After being pummeled by casinos popping up all around it for three years, Atlantic City is starting to roll with the punches.

October revenue figures for the nation's second-largest gambling market are down 6.5 percent compared with a year ago, when the nationwide recession hit.

The slowing rate of decline is what passes for good news nowadays in Atlantic City, particularly compared with double-digit declines that as recently as March approached 20 percent.

"I'm a half-full guy," said Don Marrandino, eastern division president of Harrah's Entertainment, which owns four Atlantic City casinos. "But two months does not a season make. I remain bullish, but I'm not ready to say the tough times are over."

The revenue plunge seems to be slowing, but casinos are still winning less than what they did before slots parlors started opening in Pennsylvania and New York.

Last month's results are only slightly worse than the September figures, which showed a 5.8 percent decline.

For October, the casinos won $323.8 million: $222.4 million at slots and another $101.4 million at table games.

But any respite could be brief: Delaware's casinos will soon offer table games, and Pennsylvania has similar plans. And competition from casinos in Yonkers, N.Y. and Connecticut isn't going away, either.

"There's more pain coming," said Joe Weinert, senior vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group, a New Jersey casino consulting firm. "A lot of the bread-and-butter customers are gone forever. That money has gone to casinos in eastern Pennsylvania, and it's not coming back."

Only two of Atlantic City's 11 casinos showed an increase in revenue in October: Caesars Atlantic City, which was up 11.1 percent, and the Showboat Casino Hotel, which was up 11.2 percent.

Harrah's Atlantic City was down 1.5 percent; Bally's Atlantic City was down 6.6 percent, and the Tropicana Casino and resort was down 7.7 percent. Continued...