\nBy JENNIFER BOGDAN Staff Writer<\/p>\n
\tFollow Jennifer Bogdan on Twitter
\n\tFollow @ACPressJennifer
\n\tATLANTIC CITY \u2014 Bally\u2019s Atlantic City unveiled the first makeover to its gambling floor in more than a decade Sunday.
\n\tOffering sweepstakes and giveaways for most of the day in celebration of the upgrades completed over the past four months, Bally\u2019s introduced gamblers to the $5.6 million renovation project it announced in October.<\/p>\n
\tThe overhaul included fresh carpeting throughout the gaming area, new chairs at table games and mirrored accents throughout the floor.<\/p>\n
\tBarbara Mendez, of Newtown, Pa., was one of the dozens of rewards club members waiting in line Sunday for a free T-shirt and entry cards into the sweepstakes. She said she visits Bally\u2019s a few times each year and noticed the improvements.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s fresher. Looks brighter,\u201d Mendez said. \u201cPeople notice those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBally\u2019s is one of four Atlantic City casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment. The project is one of few gambling-related investments made in the city in recent years. After the creation of the state-run Tourism District in 2011 the city saw a new focus as the state pushed the resort to diversify its offerings and promote more nongambling attractions.<\/p>\n
\tCaesars officials have said they hope the moved will add energy to the casino and translate into more slot machine levers pulled.<\/p>\n
\tBally\u2019s saw an 18 percent decline in gambling revenue in 2013 compared with the previous year. That\u2019s greater than the 6 percent decline seen across the Atlantic City casino industry. The property, however, has registered strong room occupancy compared to other resort properties.<\/p>\n
\tIn the first nine months of the year, Bally\u2019s saw an 82 percent occupancy rate based on the number of available room nights. The casino tied with Showboat for the fourth highest occupancy rate among the resort\u2019s then-12 casinos. The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel shut down in January.<\/p>\n
\tThe last major renovation at Bally\u2019s was the $60 million 2008 upgrade to the rooms at the property\u2019s Dennis Tower. Casino officials have said it has been at least 10 years since any upgrades were made to the gaming floor.<\/p>\n
\tThe renovations are the latest in a string of changes for Bally\u2019s. In October, Caesars announced it would sell off the casino\u2019s Claridge Hotel Tower. Gambling had been removed slowly from the Claridge over time.<\/p>\n
\tThe Claridge originated as a stand-alone hotel and is expected to return to that purpose under the ownership of Florida-based hotel operator TJM Properties.<\/p>\n
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By JENNIFER BOGDAN Staff Writer Follow Jennifer Bogdan on Twitter Follow @ACPressJennifer ATLANTIC CITY \u2014 Bally\u2019s Atlantic City unveiled the first makeover to its gambling floor in more than a decade Sunday. Offering sweepstakes and giveaways for most of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}