By now all the seedy parts of AC should have been bought up and replaced with luxury condo's and houses. Never understood how it ended up like this. It should still be the gambling destination on the east coast, it's on the freaking beach !!!
OT: Abandoned E55: Revel Casino Resort (another epic NJ boondoggle)
- Thread starter T2Kplus10
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It seems like it should have happened organically (ie, follow the money) but it didn't. I also wonder why.
Nearly every day I walk past an empty boardwalk piece of land where I know a huge luxury complex was planned (Annapolis Ave). Only one condo unit was ever built. The rest is just a barren field. It makes me wonder about the points you have brought up. Not sure why it is this way, same as you...
Ask 100 people what AC could have done better and you’ll get 100 different answers. But here’s some perspective from former governors Byrne and Kean in 2014.
The following exchange between former New Jersey governors Brendan T. Byrne and Tom Kean took place in a Thursday teleconference.
Q: With three more casinos about to close, is it time to rethink the whole Atlantic City gambling strategy? Or is it too late to take back that bet?
GOV. BYRNE: As a matter fact, I've been thinking I made a mistake when I told the mob to stay out of Atlantic City. They know how to run casinos.
GOV. KEAN: I think it's a quarter century too late. The time to really redo the Atlantic City idea was 20 to 30 years ago. If we'd concentrated on rebuilding the city at that point, and not just casinos, we could have had a good chance.
BYRNE: I've often said my biggest mistake was not to have regionalized the casino business and put housing in one place and casinos in another.
KEAN: In those days, casinos had a monopoly. They paid very low taxes. But they took the money and poured it into Las Vegas. If they'd spent that money making Atlantic City a great resort town, we wouldn't have the problems we have today.
BYRNE: Back then, casinos were a novelty. They aren't anymore.
www.nj.com
The following exchange between former New Jersey governors Brendan T. Byrne and Tom Kean took place in a Thursday teleconference.
Q: With three more casinos about to close, is it time to rethink the whole Atlantic City gambling strategy? Or is it too late to take back that bet?
GOV. BYRNE: As a matter fact, I've been thinking I made a mistake when I told the mob to stay out of Atlantic City. They know how to run casinos.
GOV. KEAN: I think it's a quarter century too late. The time to really redo the Atlantic City idea was 20 to 30 years ago. If we'd concentrated on rebuilding the city at that point, and not just casinos, we could have had a good chance.
BYRNE: I've often said my biggest mistake was not to have regionalized the casino business and put housing in one place and casinos in another.
KEAN: In those days, casinos had a monopoly. They paid very low taxes. But they took the money and poured it into Las Vegas. If they'd spent that money making Atlantic City a great resort town, we wouldn't have the problems we have today.
BYRNE: Back then, casinos were a novelty. They aren't anymore.
Why casinos have failed to revitalize Atlantic City: Kean-Byrne Dialogue
Former Govs. Tom Kean and Brendan Byrne lament the loss of casinos, clash on election rules.
They can film the next Ocean ## movie there!
Yes, but why do we need facts when we have a narrative?
As someone mentioned above, the single biggest problem (IMHO as someone who began his career in AC in the mid-80's) which was baked into the original legislation, is that casinos had to be self contained cities (so to speak). Everything was forced upon operators - from the number of rooms, restaurants, seats, yada yada yada.
If the State simply controlled licenses and got the hell out of the way there would have been a much broader development of the city. When they set up the legislation they thought the biggest enemy was the mob when in fact it was the monopolization and concentration of riches by those with the deepest pockets and a casino. If you weren't a casino you didn't dare invest in the city because no one had to actually leave a casino because the casino was essentially required to provide everything you would need.
Furthermore, and I hope this comes out right, the unwillingness of the CRDA and others in the city to aggressively cleanup the blight through subsidized housing for casino workers which then creates viable neighborhoods and begets further investment, etc. No one in management even considered living in AC back then. You either lived in the Ventnor, Margate and Longport area or commuted in from the mainland.
If the State simply controlled licenses and got the hell out of the way there would have been a much broader development of the city. When they set up the legislation they thought the biggest enemy was the mob when in fact it was the monopolization and concentration of riches by those with the deepest pockets and a casino. If you weren't a casino you didn't dare invest in the city because no one had to actually leave a casino because the casino was essentially required to provide everything you would need.
Furthermore, and I hope this comes out right, the unwillingness of the CRDA and others in the city to aggressively cleanup the blight through subsidized housing for casino workers which then creates viable neighborhoods and begets further investment, etc. No one in management even considered living in AC back then. You either lived in the Ventnor, Margate and Longport area or commuted in from the mainland.
Revel was a bad idea when it was being built and it just got worse. If I recall correctly it was being built during an economic downturn and their whole vision was to be like a top-end Vegas resort/ casino, but the execution was beyond terrible. I think it was totally overpriced and understaffed, which made it come across as completely clueless and out-of-touch. They seemed like they were trying to act 'elite' with nothing to back it up besides a high price tag and its targeted clientele quickly realized there was nothing under the hood...I have no idea how it's doing under its current ownership but that first group pretty much missed every mark.
Joe P.
I believe he is referring to all the urban legends about the demise of this venue, when in fact it is open and thriving...
From the 1970’s to the present, 28 years were under Republican governors of the 50 years. Most of the initial policies for the casinos were Republicans As well as the decisions by Chris Christie to revive the Revel casino and American Dream.
NJ has been mainly a Republican State in the recent past. I guess we can blame all the crap going on in NJ on the Republicans.
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Should we start with you claiming a closed casino is in fact incredibly open?
Ocean Casino Resort Atlantic City
This is not only a hotel room or suite, but a new and adventurous way to experience the Ocean in Atlantic City. This is your luxury casino hotel in Atlantic City!
Should we start with you claiming a closed casino is in fact incredibly open?
Ocean Casino Resort Atlantic City
This is not only a hotel room or suite, but a new and adventurous way to experience the Ocean in Atlantic City. This is your luxury casino hotel in Atlantic City!www.theoceanac.com
Business is good at Ocean today.
A) I never claimed it was closed. I was thinking bigger picture like AC has been horribly mismanaged and a 40 year, once in a lifetime opportunity has been completely squandered. Since democrats have exclusively managed AC and The state legislature has been run by democrats uninterrupted for close to 80 years, where do you think the blame for the AC boondoggle belongs?Should we start with you claiming a closed casino is in fact incredibly open?
Ocean Casino Resort Atlantic City
This is not only a hotel room or suite, but a new and adventurous way to experience the Ocean in Atlantic City. This is your luxury casino hotel in Atlantic City!
LOL
A) You said it was abandoned, which is false
B) What party is Don Guardian again?
Before COVID AC saw record profits
Atlantic City gaming revenues eclipse $3 billion in 2019, PILOT increases $20 million
ATLANTIC CITY — The resort’s nine casinos surpassed $3 billion in annual total gaming revenue last month, a milestone the industry has not met in several years.
Before COVID AC saw record profits
Atlantic City gaming revenues eclipse $3 billion in 2019, PILOT increases $20 million
ATLANTIC CITY — The resort’s nine casinos surpassed $3 billion in annual total gaming revenue last month, a milestone the industry has not met in several years.pressofatlanticcity.com
One of reason for the record revenues last year and one of the handful of things that NJ/AC got right is online betting. Because of it AC revenue is only down 7.5% From https://www.njonlinegambling.com/record-breaking-sports-betting-month-august-2020/ :
Also interesting is this article, https://www.onlinepokerreport.com/44451/nj-record-online-gambling-revenue/ , which breaks out online revenue by operator/product.
