Suddenly, a Boardwalk casino in Atlantic City is a bad bet, but locate the casino in the city’s Marina District and you get a different story.
Four Boardwalk casinos have closed in the city this year and a fourth—the Trump Taj Mahal—could close next month. But the three casinos in the city’s Marina District are the most profitable in the resort.
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Golden Nugget Atlantic City and Harrah’s Resort are all doing well despite increased competition from out-of-state casinos. In fact, Borgata is the city’s most profitable casino had a gross operating profit of $16.9 million in 2013, up 25 percent from the year before and numbers indicate that profits will be up again in 2014.
As the Boardwalk properties close, many are noting some advantages to the Marina District casinos, which are located away from neighborhoods and local businesses. The district has easy highway access and simply appears cleaner and safer than Boardwalk casinos located in the heart of the city.
Borgata in particular has carved out a niche as a more upscale property and has made constant investments in the property. Meanwhile some Boardwalk properties that closed—notably Trump Plaza and thee Atlantic Club—were seen to be in decline and poorly maintained.
Still, one marina property, the Golden Nugget, managed to come back from a decline itself. As the former Trump Castle casino, the property lost money and was considered dingy and boring.
But since Landry Inc. took over the property in 2011, the casino’s fate has improved. Although the Nugget was still operating at a loss at the end of 2013 it had cut that loss by 26 percent. Through June of this year, the casino reported an operating profit of $776,000.
After rebranding and making capital improvements since 2011, Golden Nugget has a lot to offer, General Manager Tom Pohlman said.
“We have always had great gaming,” Nugget General Manager Tom Pohlman told the Press of Atlantic City. “Now we also have Landry’s restaurants, a $6 million spa, a pool that is a hot spot during the summer with great views of Atlantic City and we received a four-diamond rating from AAA after redoing the rooms. We also have Haven, which is the hottest club in Atlantic City right now.”
The third marina casino, Harrah’s, a Caesars Entertainment property, also is operating with consistent gains in profit and has steadily expanded through the years. The casino is currently building a new business conference center.
On the Boardwalk, only the Tropicana Casino Resort—with its indoor “The Quarter” retail and entertainment mall—and Resorts Atlantic City—with it Margaritaville theme—are doing as well. The two-properties somewhat echo the all-inclusiveness of the marina casinos.
Still, Atlantic City remains an expensive place to do business, but for the city’s Marina-District properties, at least it’s still a good business.
