Article: Table games in Pa & Del. affecting N.J. casinos

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Atlantic City has to market what these other locations do not have, that is nongaming amenities...

Atlantic City may hold up better in the competition for table game dollars than in the competition for slot dollars..."Table players are different in profile. The slot player is amenable to the convenience factor as a motive to choose where to play," [pundit] said.

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Interesting article. Certainly the monopoly that AC used to have on gaming on the east coast continues to weaken.

I agree with the idea that many table game players gravitate towards larger, more exciting destinations but slot players are less picky.

Unfortunately New Jersey never used the gambling revenues from Atlantic City to build and protect Atlantic City. Theoretically, AC has close access to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, sits on a beach. It should be a gambling mecca, and for a while, it was.

But anyone who has been to AC takes their life in their hands if they should find themselves outside of a car within a block of the casinos, because the city and the state didn't use the gamlbing revenues to clean up the area around the casinos. It's fairly typical that property values drop next to a casino because criminal activity increases, but in Atlantic City's case, the geography of the casinos (all being lined up along the Boardwalk) left the only desirable place to be in the city to be next to the beach. Once the casinos took up all of that space and the views, the property values next to the casinos dropped precipitously and crime-ridden low-income neighbourhoods took over. Careful planning, building up complementary businesses, and zoning some of the boardwalk as public parks would have reduced this effect.

Atlantic City could be a very kid-friendly place... it could have opened an amusement park on the boardwalk like what exists in Santa Monica or Santa Cruz, but the density of casinos took the kid-friendly atmosphere away. If you want to stay in a hotel in Atlantic City, your only decent choice is a casino-hotel, which is inherently not kid-friendly.

Certainly Vegas has lost some of its revenue due to gaming establishments opening all over the country, but Vegas is still unique, and some (if not all) of its revenue losses have been covered by increases in gambling interest worldwide.

While I don't disagree with you, there HAVE been changes and upgrades to the AC city itself. Yeah, too little too late, but it's there.

For example, there is the new convention center. And The Walk - a retail / restaurant area stretching from the Trump Plaza and Caesars to the new conv center. There always has been an amusement park on the Steel Pier across from Taj - although I admit it's not much bigger than a typical traveling carnival. There are other minor attractions in the gaps between casinos.

At one time, one casino (the Trop?) had an indoor amusement park, but it got little use, so it's all slots now.

The big problem is, it's not really a destination of choice for people that have to travel far.

People from NJ (like me) go to AC often, but we also go to Vegas.

How many people from Nevada go to AC? Of course, having the airport 12 miles away, that few airlines even service, doesn't help.

Even within the casinos themselves, other than gambling, are there any free or low cost attractions like Vegas? No.

In AC, once you're in a casino, even though there's another casino next door. And, in fact, many neighboring competing casinos have an indoor corridor making casino hopping easy even in bad weather. But the only reason to hop, is if you're doing badly, and you think your luck will change next door.

Agreed. We've been to AC a few times in the last few years as we were living in NJ for a few months. Outside of the casinos it's downright depressing. I saw the "walk" and the convention centre... If the city cleaned up all of the blocks say from the Convention centre to the ocean you might have a very decent city that might bring in family-oriented hotels. I guess the issue is that in good times, a hotel attached to a casino brings in alot more money than a hotel not attached to anything and would involve more risk. Difficult call.

Table game legislation was signed by the governor

Table Games in Delaware

I doubt that table games in Delaware will have that much of an impact on Atlantic City (from what I can tell, Delaware draws mostly from local and Baltimore/Washington markets). On the other hand, table games in Pennsylvania will have an impact. While the summer shore traffic ex-Philadelphia/Pennsylvania will probably remain a constant, I have to believe the day trip traffic will be going in another direction.

Mount Airy, Sands in Bethlehem, Parx in Philadelphia, and Harrahs in West Chester have to be drawing directly from traffic once destined for AC. Certainly, they will develop new devotees--but still their core business has got to taken from AC.

I would be curious to find out exactly what the demographics are for the Atlantic City casinos (as in who, what age, and where are they from). I'm sure someone knows but not sure how much anyone would be willing to divulge.

Like the bromide says, necessity is the mother of invention...it will be interesting to see the innovations undertaken in AC brought forth by the new competitive environment.

Quote: Niblick

I have to believe the day trip traffic will be going in another direction.

Peolpe in my area (Northern NJ) are already talking about and anticipating day trips to PA once the tables open.

But A.C. will be getting competition from another direction as well: Internally.

There's a new casino coming (two actually).

1 - Pinnacle demolished the Sands a few years ago, but ran into money issues and hasn't started building yet (Although there ARE dozens of billboards trying to build the hype).

2 - There's a new casino that's been going up next to ShowBoat for about two years. From the exterior looks of things, it's got to be bigger than Showboat and Taj combined! It's scheduled to be complete sometime in 2011. It's being built by Revel Entertainment http://www.revelinac.com/ Who is Revel Entertainment?

Here's a photo I took 3 weeks ago, shot from in front of the Taj. Although you can't see much of Revel, you can see the Revel hotel tower behind ShowBoat's hotel. As you can see, it's going to be MUCH taller than ShowBoat. According to their website, there's going to be TWO hotel towers!

Admin note: removed image www.djteddybear.com/images/revel.jpg

I'm sitting here in the Pocono Mountains (and btw it's freezing)...

We'll be happy to have you visit.