Atlantic City seeking another new image
Casino operators and politicians in Atlantic City are worried about a fall in revenue in the first two months of the year.
They are bracing for what analysts predict could be Atlantic City’s first annual drop since gambling was legalized in the state in 1977, reports The New York Times.
Why?
“Faced with competition from three new casinos in eastern Pennsylvania and slot machines recently added to Yonkers Raceway in the New York suburbs, casino operators here are wagering large sums that they can transform this low-rent gambling factory on the Jersey Shore into a world-class entertainment destination,” says The Times.
Tourism officials envision a future in which Atlantic City moves upmarket to become a kind of Las Vegas East, where fine food, big-name performers and other amenities — and not just the thrill of pulling a slot machine handle or throwing dice — lure a younger, more free-spending tourist from among the roughly 50 million people who live a tank of gas away.
“This is a town that had been on cruise control for 25 years,” said Larry Mullin, president and chief operating officer of the Borgata, the city’s newest, largest and most successful casino.
The Borgata last year spent $200 million adding restaurants tied to the celebrity chefs Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay as well as nightclubs and other entertainment options.
Atlantic City is in the midst of its biggest building boom since the 1980s. Casino operators have invested more than $4 billion over the past five years, and plans are on the drawing board for at least two more mega-casinos, each costing $1 billion-plus.
A few years ago the city, ala Las Vegas, adopted a new slogan: “Always Turned On.”
The Borgata, the first billion-dollar casino in town and one of four to report a jump in revenue so far this year, sells a “Babes of Borgata” pinup calendar featuring female employees covered by little more than feathers.
“This is an adult entertainment town,” said Mayor Robert W. Levy. “That’s what our casinos have to capitalize on to keep the industry healthy.”
Still, the town is suffering.
Michael Pollock, publisher of the trade journal The Gaming Industry Observer, predicted that 2007 would “almost undoubtedly be the first time Atlantic City sees a year-to-year decline in revenues at its casinos.”
Report by David Wilkening
David
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