This isn’t the popular thing to say right now, but I’ve got real doubts about the AC mini-casino proposal. Here are my thoughts from the LV Business Press:
Both Atlantic City and Las Vegas have had a difficult recession of course, by definition no recession is easy. Atlantic City, however, has suffered much more due to increasing regional competition and that's triggered a not-so-profound re-evaluation of that city's casino industry.Atlantic City's casinos find themselves in a tough spot. Their regional monopoly, which once extended to the Mississippi River, now barely touches the Delaware. Pennsylvania will soon add table games and New York and Delaware are both considering expanding their casino industries. Gamblers, it would seem, are driving past more and more casinos on their way “down the shore.”
But in increasing numbers, they're not, which is the problem. The city's gaming revenues have fallen to 1997 numbers. Las Vegas, by comparison, has retreated only to 2004
via Las Vegas Business Press :: David G. Schwartz : Smaller casinos won’t fix what ails Atlantic City.
It’s worth saying that the most successful casinos in Atlantic City right now are the biggest ones (Borgata, Harrah’s). I’m just not seeing the ROI for something one-tenth of their size.
The article’s punch line makes it clear just how unrealistic I think the mini-casino=revival talk is.