AC shutdown has players logging on to online casinos instead

July 6, 2006

On the heels of our in depth poker article reviewing the benefits of heading to Atlantic City for a summer vacation, the poor city hits a major pitfall with the state government. Five days ago, the New Jersey government shut down, making all of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos close their doors. This is the first time this has happened to casinos. The casinos technically depend on the state for their operation, so until New Jersey gets its act together, the casinos are out of some serious cash. Alas, this should not be for much longer and the 12 casino resorts are still hosting vacationers - the casinos are the only section of any of these resorts that are not running.

Even though this is a damper in any gambling fanatic’s vacation in the city this week, online casinos are taking up the slack. Many gamblers have logged on to their favorite online casinos to play online poker and more. Many online casinos are reporting an influx in players since the closing of the Atlantic City casinos.

Sportsbook.com, one of the online casino sites that many online poker players enjoy using is currently experiencing a significant increase in the amount of casino and online poker related revenue according to a spokesperson for the casino site.

As casino game players and gamblers, we know the online casinos are a great resource for players who are looking for convenient game play. WE love online casinos, but the fact that Atlantic City casino stand to lose millions and millions due to the state government debacle, our hearts have to go out to those affected by the closures such as casino employees.

With the government supposedly looking at a loss of approximately $1.3 million a day in taxes, which it earns from the Atlantic City’s dozen casinos, the loss of traffic to online casinos is of noteworthy concern.

While most land based casinos never close (except for this issue) online casinos are always convenient and always open, too. Will the land casino closures cause gamblers to stay online instead?

As far as still being able to gamble, you can – you just have to do it elsewhere for now or on the Net.

Even though we know online casinos are getting more and more popular from the Atlantic City situation, we still pray that the casinos are opened again soon. The industry all around needs to stay successful. Atlantic City has had a hard enough time competing with Las Vegas in the last decade – this cannot help.

If you read our in depth article about Atlantic City casinos and traveling to them this summer, you know many of them have started millions of dollars in renovations to keep up with vacationer demands. Not having income to pay for these expensive redecorations can be devastating.

So, while we are happy to see our online casinos taking up that slack, we want New Jersey to get it in gear.

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