Atlantic City Casino Closings
- Have Atlantic City Casinos Closed
- Atlantic City Casino Closed Down
- Are Atlantic City Casinos Open
- Atlantic City Casinos Closed History
- Casino Closings In Atlantic City
Casino Status of property Camelot: Canceled; currently an empty lot Dunes Atlantic City: Never completed; currently part of Stockton University Atlantic City campus. Hilton (Original) Casino license denied; current site of Golden Nugget Atlantic City: Le Jardin. Atlantic City casinos have been battling to get back to normality in recent months. They got the green light to resume operations on July 2 after closing on March 16, following a statewide shutdown order. On reopening, the casinos could not sell any food or beverages. Latest Casino and Gambling News, New Jersey After shutting down in mid-March due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlantic City casinos waited until early July to reopen. Since that time, cases of the virus have popped up among employees of the gaming facilities. The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival, originally scheduled for Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4, at the Atlantic City Convention Center, has been rescheduled for Friday, Aug. Trump Plaza was the fourth Atlantic City casino to close in 2014. It was the worst performer in the Atlantic City gaming market when it was shuttered. The property had fallen into disrepair. It ceased operations on September 16, 2014.
Gamblers and vacationers who had planned to visit U.S. casinos expressed a mixture of disappointment and relief over a wave of closings in at least 15 states as officials worked on slowing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Some said they still plan to visit casinos.
Many casinos, where hundreds or even thousands of people touch the same slot machines and gambling chips, remain open. The casinos that remain open say they are stepping up cleaning and sanitization efforts.
Sherry Giordano, an Atlantic City casino regular from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, has a trip booked for this weekend that will be canceled. But she would have been hesitant to go even if the casinos had been open, because of her husband's health history that could make him more susceptible to the virus.
'I'm less concerned with my own safety, and I think a lot of people have a tendency to think that way, which is both kind of stupid and selfish because we can endanger others,' she said. 'I not only love gambling, I love meeting people and escaping reality.
'Atlantic City is very important to me and my husband,' she said. 'But I think it's the right thing to do. I would rather err (on the side of) caution rather than jeopardize a life.'
For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. The vast majority of people recover.
Tom Brown, of Edison, New Jersey, canceled a Las Vegas trip last week, and then canceled the rebooked trip for late March that would have replaced the first one. He acted because of concerns over the potential for the virus to sicken his wife, who as a cancer patient undergoing infusion therapy has low resistance.
'We will likely wait several months before considering another casino junket,' he said.
Troy Wildasin, an Emmaus, Pennsylvania, casino patron, said that even in the best of times, the sanitary state of casinos left a lot to be desired.
'Not only would this help the chance of decreasing the virus outbreak, but this will also give the opportunity to give the casinos a fresh cleanup,' he said. 'There is not one casino, regardless of city, that is clean. Hard to do properly when they are open 24/7.'
Michael Magbaleta, of Jersey City, New Jersey, frequents casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Pennsylvania but said he won't be going in the near future.
'I'd feel a bit antsy and paranoid going on a casino trip now,' he said 'As it is, Wind Creek at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, closed down, and they have a huge customer base traveling from New York City to that resort. I'm glad they are taking extreme measures to protect the employees and public.'
Sherry Cannon of Toledo, Ohio, is canceling a Las Vegas trip planned for mid-May.
'I am not comfortable going to any casino any where in the world right now,' she said. 'It makes me sad, but I would rather myself and my 80-year-old mother stay alive and not spread anything to anyone else. I am glad the casino here in Toledo closed, and I'm happy the ones in Detroit closed because if they hadn't, my mom would be trying to get me to go.'
Don Battista of Austin, Texas, had been due to fly to Laughlin, Nevada, this week, but has since thought better of it.
'Our group decided while we are not elderly, and all healthy, it would be irresponsible to possibly spread to someone in that danger range,' he said.
Shelly Bittner plans to leave Breezewood, Pennsylvania, in early April to visit Las Vegas, virus or no virus.
'We still plan on going unless they stop the planes from flying,' she said. 'Just use common sense. Wash your hands, and use sanitizer.'
The shutdowns could be a boon to casinos in states where internet gambling is legal, including New Jersey, where online gambling revenue has been soaring for years.
On Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ordered the closure of Atlantic City's nine casinos as of 8 p.m., after days of allowing them to remain open. The governors of New York and Connecticut did likewise, also including bars, restaurants and movie theaters.
