In 2006, the first casinos In Pennsylvania opened up. The result proved devastating to Atlantic City. The impact on gaming revenues was so bad—coupled with the recession—that several plans for new casino resorts were scuttled.
Atlantic City has yet to reach the level of revenue from 2006.
Now comes what could be a prospect almost as bad: three casinos in the New York City area.
At a forum on March 4 sponsored by the Greater Atlantic City Chamber, executives from Hard Rock, Resorts, Tropicana, and Bally’s discussed the ramifications of these developments. They agreed the resort has time to upgrade their own businesses to compete with New York.
“New York is coming,” said Joe Lupo, president of Atlantic City’s Hard Rock casino. “We have some time in Atlantic City to really make an impact,” he said.
The consensus said the casinos in New York won’t be ready for three years at least. But if two of the licenses went to existing casinos in Yonkers and Queens, they would be ready sooner the addition of table games they are not authorized to offer.
If Atlantic City, its casinos, and state officials can work together to address blight, poor infrastructure and safety concerns the impact would be far less.
The executives said it is essential that Atlantic City carry out a sustained “clean-and-safe” initiative.
“If we could wake up and Atlantic City was this perfect seaside community, we would weather those threats,” said Mark Giannantonio, president of Resorts. “Make Atlantic City as great as it can be in the next two or three years. Look at what is right in front of you: cleanliness and safety issues.”
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small made a clean-and-safe initiative a big part of his plans for this year during his state of the city speech last month.
“Clean and safe, clean and safe, clean and safe: That just has to be the mantra,” said Paul Juliano, senior vice president of Bally’s Corp. “You change perception by reality.”
Panelists say Atlantic City has certain advantages that a casino in Manhattan or elsewhere in the city cannot touch.
“We have something special here in Atlantic City,” said Jacqueline Grace, senior vice president of the Tropicana, speaking of the ocean and the Boardwalk. “It’s hard to compete with that. People are still going to want to come down to the shore.”
Lupo said specific, concrete plans need to be made to advance some efforts already under way in the city.
“We need to see some funding from the state and some real planning from the city. The streets need to be paved. There needs to be more lights. There needs to be more police on the streets,” Lupo said.
