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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