Atlantic City Gambling

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Atlantic City has been the home of a rotating network of casino properties and resorts since gambling was legalized in the late 1970s.

The hotels offered by these resorts range from five-star luxury to basic economy. Prices during the week are substantially lower than weekends. The best nights in terms of price are usually Sunday through Wednesday. Thursday may be moderately expensive compared to early weekdays. Saturday is by far the most expensive night of the week in Atlantic City, followed by Friday.

Atlantic City Sports Gambling

Try one of these Atlantic City Online Casinos

Enjoy modern accommodations, world-class entertainment, delicious dining, and enjoyable casino gaming at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City. Other good options near the gaming action include Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. How many hotels that are good for gaming should I expect to find in Atlantic City? You won’t need a stroke of luck to find something that suits with one of Expedia’s 1734 casino hotels in Atlantic City.

• These are the best places for couples seeking casinos & gambling in Atlantic City: Borgata Casino. Hard Rock Casino. Golden Nugget Casino. Tropicana Casino. Caesars Atlantic City Casino. See more casinos & gambling for couples in Atlantic City on Tripadvisor.
• Come for our famous boardwalk and beaches, stay and play at our casino resorts or choose from world-class entertainment options, concerts, shows, events and unlimited things to do in Atlantic City.

There are nine Atlantic City casinos open. Three are owned by CaesarsEntertainment (Caesars sold Bally’s in 2020 but the sale is pending):

• Bally’s
• Caesars
• Harrah’s

MGM Resorts owns the top-grossing casino-hotel, Borgata. ElDorado Resorts operates the Tropicana Atlantic City after a sale of the property in early 2018. Golden Nugget is owned by Landry’s Inc., and Resorts is independently owned.

Borgata, Golden Nugget and Harrah’s are in the Marina District. Bally’s, Caesars, Resorts, and Tropicana are on the Boardwalk.

In 2018, two casinos opened in preexisting, refurbished properties. Ocean Casino Resort, the former Revel, opened its doors the same day as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, which reopened in the former Trump Taj Mahal property.

For information about gambling revenue in Atlantic City, click here.

Atlantic City casinos in 2021

Here is a brief rundown of the nine casinos in Atlantic City:

Bally’s

Bally’s is on the Boardwalk and offers more than 100 table games and a poker room. Its hotel is perfect for budget-minded travelers. Wild Wild West, found along the Boardwalk under Bally’s, offers low-limit games and the largest sportsbook in Atlantic City at 15,228 square feet.

Borgata

Located in the Marina District, Borgata is the flagship of Atlantic City. Owned by MGM Resorts, Borgata’s luxury resort is home to more than a dozen restaurants. It has a giant poker room and a sports and race book. The limits at Borgata are reasonable, with many $5 and $10 table game minimums. All blackjacks pay 3-2. Games with a minimum bet of $25 stand on all 17s.

Caesars

Caesars is on the Boardwalk. It is owned by Caesars Entertainment and is a middle-tier resort with more than 100 table games. There are more than a dozen restaurants at Caesars, as well as two showrooms for entertainment.

Golden Nugget

Golden Nugget is a boutique hotel in the Marina District. It has several Landry’s restaurants on-site. All blackjacks pay 3-2 at Golden Nugget. Its hotel rooms are more modern than most in Atlantic City, and there is a walking trail between Harrah’s and Golden Nugget.

Hard Rock Atlantic City

Hard Rock AC opened its doors in summer 2018. The newly remodeled and redesigned building on the Boardwalk no longer bears any resemblance to the Trump Taj Mahal casino. The casino features 120 table games and a variety of entertainment options and restaurants.

Harrah’s

Harrah’s is the Atlantic City flagship for Caesars Entertainment. Located in the Marina District, it offers more than 100 table games, as well as competitive video poker. There is an after-hours pool with the latest musical acts and DJs. Harrah’s is also home to a variety of dining establishments.

Ocean Casino

The repurposed Revel Hotel & Casino got a new name in early 2018 when the property was officially sold to AC Oceanwalk before transitioning ownership to Luxor Capital in early 2019. Ocean Casino opened its doors on June 28, 2018, and includes one of the more luxurious casino floors and a variety of high-end restaurants and shops. Ocean Casino is at the opposite end of the Boardwalk from Tropicana.

Resorts

Resorts is the original Atlantic City casino. Having opened on the Boardwalk in 1978, it is smaller than its competitors but still retains its playing power. Resorts offers low limits for its table games. All blackjack games stand on all 17s and pay 3-2.

