Once fixated on bringing gamblers to town and keeping them captive in the casinos, Atlantic City is betting on tourists. There is a big difference.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — For decades, this gambling town had constructed itself one heck of a tourist mousetrap. By the 1970s, Atlantic City’s glory days as a resort town had been undone by easy, affordable air travel that could take vacationers to destinations far away.

All its grand historic hotels were crumbling, and someone famously quipped, "the last one across the bridge, turn out the lights."

Then, New Jersey pushed through casino gambling and handed this town steeped in history and built upon sin a virtual monopoly on East Coast gambling.

City fathers and shrewd business people combined the city’s natural assets of the ocean and the boardwalk with the money-minting power of casinos.

And Atlantic City rose from the ashes.

Now, with its gambling monopoly gone and gaming competition from surrounding states, most notably Pennsylvania, bearing down, Atlantic City must play the phoenix once again.

But the unanswered question all around this town remains, can it? The answer is anyone’s guess.

Atlantic City, still open for business despite closure of four casinos in 2014Atlantic City has been affected by competition from casinos in neighboring states, with the closure of four casinos so far this year, September 23, 2014.

Just one thing is for sure: The old model is broken.

Evidence of this is the three casinos that have closed in quick succession at the end of this summer, making it four closures in all this year.

With the Trump Taj Mahal teetering, Atlantic City could be down to just seven casinos by year’s end. It would be a stunning crash for this once-high-rolling casino town.

Back then, gamblers were all Atlantic City wanted to attract. And once it had lured them here, the casinos were designed to keep them inside, making bets and spending money.

The boardwalk was but a means of passage to the next casino floor, where the promise of better luck beckoned until players were busted and sent limping home.

It is a mousetrap that Roy Kramer, dock master at the family friendly Gardner’s Basin, thoroughly detests.

He never liked gambling to begin with. And he is glad Atlantic City is shifting its emphasis from luring gamblers to attracting tourists.

What is the difference, you may ask? Oceans.

Atlantic City, still open for business despite closure of four casinos in 2014
Atlantic City has been affected by competition from casinos in neighboring states, with the closure of four casinos so far this year, September 23, 2014. Visitor Services district ambassador Carly Hertline helps Ron Romblad of Littlestown, Adams County, with directions on the boardwalk. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.

"They went after gamblers, and the gambler is a different breed of person," Kramer explains. "Back then, they didn’t want you on the boardwalk. They didn’t want you on the water. They wanted to keep people gambling. Tourists come for the ocean, the water and the dock."

Finally, Atlantic City is betting its future on the latter. Especially, those tourists looking for quick getaways, long weekends and affordable vacations within reach of a couple tank-full’s of gas.

"You have to take advantage of the natural resources we have here," Kramer insists. "We were the first health resort – the sea air, the sunshine, the water. People are looking for convenience, and Atlantic City is convenient."

It is a future represented by Dotty Webb, whose beach boutique, Web Feet, is situated on the picturesque North Inlet far away from the casinos and the boardwalk.

She sees the city’s future as more of a balance between tourism and gaming. There is no reason visitors can’t enjoy both.

"That was over 20 years ago," Webb says of the city’s gambling-first mindset. "The casinos are family resorts now. They are putting more emphasis on the family. The days of bringing a busload of gamblers in are gone. They’re gone. It is the tourists and the families that are coming now."

But by turning to tourists, Atlantic City risks turning itself into a town that thrives only six months out of the year.

With casinos closing and gambling on the wane, businesses and residents here face a winter of discontent. The haunting question: How low will business go as the temperatures plunge and the wind on the boardwalk whips?

Atlantic City, still open for business despite closure of four casinos in 2014Atlantic City has been affected by competition from casinos in neighboring states, with the closure of four casinos so far this year, September 23, 2014. People walk the beach at dusk. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.

The one thing about the old philosophy of attracting gamblers and keeping them holed up in the casinos was that it proved to be an around-the-clock, year-round business model.

Not so, tourism in a seasonal town.

So yes, there will always be a place for gamblers here. Casinos know their best bettors, and they constantly work to lure them back with comped rooms and free meals.

They are people like Jacqueline Bryant and Nick Harrington, both from Brooklyn, New York. They hop a bus into town every couple of months, staying three nights or so at their favorite casino, feverishly working the slots at Bally’s, Caesar’s and the Tropicana.

"I’m sorry the other casinos closed, but the best ones are still here," Bryant says. "They are run well. They have good machines and nice people."

And when these two are on a roll, they don’t like to stray far from the casino floor, just like the quintessential gambling tourist that town has targeted since the Resorts Casino heralded the gaming age in 1978.

The pair might make a run for cigarettes, as they are doing now less than a block away from the boardwalk, but that’s about it.
Atlantic City, still open for business despite closure of four casinos in 2014Atlantic City has been affected by competition from casinos in neighboring states, with the closure of four casinos so far this year, September 23, 2014. Steel Pier seen at dusk. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.

They are faithful Atlantic City gamblers and will remain so.

"It is a good get-away," Harrington says. "It is a nice, short vacation."

But with Atlantic City’s new focus on attracting tourists, Bryant has found at least one reason to stray just a big farther from the casinos that keep her so captive.

She has come to love the Tanger Outlets and all the great deals downtown.

Even diehard gamblers can learn new tricks in a changing, evolving Atlantic City.

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