There Will Be Fewer Atlantic City Casinos

Wall Street experts have seen the future of Atlantic City casinos — and there will be fewer places to play. A panel of analysts speaking at a regional gambling conference Tuesday in Atlantic City said a market that has already lost one casino this year still has too many. Adam Rosenberg, a managing director with Goldman Sachs, said “reducing capacity” is already underway, which he considers positive. Srihari Rajagopalan, a debt analyst with UBS, agreed. “You are seeing the market right-size, which is a positive,” Rajagopalan said. “There are unprofitable casinos shutting down.” Earlier this month, the CEO of Caesars…

Could New Jersey Allow Casino Outside Atlantic City?

Card Player – One lawmaker in New Jersey is still advocating for a casino outside of Atlantic City. According to the Associated Press, at a regional gambling conference Tuesday in Atlantic City, Assemblyman Ralph Caputo reiterated that a casino in the Meadowlands would greatly benefit the Garden State. Discussions of such a possibility have been “growing stronger.” “A casino in north Jersey, to be taxed at 50 or 60 percent, we could do a billion dollars a year in that location,” Caputo said. “We’ve got to be fighting for those customers. That’s what Pennsylvania is doing. That’s what New York…

Potential medical marijuana lawsuit addresses casino accommodations

Press of Atlantic City –  An Atlantic City man has hired an attorney to clarify whether registered medical marijuana users must be accommodated in casino smoking sections after he was told he could not take his prescription at Revel Casino Hotel. Daniel Price, a 23-year-old medical marijuana card holder, said he was turned away from Revel and directed to the Boardwalk when he asked a security guard if he could use the substance in late April. A registered medical marijuana patient since February, Price is prescribed the drug to treat both seizures and irritable bowel disease. “I asked the security…

Caesars mulling Atlantic City closures

Bloomberg – Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CZR), the largest operator of casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is looking for ways to reduce capacity in the struggling market, including closing properties. “We are looking at all of our options to reduce the cost of doing business here,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman said yesterday on a conference call after reporting a wider first-quarter loss. “All the businesses in A.C. are under tremendous pressure.” Caesars has been struggling to remain solvent amid a glut of casinos and weak consumer spending, following a 2008 leveraged buyout that left the company with about $23…

World Poker Tour Championship relocates to Atlantic City

Press of Atlantic City – After an 11-year stint in Las Vegas, a high buy-in poker tournament drawing players from as far away as South Africa and Korea has left Sin City for Atlantic City. The reason, organizers say, is the New Jersey’s budding online gambling market. The championship event of the World Poker Tour kicked off Monday at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Running concurrently with it is the first New Jersey Championship of Online Poker, now the largest online tournament ever held in the U.S. since the legalization of online gambling. The World Poker Tour event is sponsored…

Atlantic City targets younger demographic

NJ Spotlight – As Atlantic City’s “Do AC” campaign enters its second year, the Atlantic City Alliance, a casino-funded marketing group, is refocusing its message, promoting specific events it hopes will pull in more tourists rather than emphasizing AC as a clean and safe place to visit. Atlantic City, meanwhile, is still struggling to find its feet. Entertainment and food revenue leveled off in 2013, according to the ACA’s 2014 report, after increasing for the previous four years. Casinos continued to lose money, although at a slower rate. And 2013 revenue was flat, or at least posted a very modest…