The eight casinos in Atlantic City have revealed their financial results for the first quarter of 2016 showing a combined 31.1% rise year-on-year in overall operating profit to $106.58 million.

According to figures from the New Jersey Division Of Gaming Enforcement, the increase of some $25.26 million for the three-month period was helped by a 1% boost year-on-year in average hotel occupancy rates to 73.8% while total casino revenues came in at $802.63 million, which represented a 2.7% improvement.

Adding to the good news, the casinos’ total net revenues for the first three months of 2016 advanced 3% year-on-year to hit nearly $609.91 million while combined sales, which included those from independently run restaurants, bars and stores within the properties, went up by 2.8% to reach $845.15 million.

“More people spent the night and they spent more money here than they did last year,” said Matthew Levinson, Chairman for the Casino Control Commission. “Revenues are up, third-party sales are up, occupancy is up and the average room rate is up.”

Levinson told The Press Of Atlantic City newspaper that the quarterly results represented “another sign of the increasing health of Atlantic City’s casino industry” and stated that he hoped these end results would see operators “continue to reinvest in their properties and create new attractions”.

“The bottom line increased at seven casinos with six showing increases in their profits of more than 20% for the quarter compared to the same period last year,” said Levinson.

The figures showed that the quarterly gross operating profit for the Tropicana Casino And Resort Atlantic City shot up by 205% year-on-year to $7.31 million while the Golden Nugget Atlantic City reported a 64.7% jump to $6.71 million.

The Borgata Hotel Casino And Spa, which has consistently dominated the local scene in terms of the amounts its casino wins from gamblers, saw its first-quarter gross operating profit swell by 23.9% year-on-year to achieve $47.67 million while a similar improvement from Bally’s Atlantic City saw its results come in at $5.61 million.

Caesars Atlantic City Hotel And Casino reported a 2.5% boost year-on-year in first-quarter gross operating profit to $15.32 million with the nearby Trump Taj Mahal Casino posting a 47.4% improvement, although this still left the 2,010-room operation in the red to the tune of $4.59 million.

Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City was the only property to report a negative variance when compared to the same period in 2015 with its 3.1% drop year-on-year leading to a gross operating profit of $26.8 million while the Resorts Casino Hotel turned a first-quarter loss of $339,000 last year into a gross profit of almost $494,000 this time out.