Whether or not Harrah's Entertainment would like to lower its risk in Atlantic City, as I speculated yesterday, is open to question. Yes, CEO Gary Loveman has conceded that Harrah's Chester, his Pennsylvania racino, is eating into Harrah's Atlantic City business. But ...

Even in a crummy month (A.C.'s worst September in a decade), Harrah's still pulls in more than twice as much revenue as its closest competitor. It also owns the most casinos in the market. However, it's not just a question of volume. Harrah's also pulls in a disproportionately large share of gambling revenue (+3.6% fair share last month). Table game revenue at Harrah's Marina has also ramped up a mind-boggling 41% from September '07 to '08. It's not an aberration: Table game revenue at the Marina has been increasing hand over fist all year.

The next-largest operator, Trump, is basically carried by the Taj Mahal, which has been doing more business than Trump Plaza and Trump Marina combined ($41 million vs. $34 million last month; $45.6 million vs. $44.3 million the September previous).

Three of Harrah's properties (Bally's, Marina and Caesars), along with the Taj, represent the second -- but still elite -- tier of Atlantic City performers: Borgata is all alone in the top tier and widening its lead. Harrah's Showboat basically constitutes the "middle tier," with the ownerless Tropicana huffing and puffing to keep pace. Then you have the detritus of the market: the Hilton, Resorts International, and the two other Trumps.

Harrah's has also done some astute making-over of its image. Its TV campaign to relaunch Caesars Windsor ruffled some feathers up in Canada, but a smoother version of the same thing targeted at New York City is spot-on. Bravo!

View the video here.

Then you have the incredible light show that plays across the surface of Harrah's Marina. Words can't do justice to this attraction. It outdoes anything I've seen in Vegas or from Macao (thanks be to YouTube), with the possible exception of the Bellagio fountains. Here's a lot of technobabble that explains how they did it. Where's Dr. Samantha Carter when you need her?

Further kudos to Harrah's for going to considerable lengths to strike a balance between accommodating its smoker customers and keeping as much of the noxious stuff off the casino floor proper. Colony Capital, by contrast, doesn't give a damn, making no special arrangements at either Resorts Int'l or the Hilton. Small wonder that one or both is at the bottom of every significant metric and fading from sight.

The dark side is that Harrah's amortized the cost by sacking a slew of workers, using the city's smoking ban as an excuse -- even though and hadn't yet gone into effect (and may never will). Chalk it up to the cheeseparing mentality that has characterized post-buyout Harrah's.