Tropicana

Tropicana has an old-school feel. It is on the far south end of the Boardwalk. All blackjack tables stand on all 17s and pay 3-2. Tropicana’s casino floor is separated into sections of slots and video poker.

Wild Wild West

Not usually counted among the casinos in Atlantic City, Wild Wild West is in the lower level of Bally’s. It offers $5 live table games, as well as some electronic ones with even lower limits. Wild Wild West offers live entertainment, as well as two bars and restaurants.

Games at Atlantic City casinos

AC casino table games and casino videopoker are everywhere in the resort town along with hundreds of slot machines. Most are similar or share the same names as online casino games, but some are exclusive to one or two casinos.

Atlantic City sports betting

New Jersey legalized sports betting in January 2012 after voters passed a nonbinding referendum instructing the New Jersey Legislature to pass it. But the major sports leagues took issue with this.

New Jersey was not exempted under the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Even Delaware, which was exempted under PASPA, lost its own fight with the sports leagues in 2009 and was forced to only offer parlay cards.

The fight between New Jersey and the sports leagues came to an end on May 14, 2018, when the US Supreme Court ruled that PASPA was unconstitutional. After that, the floodgates opened, and AC casinos and NJ online gambling sites got quickly up and running with sportsbooks once the NJ sports betting law and regulations were finalized.

Eight Atlantic City casinos now have retail sportsbooks up and running.

Closed Atlantic City casinos

The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel (closed Jan. 13, 2014)

The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel was actually Atlantic City’s original Golden Nugget.

The property opened as The Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in 1980. It was one of the smallest casinos in the city, but by 1983, it was the top-grossing.

Golden Nugget owner Steve Wynn sold the casino for $440 million to Bally Manufacturing in 1987 and the name changed to Bally’s Grand Hotel and Casino.

Hilton Hotels Corporation bought Bally and renamed the property Atlantic City Hilton in 1998.

In 2005, Resorts International bought the casino. It ran Resorts Atlantic City and the Atlantic City Hilton for the next four years as a single entity called Atlantic City Hilton and Resorts Atlantic City.

In June 2011, the Hilton name was removed and it became the ACH Casino Resort. In February 2012, it was rebranded as a locals casino and renamed The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel. By the end of the year, the parent company of online gaming giant PokerStars entered into discussion to buy the property.

Its eye was on legalized online gambling in New Jersey. A purchase agreement was struck in January 2013, but PokerStars pulled out after having difficulty obtaining a casino license.

The casino shut its doors on January 13, 2014. Caesars Entertainment soon bought the property and Tropicana bought all the gaming equipment.

Caesars Entertainment then sold to TJM Properties in 2014. TJM made plans to reopen it as a non-gaming property. The company announced in 2017 another developer would be purchasing the property and turning it into an indoor waterpark.

The financing for this project ultimately fell through.

Showboat Atlantic City (closed Aug. 31, 2014)

The Showboat Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center opened in March 1987 on land leased from Resorts International right beside where the soon-to-be Trump Taj Mahal was under construction. The Showboat featured a 60,000-square-foot casino and a 60-lane bowling alley.

A 1995 renovation brought in a Mardi Gras theme. Three years later, Harrah’s Entertainment, which is now Caesars Entertainment, bought the Showboat’s parent company and took ownership.

The bowling alley became a buffet in 2001. In 2003, Showboat built a new hotel tower and remodeled the original. It also constructed a third hotel tower. But by June 2014, Caesars Entertainment made plans to close down the Showboat. The company looked to sell, but after failing to find a suitable buyer, the Showboat shuttered on Aug. 31, 2014.

Atlantic City Gambling Revenues

In December of that year, Richard Stockton College bought the property with plans to turn it into a college campus.

They later sold it to Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein, who reopened it as a non-gaming hotel in July 2016. Plans currently include an indoor water park on the parking lot next door to Showboat.

Trump Plaza (closed Sept. 16, 2014)

The $210 million Harrah’s at Trump Plaza opened up as the biggest casino in Atlantic City history on May 14, 1984. It was a joint partnership between Donald Trump and Holiday Inn’s gaming division Harrah’s. It originally featured 614 rooms, seven restaurants, a 750-seat showroom, and a 60,000 square foot casino.

