Gaming Consultant: “Atlantic City is Healthy”

Atlantic City is on the downslope, but one industry insider thinks that it will return as a learner, more efficient market.

Veteran gaming consultant Gary Green has continues to urge optimism despite a string of negative gambling news reports coming out of Atlantic City, including the closures of the Revel, Showboat and Atlantic Club and the bankruptcy of the Trump Taj Mahal.

Green, a consultant with Ortiz Gaming, recognizes that Atlantic City has declined from its zenith a decade ago but will continue to be a leading casino market in America, telling reporters that:

“Atlantic City never again will hold the east coast monopoly; but within the changed parameters it can outperform most other gaming jurisdictions in the country…Atlantic City is healthy.”

Casinos undone by overinvestment, not a weak market

Green blames the industry’s decline on “idiotic investor expectations” rather than weak revenue, arguing that revenues have been higher than in most other places in America but casinos have dug their own graves by overinvesting in expensive developments and keeping excessive operating costs.

The key to the industry’s future will be to maintain current levels of revenue at lower operating costs, something that Green thinks is quite possible.

Green did not comment on whether he thought New Jersey’s launching of the first online casinos in America would be helpful for Atlantic City casinos moving forward.