DOVER — Dover Downs made a profit of about half a million dollars in the third quarter of 2016, putting it about on pace with its earnings in the first nine months of 2015.
The casino reported Thursday it earned $520,000 in July, August and September, bringing its total profit for the year so far to $1.08 million.
At this point through 2015, it had made $1.11 million, en route to a yearly profit of $1.87 million.
After Dover Downs lost $700,000 in 2014, the situation appears to have temporarily stabilized, but casino executives are anxious about the December opening of an MGM casino in National Harbor, Maryland. The new $1.3 billion facility may cause Delaware gambling revenues to take a hit.
“With more competition entering the market, we’ll need a restructured gaming revenue sharing formula to allow us to reinvest in our property, and we’ll be resuming efforts in this regard,” Dover Downs President and CEO Denis McGlynn said in a statement.
Denis McGlynn
Dover Downs plans to push for the same proposed relief first presented two years ago, although it failed to gain sufficient support in the General Assembly. The proposal has several potential elements, including changing the flat tax rate of 43.5 percent to a tiered one, further sharing slot vendor fees with the state or halving the table game tax rate and eliminating the license fee.
Dover Downs saw its gaming revenue drop slightly in the third quarter of 2016 versus 2015, but other revenue saw a small increase. Hotel occupancy was 91 percent.
Through the end of September, Dover Downs has seen an increase of about $1.2 million in revenue and $1.3 million in expenses from the prior year.
Its total debt is $27.5 million.
“We continue to do our best with what little the state allows us to retain from gaming revenues and despite these limitations we continue to enjoy excellent customer service ratings and employee morale,” Mr. McGlynn said.