Atlantic City Ready For Pennsylvania Online & Sports Betting?

atlantic city casinos
Did AC Blow A 40 Year Head Start?

Can Atlantic City withstand the next wave of gaming competition? We’ll soon find out. Pennsylvania online sports betting could be up n running by May. Online slots, poker, and table games could start as early as July.

12 casinos are now operating in Pennsylvania. A new one in South Philly is under construction. Just wait til Pennsylvania gets sports betting and online casino gaming.

Atlantic City casinos were legalized in 1976. Resorts opened in 1978. The hope: casinos would reinvent Atlantic City. The entire city.

AC had a 40-year gaming monopoly. Did America’s seaside playground squander it?

  • Dark, pot-holed streets. Homeless everywhere.
  • Open air drug deals. Needle exchanges.
  • Illegal boarding rooms.
  • Expensive school district with low grades.
  • Unemployment. Foreclosures.
  • A beautiful beach and ocean blocked by towering dunes.
  • A CRDA board of directors with no AC representation.

For 2 decades, AC was living large as a gaming monopoly. By 2017, 12 casinos shrunk to seven. Things have improved a bit since them with the debut of premium offerings from Ocean Casino Resort & Hard Rock. First class properties on the Boardwalk that are so inviting…they both helped put a dent in the Marina based, market leading, Borgata.

Online gambling. Over 80% of sports bets placed in the state of NJ are done via a mobile device.

Oh, the horror. NJ casinos outside of Atlantic City. Better get ready, bunky.

Sure, some tried to end Atlantic City’s gambling monopoly back in 2016. Voters said no. But much has changed over the past 3 years.

Competition everywhere. Not just across state lines in PA, NY and Maryland…..but online too.

Beware the pundits and politicians who bang the drum of NO NORTH JERSEY CASINOS. Sounds good on paper or on a radio commercial.

These same blowhards avoid defending the real danger. A more insidious infringement. Online betting, sports betting, and mobile betting using a smartphone. No longer mandatory to visit a physical casino.

New casinos in Philly, and one day, in NYC, will compel NJ to stop the outflow of gaming revenue…by finally allowing North Jersey casinos. Only a fool thinks this will never happen.

Sure, we don’t like it one bit. We’d much rather have a NJ gaming monopoly. Heck, we liked it better when AC was the only city were you could place a bet, east of the Mississippi.

AC ignored competition in the past. Kept their heads in the sand. Over spent on everything. Lousy casino assessments. Criminal, elected leadership.

Will AC take action….or will we plead, beg and stomp our feet to the tune of politicos demanding NO NORTH JERSEY CASINOS?


AC Implementation Plan under estimates the capital resources needed, how deep rooted the AC corrupt civic culture runs, & ignores ticking bomb of NJ/NYC casinos.