Casinos Close In Atlantic City

Looking for customers to push in his cart, Abdul Wahab slowly walks up the empty boardwalk by the closed Showboat Casino and up towards the closed Revel Casino. With two casinos recently closed, Revel and Showboat and The Trump Plaza set to close in a couple of weeks a look at Atlantic City and how it is doing.

(Aristide Economopoulos | The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — About 30 politicians, casino executives, union leaders and others will pack into a room in an Atlantic City office building Monday for a closed-door summit led by Gov. Chris Christie.

The topic: What to do to help Atlantic City as it faces a huge crisis, with one casino shuttered in January, two more just closed and another about to shut its doors, throwing 8,000 people out of jobs.

Nobody is betting on finding a magic solution to revamp the troubled gambling resort.

But those who will attend the summit say it’s time to roll the dice on new ideas.

“There’s not going to be any solutions coming out of this meeting,” said state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester). “There’s going to be conversations.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen so soon. Four years ago, Christie came up with a plan in which the state took over operations of key parts of the resort’s boardwalk with the aim of transforming it into a family-friendly destination. The city, which for decades had a gambling monopoly on the East Coast, now faces competition from dozens of casinos in nearby states, and its gaming revenue has plummeted.

The plan was supposed to be given five years before lawmakers would even consider allowing casino gambling in another part of the state. But the closure of the Atlantic Club, Showboat, Revel and, soon, Trump Plaza, shattered that timeline.

Asked if the five-year plan had worked, state Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic) said, “Honestly, no.”

“We’re losing 8,000 jobs. The numbers are what they are,” Whelan, a former Atlantic City mayor, said.

And while Christie has claimed some success with the takeover — citing rebounding luxury tax receipts and promising hotel occupancy rates — talk of allowing table games and slots in the northern part of the state, or at horse racing tracks, is expected to be a huge and contentious part of the discussions Monday.

“At the end of the day, if we expand gaming outside of Atlantic City, it’s making sure we do it to maximize the revenue we get from it and strengthen our programs for seniors and the disabled,” said Sweeney, who added that much of the money generated from North Jersey casinos would have to be devoted to rebuilding Atlantic City.

Sweeney and Whelan — longtime opponents of casino gaming anywhere but Atlantic City — are now open to the possibility.

MAKING PLANS

Potential casino moguls are already making plans. North Jersey lawmakers have long called for slot machines or full casino gaming in the Meadowlands — something they’re still pushing. And the billionaire former CEO of Reebok, Paul Fireman, has been making the rounds with New Jersey lawmakers to promote plans for a 95-story casino, hotel, resort and Formula 1 racetrack on Jersey City’s waterfront, right next to the golf course he already owns.

Allowing that would require a change to the New Jersey constitution, and several lawmakers have already drafted referendums to ask the public to amend it.

But Assemblyman Christopher A. Brown (R-Atlantic), who represents the resort, isn't ready to give up its hold on casinos.

“Experts have already researched and concluded building a casino in North Jersey in an oversaturated market will result in many more jobs being lost and less funding for senior citizen and disabled programs,” Brown said. “Simply discussing this idea scares away private investment making it harder to find buyers for Revel, Showboat, and Trump Plaza while making it more difficult for Atlantic City to transition into a destination resort.”

Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, which represents casino workers, said he can’t even think about expanding gambling when thousands of people just lost their jobs.

“Right now we’re much too preoccupied with dealing with the displaced workers in Atlantic City to really give much thought to that,” he said. “We’re really focused on taking care of the people here right now for the short term.”

STAKEHOLDERS AGREE

What most stakeholders do agree on is that Atlantic City must make use of its beachfront to once again become a destination for tourists, including some who like to gamble — and not just a gambling mecca.

Whelan said that would take a serious face-lift, and a rehabilitation of the city, which has a reputation for crime and squalor just blocks away from its gleaming casino and hotel towers.

“If you’re looking at Ocean Avenue or Tennessee Avenue and you’re standing on Pacific Avenue and you’re looking toward the boardwalk, you’re not going to make that walk,” Whelan said. “I can tell you, statistically, it’s safe, but you’re looking at empty ground and a couple vacant buildings. You’re not going to do that.”

Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts declined to comment on the meeting, which will not be open to the public or the press.

Whelan, for his part, said he’s fine with that.

“If you’re going to open it up, have 600 people there, let the public go, everybody can jump up and down, blame each other for an endless number of hours, I’m not sure how productive that is,” he said.

Jon Hanson, chairman of the New Jersey Gaming, Sports and Entertainment Advisory Commission, will be tasked with “making recommendations and plotting out how to best implement any consensus ideas, concepts or reforms” that arise from Monday’s meeting, according to the governor’s office.

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