We’re feeling under the weather today, so we’re subletting S&G to our East Coast bureau. It reports that Harrah’s Philadelphia, a casino with all the charm of a warehouse, is looking to change its image. Coming later this month, it will spice things up with …
Details are sketchy, as you can tell, but anything that brings more amenities to Harrah’s Philly is welcome.
On May 26, Bally’s Atlantic City hosted the grand opening of its Carousel Bar, newly refurbished lobby and its Yards semi-outdoor restaurant. Perversely, it was held so early that you’d have to leave Philadelphia at 9:30 a.m. to get to the festivities (including free food samples) on time. “On local Philly TV, it seems nobody else was interested either. It was employees only dressed in suits and dancers dressed in red,” reports our scribe. Elsewhere in Atlantic City, in another triumph of the Marty Small (D) administration, approval was given to converting an office building in the tourist district into 48 apartments—with no parking. “Seems like a good idea if you have no car and don’t like to go out at night.”
Entrepreneur and Showboat owner Bart Blatstein also made the airwaves recently, driving a cart from his property’s new, $1.5 million go-kart track. It’s good to know that at least one new Showboat amenity will be ready for summer. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Caesars Entertainment is rebranding one of the Caesars Atlantic City towers as a Nobu hostelry. Our correspondent wonders if this is a distinction without a difference. (After all, $400 million capex spread over three casinos only gets you so far.) But you might want to consider staying there if you’re visiting the Boardwalk June 6-10. Ocean Casino Resort‘s online booking engine will be down five days for “maintenance.” If you didn’t book your Ocean room already, you’re screwed. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, says Ocean. We think it’s an “inconvenience” that an apology is insufficient to cover. Time to bust out some comps.
Even so, business looked good at Ocean on Memorial Day, so it should close out May strongly. Not so at the Golden Nugget, where our reporter had no trouble scoring a free room and the casino was “rather empty” that night, the gamblers presumably having skedaddled back to the big city.
