Don Guardian’s 1st Year as Mayor Was a Marginal Story, Though He’s Integral to All Other AC News Items
NJ.com recently conducted an online poll of its readers. The poll tested to see what the biggest Atlantic City story of the year was.
Those who read online gambling news would no doubt vote for the casino closings. That might not reflect a less-targeted demographic, though, so it’s interesting to see what readers of a New Jersey online news site which isn’t focused on gambling would say.
If the informal poll is correct, then online Jersey news readers seem to take the same view as online gambling aficionados. Of the 10 possible choices on the poll, the closure of four Atlantic City casinos won 75% of the vote. No other option polled more than 6.4%.
Four Casinos Closing in One Year (75.8%)
This seemed the obvious choice when I read the options, but I also write New Jersey gambling news. The closure of Atlantic Club in January, Showboat in August, and Trump Plaza and Revel Casino in September dominated the Atlantic City news for the year.
Most of the other options on the list were affected in one way or another by the mass closures in Atlantic City. That will be discussed as this article touches on the other new stories, but the overarching theme of the year on the Boardwalk was the collapse of the Atlantic City gaming market. When the 2014 full year numbers are known, expect to see radically different number than was happened even in 2013, which was considered a down year.
Trump Taj Mahal Not Closing (4.07%)
One bit of good news came at the end of the year. After months of speculation that Trump Taj Mahal would be the fifth closure, an influx of $20 million from Carl Icahn kept the casino open into the new year. Icahn still has to negotiate with the casino’s workers union, while getting help from state-level politicians, but it looks like the operation should stay in business for the foreseeable future. With $280 million on the line, Carl Icahn does not want to see the casino go out of business.
The casino industry’s troubles cost the city 8,000 jobs in 2013. Trump Taj Mahal would have cost 3,000 more. With the tax base eroding, it’s massively important to have the bankrupt casino continue to operate.
Stockton College Buying Former Showboat Property (2.91%)
The Showboat casino property did not stay empty for long. Caesars Entertainment decided to close down the Showboat in August, despite the Showboat being a profitable casino. Caesars had four casino properties in the city at the time and wanted to close on to help foster competition. With Showboat’s customer database, Caesars likely assumed their properties could absorb most of the players from the defunct casino.
Meanwhile, Stockton College was looking for a campus in the city. The Showboat therefore isn’t a darkened husk on the Atlantic City skyline, which helps with tourism.
Revel’s Successful Bidder Backing Out (1.16%)
It looked like Revel Casino would re-open in short order, like the Showboat, but it wasn’t to be. Revel’s new prospective owner was Brookfield Management out of Toronto, which owns the Atlantis Casino in the Bahamas and also manages a casino in Las Vegas. When Brookfield could not get the energy coop which supplies Revel with its electricity to come down off its $3 million per month energy costs, the company pulled out of the deal.
That left Revel Entertainment holding on to the $11 million deposit and little else. Meanwhile, Glenn Straub of Polo North Country Club in Florida, the losing bidder in a 2-man bankruptcy auction, is suing for a discount on the Revel Casino. Brookfield would have kept the property a gaming venue, while Straub hopes to turn it into a school for geniuses (with perhaps a minor amount of gambling by local operators). This is still up in the air at present.
Unemployment Figures Topping 9,000 (6.4%)
The unemployment figures in Atlantic City are a major concern for local residents. Once again, that’s an issue directly related to the casino industry, which lost 8,000 jobs in 2014. Though the city would have lost jobs in 2014 if it had no gaming industry, 88% of all jobs lost were in the gaming industry. Though it was the second-biggest vote getter, the job loss only compounds the revenues lost by the city from the closing of four casinos. Seventy percent of all city tax revenues come from the casinos, so the lost jobs are only half of the picture.
Other Issues of Concern
Several other issues occupied the thoughts of New Jersey residents who answered the poll question. 2.91% considered the Miss America competition returning to the city to be the biggest issue, while 2.33% considered the possibility of a North Jersey casino being approved and built to be the biggest story. 1.74% of residents thought Mayor Don Guardian’s first year in office was the biggest issue facing the city, while 1% thought New Jersey lawmakers proposing new tax breaks for Atlantic City was the biggest storyline. Another 2.33% thought various other issues were most important for Atlantic City in 2014.
A couple of the items on the list might become the most important stories of 2015 or 2016. If a North Jersey casino is build in the Meadowlands, that could spell the end for Atlantic City. Tax breaks for Atlantic City casinos didn’t happen in 2014, but they very well could happen in 2015, so that issue is looming large on the horizon.
