It’s no secret that Atlantic City’s gaming community has struggled for some time.
But the struggle in question may become exceedingly apparent before the end of 2014, when several of the city’s 12 casinos could disappear.
Mayor Don Guardian has made it clear that a quarter of the city’s casinos may be gone sooner than anyone initially realized.
“Although it is sad today, it’s part of the transition that Atlantic City needs to have,” Guardian was quoted in local press ahead of the weekend on the heels of news that the Showboat is shutting down.
“There is pain as we go through this transition,” he continues, “but it’s critical for Atlantic City to realize we are no longer the monopoly of gaming on the East Coast. If you build more and more casinos and don’t increase the amount of people coming to them, you’re sharing that wealth. We’re just going through a very difficult time.”
For now, Guardian won’t even guess how many casinos and gaming facilities he believes Atlantic City can maintain.
“The market is going to set that,” the Mayor concludes. “At some point you’re going to have the right number of casinos.”
On the bright side, some casino and gaming industry watchers propose, Atlantic City has a potential-rich online and mobile gambling market to cultivate. And this, in the end, may be the savior of New Jersey’s gaming troubles.
When looking at New Jersey gambling revenues as a whole, the addition of online gambling has yet to equalize the revenue losses of Atlantic City. With that being said, online gambling revenues are indeed growing on a monthly basis.
Online gambling was launched at the end of November 2013. From February 2014 to March 2014, online casino revenue increased 15%, generating $11.9 million in the month of March alone. While the growth is not as fast as New Jersey had hoped for, it is still growing by leaps and bounds.
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