Gambling keeps growing in the United States, but that does not tell the full story as to why some casinos still fail. The U.S. commercial gaming industry reached a record high in 2025, generating $78.72 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR), a 9.2% increase over the previous year, according to the American Gaming Association's (AGA) Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker. Despite those increases, a number of casino operators have closed locations or even filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
That's at least partly because increased competition has made the operating environment more challenging. In the early 1980s, for example, my parents took free charter flights to Atlantic City from Boston, where they got a comped room, maybe a buffet voucher, and a little freeplay. Then, in 1986, Foxwoods opened in Connecticut, and you could gamble without a plane flight.
Now, the Boston area has multiple casinos, so it makes less sense to bother with going to Atlantic City. As gamblers, we now have choices. I can drive down the road toward Miami and be in one of a handful of casinos in under an hour.
That means the casino operators don't have the same built-in clientele they did when only Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Reno had legal gambling. Competition isn't necessarily what brought down casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI), but its bankruptcy illustrates the risks when a property can't attract enough customers to support its costs. Imperial Pacific International operated one of the farthest-flung U.S. casinos.
The company ran the now-closed Imperial Pacific Palace, a casino resort in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Saipan is the largest island in the CNMI, an unincorporated U.S. territory. "IPI, which never completed full construction of its Saipan casino resort Imperial Palace, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2024 owing $141.6 million to multiple creditors, including the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), CNMI Treasury, main contractor MCC International, plus former employees and multiple contractors and suppliers," according to Inside Asian Gaming.
That case has finally been resolved after a federal judge approved a structured dismissal of the Chapter 11 case, clearing the way for distributions to creditors. Bankruptcy Judge Robert J. Faris granted the joint motion filed by IPI and the Official Committee of General Unsecured Creditors, authorizing the debtor to distribute remaining estate funds and dismiss the case once all payments are completed.
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