because there was a $1.5 billion jackpot in 2018 that boosted sales. Powerball sales also fell 10% in 2019.

Also, Monticello Raceway closed its VLT parlor last April and folded into Resorts World Catskills. Still, VLT revenue increased overall at the nine remaining parlors by 2.4%, the records showed.

Brad Maione, spokesman for the Gaming Commission, said 2018 and 2019 are still the only two years on record when lottery sales exceeded $10 billion. New York has the largest lottery system in the nation.

“The lottery decline is, however, largely attributable to volatility of large multi-state jackpots, with 2019 bringing fewer high Powerball and Mega Million dollar jackpots,” Maione said in an email.

“Despite the impact of multi-state jackpots, we are enthused with the overall growth in non-multi-state jackpot games and the net win at the video lottery gaming facilities which increased despite the closure of Monticello.”

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