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Budget
Crisis Could Be Boon to Atlantic City
Most
people in the casino industry are aware
that the opening of slot machine casinos
in Pennsylvania seriously hurt Atlantic
City’s bottom line. Ever since the
Keystone state started offering slot
machines, the Garden State has been
taking a hit on their slot machine
revenue. Table game revenues have been
up, but not nearly enough to make up for
the damage that has been done to AC’s
slot machine revenues.
However, with Pennsylvania looking at a
possible shutdown of all of their
casinos, AC could be looking at the very
thing that could save them. The casinos
in PA will have to shut down if the
government cannot come to a consensus
over the budget, as all unnecessary
personnel will have to be laid off. The
regulators that man the casinos are
considered unnecessary and would be laid
off.
Without regulators the casinos are not
allowed to operate, and therefore would
have to close their doors. If this
happens it will be months before the
casinos can reopen as that is how long
it will take to check each and every
slot machine in each of the casinos as
well as match them up with the main
computer in Harrisburg and ensure that
everything is working properly. This
would mean a loss of hundreds of
millions of dollars for the slot machine
revenue in the state.
Not only that, but they will lose
customers that they have just gained
back to New Jersey, as well as investors
who will think twice about putting their
money in something that is not so
steady. NJ knows how that feels as they
went through a shut down of their own
over Fourth of July weekend not that
long ago, and they know the damage that
it can do to their reputation. However,
that won’t stop them from taking
advantage of this new opportunity – for
truly, PA’s loss is NJ’s gain.
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