Atlantic City casinos posted a slight revenue decline in Q3 but profits jumped double-digits, suggesting operators have been successful in trimming surplus fat from their respective middles.

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement released its Q3 Atlantic City market income report, which saw net revenue fall 0.7% to $778.6m. However, discounting the last gasps of the Trump Taj Mahal, which closed for good in October 2016, revenue improved 4.4% year-on-year.

It was a far better story in terms of (Trump-less) operator profits, which shot up 17.6% to $252.6m. For the year-to-date, revenue is up 5.7% to $2.05b while profits jumped nearly 19% to $561.2m.

Sticking with YTD measurements, only one operator (Harrah’s) was in negative profit territory, falling 7.6% from the same period last year to $87.5m. All but one of the other six operators posted double-digit gains, led by the Tropicana’s stunning turnaround that saw profits soar 81.8% to $81.3m.

The casinos’ gaming floors did their best to boost the YTD numbers, with gaming revenue up 1.5% to $1.96b. ‘Entertainment and Other’ also did its part, rising 8% to $128.4m. But Rooms revenue was down nearly 5% to $304.5m and Food & Beverage fell 2.3% to $327.1m.

All but one of the casinos’ hotels scored occupancy rates above 95%, while the Golden Nugget could manage only 85.7% occupancy despite having by far the lowest average room cost.

As for the two ‘internet gaming only’ operators, Caesars Interactive Entertainment New Jersey earned a YTD profit of $8.2m on revenue of $23m, while Resorts Digital (which includes PokerStars’ New Jersey site), posted a profit of over $14m on revenue of $30.7m.