It will be the fifth time that Atlantic City's casinos have shut down since gambling began here in 1978; only hurricanes and a government shutdown have caused such closures before.
As of Monday, casino closures also had been implemented or announced in Maryland, Nevada, Michigan, New Mexico, California, Alabama, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York.
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But don't expect to be arm-to-arm at the craps table anytime soon.
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The Hard Rock casino in Atlantic City. Could Atlantic City casinos reopen on June 1st? You can get a hotel reservation for June 1st and beyond. (Getty Images)
Could Atlantic City casinos reopen as early as June 1st? That’s what most of the casino properties in the Jersey Shore town seem to be betting on.
You can now make a room reservation for the Borgata, Hard Rock, Ocean Resort, Harrah’s and some other Atlantic City casinos beginning on June 1st. So, no, not Memorial Day Weekend, a.k.a. the unofficial start of summer in these parts. But one week later.
A room at the Borgata, for instance, is going for around $123 on June 1st, once you factor in all the taxes and fees. The other casinos come in at about the same rate, give or take $10 or so. That’s pretty cheap.
But don’t think you’re getting a bargain once it gets deeper into the summer. Plan on spending $500 per night for a room at the Borgata over the weekend of July 4th.
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Have Atlantic City Casinos Closed
A customer service agent on the Borgata’s reservation line explained to us that while they are hoping to open on June 1st, all reservations are considered tentative and dependent on when the state allows the casinos to reopen. And Governor Phil Murphy hasn’t given any clear indications about that. According to the Borgata customer service agent we spoke with, any reservations that must be cancelled by the casino will be automatically refunded.
None of the Atlantic City casino executives and representatives that we reached out to would offer an official comment about a potential June 1st date for Atlantic City casinos reopening. But their off-the-record consensus is that this is going to be a gradual and phased reopening. So don’t expect to be arm-to-arm at the craps table with other players anytime soon.
The Atlantic City casinos have been busy disinfecting the properties, top to bottom. And they’re trying to come up with plans for what reopening will look like. Dealers — and perhaps everybody — in masks? Restaurants at 50 percent (or lower?) capacity? Or just room service at first? Do they not host any shows at all? Or do they do shows and keep people six feet apart?
Atlantic City Casino Closed Down
“It’s all on the table right now,” one casino executive told us.
“The governor is going to be extremely conservative with the plan to reopen,” said another. “You’re on top of each other in a casino. Or, well, you used to be. And people have proven that they can’t self-police. And they have cabin fever. It’s going to be interesting.”
As for Governor Murphy’s decision this week to extend the public health emergency by another 30 days, the casinos are leaving the June 1st reopening date in place, at least for now. One casino exec pointed out that the extension is more about the state having access to the resources that it needs. It doesn’t mean that everything is going to stay shut down for that long.
“Extending this declaration ensures that we can continue using every resource at our disposal to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” said Governor Murphy in a statement on Wednesday. “But I want to ensure that this extension is not interpreted to mean that we are reconsidering our path forward or changing course on the principles I laid out last week in the Road Back plan. We will continue to stand by these principles and protect public health as we responsibly take steps to get the economy moving again.”
Though the state had absolutely no choice but to close the casinos in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the decision has been an unprecedented disaster for Atlantic City, a town that had been showing promising signs of life in recent years.
More than 25,000 Atlantic City casino employees now find themselves unemployed as a result of the coronavirus closing the casinos, and many of them live right there in the incredibly impoverished city. And it’s not as if the reopening of the casinos will mean an automatic return to the record-setting revenues from last summer.
“We don’t even know how many people will want to come into the casino once we are open,” one Atlantic City casino insider told us. “So many people have switched over to online gambling. There’s no way that all of the casinos down here are going to recover from this.”
Are Atlantic City Casinos Open
Speaking of which, one of the country’s main credit rating agencies recently predicted that while all of the casinos may reopen, Atlantic City’s Ocean Resort could face “eventual closure” thanks to the current financial environment as well as the casino’s relatively lackluster performance prior to the forced closing. On the other hand, Ocean Resort did just get some good news that suggests things might not be quite so bleak. Ocean Resort is the casino that replaced Revel, Atlantic City’s infamous $2.4 billion boondoggle.
Atlantic City Casinos Closed History
“We have the potential of an Armageddon in Atlantic City,” George Tibbitt, the president of the town’s City Council, recently told Politico.