Competitor Hilton was soon denied a casino license on its $320 million Atlantic City Marina casino project under construction nearby. Trump came in and bought out Hilton, finished construction and opened it up as Trump Castle. Harrah’s sued Trump, claiming a conflict of interest. Trump bought out Harrah’s interest in Harrah’s at Trump Plaza and renamed it Trump Plaza.

Trump continued building an empire in Atlantic City over the next decade, buying up existing casinos and construction projects. However, when he opened up the even larger Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, business at Trump Plaza suffered.

The property went through a bankruptcy in 1992. Trump’s publicly-traded Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts ultimately gained ownership. A new East Tower opened in early 1996 as did a connection to the new Trump World’s Fair.

In 2011, with Trump almost completely divested in the company, Trump Entertainment Resorts announced it was looking to sell Trump Plaza or find a financing partner for a new renovation. At least one deal to sell fell through. By July 2014, the company said it would soon shut Trump Plaza down.

In August 2014, Trump filed a lawsuit demanding the property remove his name. On Sept. 16, 2014, Trump Plaza shut down.

In June 2020, the AC mayor announced that Carl Icahn submitted a plan for the Trump Plaza demolition to take place in 2021.

A brief history of Atlantic City

New Jersey voters amended the State Constitution in 1976 to allow casino-style gambling. It became the second state after Nevada to legalize casinos. They were restricted to Atlantic City. No other parts of the state could build casinos.

On May 28, 1978, Resorts International opened as the first casino in Atlantic City. There are currently nine hotel-casinos located in the resort city.

Borgata is by far the biggest winner in terms of casino revenue. It was built in 2003. Only one casino has been built since Borgata. Revel opened in March 2012. But it fell into bankruptcy within a year after it failed to attract gamblers with its attempt to be a resort first and casino second.

New Jersey has fallen on hard times as neighboring states have legalized casinos. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun began drawing gamblers from New York City in 1992. Today, casinos are now found in all states that border New Jersey.

This has forced New Jersey out of the second-place spot in terms of gaming revenue. Pennsylvania now has that honor.

NJ online gambling goes live

Former Gov. Chris Christie signed online gambling into law on Feb. 26, 2013. This legalized NJ online poker and online casinos in the state. Any player located within New Jersey at the time of login will be able to play interactive real money games.

Christie had twice vetoed legislation before finally signing it into law.

In March 2011, Christie outright vetoed similar legislation after citing that he felt it would take a change to the New Jersey Constitution to allow gambling outside of Atlantic City, regardless of where the actual servers were located.

On Feb. 7, 2013, Christie apparently changed his mind. While he still vetoed the bill in front of him, it was only a conditional one. He instructed the legislature to raise the tax rate from 10 percent to 15 percent and add more funds to the problem gambling services provided under the law.

The legislature approved his wishes.

Everyone that’s interested in gambling is probably already aware that the coronavirus pandemic has affected casino revenue. Frankly, as I write this, many traditional and land-based casinos are still closed for business.

But I thought it would be interesting to specifically look at what’s happening in specific major casino destinations as a result of these surreal times.

And it seems like a post about Atlantic City casino gambling is as good a place to start as any.

Atlantic City Casino Gambling Was on the Rise

Before the pandemic, gambling revenue in Atlantic City casinos had shown consistent increases for 21 months in a row.

Compared to last year, casino gambling revenue is down over 42%. This makes sense, as Governor Phil Murphy ordered the closure of all the casinos for months.

If you look at the average daily revenue for gambling machines and table games, though, revenues for Atlantic City were showing the same year-over-year increase that you’d expect.

And if you look at year over year revenue, numbers are down only 3%. But that is expected to go up by the year’s end. Unless the casinos are able to return to previous numbers, which is doubtful, gambling revenue for Atlantic City will likely be down year over year by close to 100%.

But New Jersey also offers online gambling, so the state won’t see a complete erasure of casino revenue. In March, online gambling revenue was up almost 66% over last year. And, while that’s not as much revenue as you’d see from the brick and mortar side of Atlantic City gambling, it’s still tens of millions of dollars.

Sports betting has also suffered, even though it’s still in its infancy in Atlantic City and New Jersey as a whole. That’s not because people have lost their interest in betting on sports, though, it’s simply because there are fewer sports to bet on.

$6 million might sound like a lot of money, but compared to what New Jersey expected last month, it’s pennies on the dollar.

Importance of Online Gambling for Atlantic City and New Jersey

With the difficulties that brick and mortar casinos and sportsbooks are facing, the online gambling side of the business has increased in importance.

And with the economy in such rough shape, the state is relying on taxes from the online gambling side of things more than ever, too.

