Casino Hotels Closing in Atlantic City

The Trump Plaza, Revel, The Showboat and the Atlantic Casino are closing placing a minimum of 8000 people out of work and delivering a severe blow to the economy of Atlantic City. All Levels of government are meeting to see what they can do to deal with this problem. However, the issues are very significant. Some can be fixed while others are beyond the scope of what the casino owners and the government can do. In our opinion, there are several major issues that are at the root of this downward spiral. It all has to do with competition. While Atlantic city controls the casino market on the eastern seaboard, life was good and business did well. Unfortunately, a number of things got in the way. Meanwhile Casino Hotels Closing in Atlantic City continues.

Casino Hotels Closing – Competition

Surrounding states were tired of losing money to New Jersey and built casinos of their own. This fact alone siphoned millions of dollars from Atlantic City. Not only the casinos lost, but so did the supporting businesses. Consumers just found it easier to drive to their local casino. Especially in the winter than to drive for several hours to get to Atlantic City.

Another deterrent is the high cost of tolls along the various highways. Individually they do not amount to much. They do add up over longer distances. Tolls are a big irritant to many people including tourists who might visit Atlantic City.

Free parking is almost a given when you go to a casino, but not in Atlantic City. When they began charging for parking driven by the city and increased the tolls just to get to the city, I think that this was the beginning of the end. The city and the casinos just could not sustain the taxes and the tolls and also keep tourists coming to Atlantic City.

Unless the local and state governments give some money back, Atlantic city is going to see hard times and tourists are going to stay away in droves. That is my opinion, what’s yours?