The shift toward Pennsylvania is apparent in employment, too. Executives at some Pennsylvania casinos, which have had to hire hundreds of workers to prep for the table games, say as many as half of the people who interviewed for the jobs were from Atlantic City casinos.

Chris Bastian, who's about to begin a job at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., left a job as a table-games floor supervisor at Harrah's Casino Hotel in Atlantic City to take the same position in Pennsylvania. He deemed the mood in Atlantic City, where he worked for nearly 30 years, "awful."

"There's no way to compare the two. One's getting smaller and the other is going through major expansion," he said.

Analysts have fueled some of the uncertainty surrounding Atlantic City. Several say one or more of the facilities could close in the near future because of the financial struggles there.

New Jersey officials are ready to fight. Mr. Lesniak has proposed putting two constitutional amendments before voters that could lead to legalized sports betting and Internet gambling. That has yet to gain traction, in part because a 1992 federal law restricts sports betting to the four states—Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon—that allowed it before the statute took effect. Mr. Lesniak is suing to overturn the law.

Ms. Kassekert said Atlantic City still has more entertainment to offer than Pennsylvania, but that standing pat during the nearby expansion wouldn't work.

"The world around us has changed," she said. "We need more and better attractions to make it through this challenge."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...ctions_newyork

Mostly due to corrupt politicians taking money out of AC and never putting any back in. So now you have an eyesore in an otherwise great area. South Jersey is actually extremely nice, with the exception of AC which is a TOTAL ****hole.

exciting implications

A couple of those houses need to close. If someone's going to pack up their family to come down for a weekend, Resorts isn't the type of place you want them going to form their impression. It's just a tough problem to solve right now. The city can't really reinvest because there's not much money coming in, and they don't have much money coming in because they can't reinvest.

AC still has a lot going for it, and much of the surrounding area is actually pretty nice (Pleasantville aside obv). But until they really expand and commercialize more of the city, and start getting used to the competition, it's going to be tough going. It's frustrating because the infrastructure is here, plenty of great restaurants and events now, a shopping district, the beach and boardwalk...

But then you've got bums coming up to your window at the Taco Bell drive through, ridiculous unions, and corrupt isn't even the word for some of the politics here.

Last time I was there I was picking up a friend at a bus stop on one of the major streets and there were about 20 people standing at a light waiting to cross. The guy in the car infront of me rolls down his window and throws a full bag of trash onto the sidewalk next to the tourists. It blew my mind, I lived in Vegas at the time and was envisioning Metro PD tracking him down and shooting him if he pulled that **** out front of the Venetian.

I know. It's awful.

Once when I was in New York, just outside my hotel, two guys walked past and said they would steal my watch if I ever came down to their hood.

I stayed inside the hotel the rest of my vacation.

Atlantic city- cant wait to get there----and then cant wait to get the **** out

town is kinda ****ty but the games are great

poker rooms are booming down here, even the smaller ones

decent variety of non-NLHE games at the Taj and Borgata


you guys there to sight-see or play ****in cards?

funny ****

We are vacationing in Brigantine - walked the Boardwalk in
AC last night. Horrible, the trashy individuals on the Boardwalk, you almost get a sense of uneasyness with so many low lifes.

Hmm I posted the following in an AC thread in Brick&Mortar, but maybe this thread is a more fitting place:

In september, my wife and me are doing an east coast road trip (we're both from Belgium, this will be our third time in the US), and we're staying in AC for one night. We already booked at the Taj, but I'm having doubts as to if I should even visit AC at all. I wanted to play some poker there, and visit a few of the casino's, but with all the negativity towards AC on these forums, I don't know If I'm to believe everything, it seems as if AC is a total run-down slum where we're gonna be mugged on each corner, and get our rental car jacked.

How much of this negative press is actually worth taking into account? I know about the murder at the Taj parking earlier this year, but I would assume security was ramped up a bit there now, no?

You're missing the point. AC is at a critical juncture. The games won't be great very long if the trend of the last two years continues and the surrounding slot parlors add poker games. AC needs to clean up its act to give people a reason to keep going there.

The negative press about the Taj is true. And no matter how many incidents occur, I've never seen an increased security presence. We should vote with our feet and stay away.

my friends and i got attacked coming out of the pool club at harrahs on saturday by 3 drunk *******s. unfortunately for them, they were too ****ed up to realize there were 13 of us there

rooms are too expensive and they barely comp.. I dont mind paying something reasonable , but $399 for fri ,sat is ridiculous....i've seen as high as 499 for saturday at borgata.. i can go to vegas from Fri to sun for same $$$