Atlantic City: beginnings of a comeback?
No, this is not about Donald Trump.
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Atlantic City casinos hit jackpot with 22.5% jump in profits last year
April 9 NJ.com
Atlantic City casinos hit jackpot with 22.5% jump in profits last year - nj.com -
Hard Rock ready to roll in Atlantic City with huge music lineup, opening date. - Apr 18 NJ.com
Hard Rock ready to roll in Atlantic City with huge music lineup, opening date revealed - nj.com
In 1976 a lot of oceanside town’s in South Jersey were popular beach resorts for Northeasterners. But heavily populated Atlantic City gad a tourism industry, that while significant, was small compared to its large area population, and the area languished economically.
In a bold, VERY successful move, the city legalized gambling, ‘Indian Casinos’ did not exist anywhere and there was no competition.
Twelve Casinos were built, and while it is often pointed out the educated/uneducated income divide did not disappear, the area, awash in tourist and gambling dollars, boomed for 2-3 decades.
Since then, New England opened SEVEN Casinos including Mohegan Sun Foxwoods, each drawing a HUGE portion of NYC area gamblers, and Boston’s Wynn Twin River Casino, 2007.
NY State has opened 24 casinos, including several close to NYC. The Niagara falls are has casinos on both sides of the border.
Pennsylvania opened 12 including 2 in Philadelphia and another so close to Philadelphia, many visitors think they are in the city.
Since 2014, five of the cities 12 casinos closed (that’s nearly half). As if the competition had not been brutal enough, Atlantic City ALSO suddenly had a Has-Been-Ghetto-Ghost Town image to shake.
The city government was unwilling or unable to downsize by 5/12 in 3-4 years and the State of NJ took over.
Anyway, as the articles above may indicate, Atlantic City seems to have reached some sort of bottom.
