Atlantic City primed for openings; Tokenism at AGA

“Do I think the gaming market ever comes back to close to $6 billion in revenue? No. Not even close,” Hard Rock International CEO Jim Allen said of Atlantic City. “If a brand like Hard Rock fails in Atlantic City, the interest in investing capital in that town is going to diminish significantly. However, if we are successful, then I think the future is very bright.” Allen and Ocean Resort owner Bruce Deifik are on the eve of reopening two properties. Allen has reinvented Trump Taj Mahal as Hard Rock Atlantic City and Deifik has revamped Revel into Ocean Resort.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) was even more optimistic in a recent speech, saying, “Not long ago — it was not long ago at all — folks were writing Atlantic City off. It was past its prime. The economy was dead. Now, when people speak of Atlantic City, they speak of renewal, they speak of opportunity.” The market that once was synonymous with Donald Trump may be the new music city, courtesy of Hard Rock and its 300-event lineup. The Washington Post diplomatically says Trump “withdrew from the business” but it would be more accurate that the business withdrew from him, as Carl Icahn gobbled up bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts, in which Trump had been a minority investor. (Probably the only time Trump’s been a minority anything.)

Deifik’s main man for gaming, Seth Schorr, is rushing to put a sports book in place, viewing sports betting as the big new draw on the Boardwalk. “Coming from Nevada, it’s hard to even imagine a casino without a sports book. You have to have an exciting environment to watch the game. Our goal is to create experiences,” Schorr told the WaPo.

If Atlantic City could rival Nevada’s $4.8 billion sports-betting market, that would be an additional $250 million in casino revenue.  (Moody’s Investor Service estimates the winnings at $125 million, projected.) That’s asking a lot but, unlike Las Vegas, Atlantic City has two major metro markets — Philadelphia and New York City — within a fairly short drive. (Yes, Vegas draws upon Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix, but none of those are as proximate.) New York‘s Legislature just whiffed on sports betting, so Empire State citizens have a special motivation to head on down. Said former state senator Raymond Lesniak, “During the NCAA Tournament, Super Bowl week, any big event, you can’t get a room in Las Vegas and Atlantic City is a ghost town. That changes with sports betting.”

Adds Deifik, “Instead of getting on a plane and going five hours to Las Vegas from the East Coast and New Jersey, people will stay here.” We hope so. “We feel like the vibrancy this type of offering will create will extend beyond just the race and sports book and spill out onto the rest of the property,” adds Borgata President Marcus Glover, who oversees the only casino-based sports book in the market presently.

While both Hard Rock and Ocean Resort are banking on Atlantic City’s family trade, Deifik is also going for an adults-only vibe by reopening Ivan Kane‘s Royal Jelly Burlesque Nightclub. “There is no place like this in the world. It’s like a dancer’s playground. There’s tons of stuff to climb on and hang off of and swing on,” said dancer and Royal Jelly veteran Lindsey Dunn. Royal Jelly was one of the few Revel amenities to do well, so Deifik is embracing it, compared to his hold-your-nose-and-accept-it situation Hard Rock faces with the Scores mega-titty bar, forced upon it in a legal settlement.

“I was afraid the place was never going to reopen,” Kane bellowed at a reporter. (He always speaks at the top of his lungs.) “For me to walk into this pristine $8 million to $9 million nightclub in a $2.4 billion building and to see it sitting there forlornly waiting for a crowd to energize it, that was truly sad.” Be sad no more, Ivan. The fun resumes tomorrow night.

* The American Gaming Association has formed up a search committee, to replace departed CEO Geoff Freeman. It’s headed up by Penn National Gaming CEO Tim Wilmott and includes executives from three other Las Vegas Strip companies: Las Vegas Sands, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International. Unless you count Penn, regional casinos are only represented by Rush Street Gaming CEO Greg Carlin and, worse still, tribal gaming — which rivals the private sector in revenue and ubiquity — gets only a token presence, in the form of Chickasaw Nation Secretary of Commerce Bill Lance Jr. MGM CEO Jim Murren, who’s on the board, knows a thing or two about diversity. We say he should speak up about the Vegas-centric composition of the group, maybe even vacate his chair in favor of another tribal member. How about it, Jim?