Poker Numbers Down in
Atlantic City
March
27, 2009
In case anyone was not still
sure that gambling is showing a big hit in the recession, all you have to do
is look at the bottom lines in Atlantic City and Las Vegas to see that they
are suffering just as much as any other industry. Yes, people will always
want to gamble, but unfortunately for land based casinos they don’t have to
do it in person – they can gamble online and save themselves quite a bit on
the travel expenses.
According to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, Atlantic City has
recently seen the worst monthly decline in their 30 some year history of
offering gambling in the state. They had a 19.2% decline in February over
what they had experienced same time the year before. Three casinos, all
owned by Trump Entertainment, have filed for bankruptcy, as they were unable
to meet their financial obligations. They say that with the recession
hitting the city as hard as it is there is no sign of relief for them and
that they are in dire circumstances.
They say that both slot machine and poker revenues are down significantly,
and much of it has to do with the influx of online poker and gambling sites.
With patrons able to skip spending money on travel and able to play poker
online, they don’t need to come to the live casinos. This gives them either
more money to play poker online, or it simply lets those that would not
normally have been able to participate able to.
Playing poker online has become quite popular now that they have options
such as live dealers, which makes the process even more exciting because it
is really like being there. This new technology that allows poker players to
feel like they are part of the game live is what is really hurting the poker
business at the live casinos. This takes the need to go to the casino out of
the equation and makes online poker much more of a draw.
