The land based gaming environment in Atlantic City, New Jersey seems to be dwindling. The city now has only 8 casinos for land based casino game play after the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino closed just yesterday morning. The casino’s closure is the fourth of the year and is not the best outcome for the gambling city.
The casino, which is located along the boardwalk, was opened back in 1984 and had been in operation for decades. The casino had been on a slow downward spiral, which was really sad for many to watch. The casino which had once reveled with hundreds of players only had a handful on the premises when the doors would close.
The Trump Plaza was able to earn just over $36 million this year which is over 30% less than the same time frame last year. As a comparison, the casino earned in one year the same as some Atlantic City casinos earn in a two week time frame. With the closure of this casino and possibly the Taj Mahjal in coming weeks, the city would be down over 10,000 jobs and more, which is a big hit to the city.
The poker community was not necessarily affected by the closure of the Trump Plaza as they did not have a poker room, but the Taj Mahal does. The casino has 48 gaming tables which means it is the second largest in the city. If the casino closes in November, which it may very well do, then poker players in Atlantic City would only have five poker rooms to enjoy.
The state now offers online gaming to try and pick up the slack where land based options left off but operators must be connected to a physical casino in the state to be able to offer online gaming. With the losses, operators have even less partners than before to get in on the online poker action.