Things are not looking good these days for land-based casino operations. Some of the most stable and healthy gambling destination cities such as Atlantic City and Las Vegas are seeing huge drops in revenue compared to years past. While online casinos are steady and solid in their growth and increased revenue, the exact opposite is true for world famous casinos such as the MGM Mirage and others. No one inside the online casino industry seems too entirely concerned over this development since the numbers keep coming in as strong as ever, but in and around the land-based casinos across the United States, the murmurings are decidedly without any grain of hope.

In the heart of Las Vegas, several of the big name casinos have experienced big financial hits over the course of the last several months. Some are experiencing financial setbacks that they may not be able to recover from. The MGM Mirage, on the brink of defaulting on a number of substantial loans, is scrambling to cancel any development projects they have going on and nixing any notion of continued expansion for the time being. Who knows if they will be able to get back on the right track. It makes one wonder whether the online casinos would be able to recover from similar financial challenges.

Many casinos in and near Atlantic City have already begun the process to file for bankruptcy, including those run by Trump Entertainment. Over the past several months casino gambling traffic coming into the city has slowed down markedly and there is no telling when or whether it will be able to pick back up. Online casino sites and land-based casinos are all about making money so when they start to fail, it is glaringly obvious and does not bode well for the people who are invested in them.

While online casino seems to be handling the rough times of this endlessly bleak economy, it is the land-based casinos, even those located in such stalwart gambling locales as Las Vegas and Atlantic City, that are suffering in big ways. It has often been said since its earliest days, Las Vegas has been able to hold on to some level of immunity when it comes to the nation taking financial hits. When Wall Street all but crumbles into the Hudson and businesses across all different facets of society experience huge losses, the bright lights and glamour if Sin City have stayed true to a remarkably easy financially stable road. But it seems that this time around, things may be quite different.

As online casinos flourish and expand even during these troubled financial times, things are going very poorly for the folks in Atlantic City. It would be so nice if the online casino world could share some of its tremendously resilient prosperity with the land-based casinos throughout the country. The numbers coming in for the month of February for Atlantic City are dismal to say the very least. Over the course of that month, the numbers showed a tragically sharp 19.2% decline in revenue. Those numbers are in comparison to what they were this same time back in 2008.

Among the eleven different casinos that are still up and in operation throughout the city, things are not looking so good. It has gotten to the point where the New Jersey Casino Control Commission is labeling this as the worst monthly decline in the more than 30 years since casino gambling has been happening in a legal form in the state of New Jersey.

While the revenue for several big casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas was up in October compared to a dismal showing in September, most people inside the industry are gearing up for a prolonged tough time financial in the coming months.

With seven Las Vegas casinos in operation, Harrah’s as the world’s largest gaming operator, has recently reported a third quarter net loss of $129.7 million. That same figure was $244.4 million the year before. As far as Atlantic City’s struggles are concerned, some operators have come out and put the blame on not just the overall bleak economic landscape being experienced on a national level right now, but also on the slots parlors in Pennsylvania that have stolen a chunk of their regular clientele.

Another blow to the local industry came during the second half of October as the state implemented a comprehensive smoking ban which caused slot machine revenue to drop down 20% in the second half of the month. This glum atmosphere for Atlantic City’s casino operations are inevitably going to leave many people unemployed. Officials predict that more than 1,200 people could stand to lose their jobs if the current conditions persist for an extended period of time.

Overall, predictions for the total revenue for 2008 are coming in at around 7.5 to 8% lower than what was originally predicted before we entered into these rough financial times. Estimations for 2009 are not very optimistic either. Things might pick back up slightly when the smoking ban is rolled back to 75% of casino floors this month, and that will be in place for at least one year.

In October, Atlantic City’s casino revenue sunk by 9.9% down to $346.2 million from where it was less than a year ago. This is just another wave of financial strife that the current economic downturn has brought on the gambling industry. This decline from October came after a rough 15.1% drop during September that was the largest total decrease in gaming revenue in the entire 30-year existence of the popular New Jersey gambling mecca.

Revenue from the slot machines at Atlantic City’s eleven casinos was $235.9 million and the profits from table games were $110.3 million. While these numbers may not seem so dismal to the average layperson, these are a sharp departure from the success and consistency that Atlantic City is known for. Overall, revenue dipped down by 6.6% during the first ten months of 2008 as compared to the year prior. And revenue from slot machines has sunk 8.6%. Table game revenue lowered down by 2%.

The outlook is decidedly grim when one compares these numbers to October of 2005 when revenue came in historic high numbers reaching $427.9 million. This latest development in Atlantic City is right in line with the struggles that the rest of the gambling industry are dealing with. Many operations are facing extreme losses and even bankruptcy in some cases as casinos try to compensate for the drop in casino client spending.

Although October’s decline was less than that of September, representatives from a number of Atlantic City casinos said that they were not overly optimistic and that the slight upswing was a very minimal improvement.