Delaware Deals Blow to Atlantic City

Delaware passes a bill legalizing table games in casinos.
Author:
Publish date:

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Delaware passed a bill on Thursday allowing table games in casinos.

The bill was approved by the House last week, and easily cleared the the Delaware Senate yesterday.

Under the bill, casinos would receive 66% of the gross table game revenue, the state would get 29% and 4.5% would go to horse racing purses.

Legislation to allow table games in casinos has been passed in several states in recent months, including Pennsylvania and West Virginia. A similar bill is currently pending in Ohio.

The legalization of table games in Delaware is yet another blow to the fragile Atlantic City gaming market. The area has been losing market share to other Northern regions that are expanding their gaming markets.

And it now looks like

MGM Mirage

(MGM) - Get Report

may even sell of its 50% stake in the Borgata casino in the New Jersey gamin hub, the

Wall Street Journal

reported on Friday.

The move comes as

MGM looks to complete an initial public offering

of its Macau assets on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Last year, New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement issued a confidential report saying MGM should disassociate from Pansy Ho, its joint venture partner in Macau, labeling her an "unsuitable" business partner.

So if MGM is forced to chose between Macau and Atlantic City, it would only make sense that they would chose Macau. The numbers alone tell the store: in December, Macau saw a 48% surge in gaming revenue, while Atlantic City posted a 9.8% decline in the same month.

MGM co-owns the hotel-casino with

Boyd Gaming

(BYD) - Get Report

.

-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

Follow TheStreet.com on

Twitter

and become a fan on

Facebook.

Copyright 2009 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.