In an average month before the pandemic, New Jersey would collect $20 million in taxes from casinos (or more). That number is now to closer to $6 million.

Atlantic City Casinos Reopenings

According to a small informal survey, conducted during the casino closures, by a journalist for the Atlantic City Weekly, only about 10% of the regular casino gamblers in Atlantic City had interest in coming back to the casinos.

After all, what could be more crowded (and potentially unsanitary) than an Atlantic City casino?

Here are some of the common things people were saying about returning to Atlantic City casinos.

• “I’m going to go back to the casinos but only the ones offering great promotions.”
• “I’ll go back to the casinos but only during off-hours when there are fewer gamblers there.”
• “I’ll look for other forms of entertainment for at least the next few months.”
• “I won’t go back to the casinos until I’m SURE it’s safe.”
• “Playing cards and chips are likely to be handled by people sick with the virus.”
• “I might go back if they practice social distancing at the slot machines.”
• “I miss the other gamblers more than I miss the gambling itself.”
• “What’s going to happen to my preferred player status with the players club?”

Of course, this is all just based on one journalist talking to 100 random gamblers.

More Safety Concerns Amid Coronavirus in the Casino Age

One of the most common safety concerns during all of this is the chances of getting the coronavirus on a casino trip. Is it even possible to maintain anything resembling social distancing in a casino?

Many gamblers don’t think so. Even with measures put in place, gamblers who are drinking are notoriously oblivious to personal boundaries and space issues.

Others worry that the economic conditions caused by all this will result in having less money to gamble with. Since life has slowed down for most people, the idea of speeding things back up with casino gambling might not be too appealing.

One of the people interviewed in that previous Atlantic City Weekly article I referred to pointed out that risking your life to play a penny slot machine with an 85% payback percentage doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Some gamblers claim to have given up casino gambling altogether.

My guess is that land based casinos will see the same phenomenon as other aspects of the economy. It will rebound, but it won’t rebound quickly.

The economy, even the gambling economy, isn’t like a light switch you can turn on and off. It slows down gradually, and it speeds back up even more gradually.

Atlantic City Gambling Forum

More About Online Gambling in Atlantic City

One of the most popular things for gamblers in Atlantic City New Jersey online gambling, but it’s asking a lot of the internet gambling industry to save the entire casino gambling scene in Atlantic City.

Atlantic City Gambling News

So, yes, online gambling is a big deal in New Jersey, but a big percentage of it just disappeared when the various sports leagues delayed their seasons.

What does that mean? Casino games and player versus player poker is driving the internet gambling revenue for the state of New Jersey.

That’s not great news for the industry, as online sports betting has been driving the increase in internet gambling in the state for the last two years. In fact, online poker is trending downward in the state.

Online gambling makes up less than 20% of the industry’s revenues.

What Did the Big Casino Corporations Do in Atlantic City?

MGM Resorts was one of the first casino companies to shut down all their casinos. I guess they could read the writing on the wall and decided to get ahead of the decision before it was forced on them by the government. They own the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.

Other global companies were prepared for these shutdowns because they went through the same experience in Macau earlier this year. The problem is that Atlantic City casinos aren’t sitting on piles of cash as big as the Macau casinos.

And Atlantic City casinos and sportsbooks were relying heavily on gambling revenue from upcoming sporting events that have since been canceled.

March Madness, for example, is a big revenue driver for sports betting, but not this year.

Some casinos are positioned differently in the online sector, too. Golden Nugget generates more revenue online than in their brick and mortar casino.

The Borgata, on the other hand, generates more than 85% of its revenue from its brick and mortar casino. Hard Rock and Tropicana also do the overwhelming majority of their business in their traditional venue, rather than online.

And some casinos in Atlantic City have no online presence at all, or they have such a small online presence they might as well not have one. Bally’s, Caesars, and Harrah’s have no online gambling available. And Ocean Resort only does 2% of their business online.

Conclusion

What does the future hold for Atlantic City casinos and gambling after the coronavirus pandemic situation dies down?

Some of that depends on how long this lasts. Some casinos in Atlantic City are well-positioned because of their online presence. For example, Golden Nugget will likely come out of this situation looking better than most.

The casinos with a weak online presence, on the other hand, might not be in business anymore when this ends. Some of that depends on the availability of government bailouts. Some of it also depends on the strength of the corporation behind the casino.

I’m as curious as anyone else as to what things will look like after the dust settles.