Press of Atlantic City – When Atlantic Club Casino Hotel closes its doors Monday morning, it will mark only the third time in the city’s history that a casino has shut down.
But unlike the gambling halls that have closed before it — shuttered amid unfulfilled promises of bigger and grander operations to replace what had failed — this time, experts say, the closing comes with uncertainty for the property’s future and what might come next for Atlantic City.
Politicians, officials and analysts called Atlantic Club’s closing inevitable; the casino has struggled for years, and it only recently gained ground with locals after years spent pursuing a sale. Today, however, many say Atlantic Club’s demise is perhaps the first acknowledgment that the resort’s casino industry must be trimmed to survive and that further downsizing will come.
The industry spoke loudly about what it needs, analysts said, when two Atlantic City competitors — Caesars Entertainment Corp. and Tropicana Entertainment Inc. — teamed up with a bid that pulled Atlantic Club out of the market.
“It’s no secret that Atlantic City has been declining since 2006. This was inevitable, and it’s sad,” Tropicana President and CEO Tony Rodio said. “It’s just the harsh reality of the circumstances of the marketplace that we’re currently in. Will more (casinos) close? I certainly will say it’s possible.”
A far different story was told the last time a casino shut down in Atlantic City. Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. bought the Sands Casino Hotel for $270 million in 2006, only to tear it down a year later to make room for a $1.5 billion casino. The demolition began in grandiose form, with a fireworks spectacular for a crowd of 100,000, yet new development never materialized as the Atlantic City market began to decline.
