AC’s Resorts Casino Hotel is Finally in the Green

Although facing stiff competition from bigger and better gaming centers in Atlantic City, Resorts Casino Hotel has managed to prevail.

Resorts Casino Hotel was in first opened way back in 1978, when the gambling scene was quite different from the one today. Las Vegas was the gambling mecca, just as it is now, however for those from the East Coast of the US that couldn’t be bothered to travel cross country to Nevada had a chance to spend their days in Atlantic City.

• Resorts Casino Hotel posted USD 4.8 million in profits for Q2
• Mohegan Indian tribe is credited with the great success
• PokerStars is looking to sign a deal with the iconic AC casino

And Resorts Casino Hotel played an important role for many visitors that frequented its blackjack and poker tables, among other popular games. For nearly three decades it was one of the most iconic gambling dens. And then around five years ago, it experienced a downturn in fortunes. It struggled to survive, as new and ambitious gambling casino projects emerged in Atlantic City.

Resorts Casino Hotel experienced setbacks due to compeititon

Competing casinos came about and slowly took over business from Resorts Casino Hotel little by little. But then just as they were on the up the economic repercussions, that initially started in 2008, started to affect them. A total of four competitors have since disappeared, which fortunately helped Resorts Casino Hotel to crawl back up from the gutter and record some positive gambling news. They managed to once again be profitable, thanks to some new features that they added to their overall service package.

They brought in the management behind Mohegan Indian tribe’s casino – individuals that are highly skilled in the casinos business and know how to turn a profit. They implemented new systems that saw them keep the prices down, which in turn didn’t bide well for their competitors. New amenities were added that attracted a large crowd to the casino and hotel. This all contributed to the revitalized growth of the once prominent casino.

Resorts Casino Hotel intends to use this momentum to continue their growth. For some time now they have been building an expansion to the meeting and conference area, as they aim to use the current situation to their own advantage in a rather struggling climate. The expansion project is reportedly worth a massive USD 9.4 million – a figure that the team behind Resorts Casino Hotel hopes to justify by getting in more visitors.

The expansion is also intended to serve a memento of how the casino managed to preserve in face of great competition and other economic hardships. The president of Resorts Casino Hotel, Mark Giannantonio, highlighted the negative atmosphere. “It was dead, and it has been brought back to life. The year I started here three years ago, this place lost USD 12 million. Last year we made USD 2.5 million. And this year we will do far better than that.”

Mohegan Indian tribe turned the fortunes around

This is a stark difference to what the situation was like in 2009, when the fallout of the 2008 recession was at its peak for many businesses. Then owners Colony Capital were very close to signing away Resorts Casino Hotel to lenders and letting some other entity take care of it. However, as it turned out several months after those events Dennis Gomes, popular US poker rooms and casino owner, and Morris Bailey, New York real estate developer, joined forces to buy the iconic property. It cost them a total of USD 31.5 million, a fraction of its original value before the financial struggle came about.

A few years later, in 2012, Gomes died at the age of 68. This left his partner Bailey with a dilemma, if he should continue on his own or once again sign over the casino to other investors. Fortunately, he decided to stay and bankroll the entire casino operation on his own – a fact that was in hindsight a challenge considering the mountain he had to climb. He remained optimistic that the future would reap rewards for the once lavish casino that was the first gaming property to open outside of Nevada.

But it wasn’t all great from the start. Since Gomes was the one with the “casino brains,” this posed a challenge to the inexperienced real estate developer. He knew how to operate a property business, but when it came to the casino industry, he lacked the credentials and know-how. So he turned to Mohegan Indian tribe’s gambling section to manage the daily operations. For their efforts, they demanded 10 percent ownership of Resorts Casino Hotel. The casino also signed an affiliation deal with Mohegan-run casinos in Connecticut and Pennsylvania in order to access customers databases.

The management did a fine job, as the recently released stats by the New Jersey casino regulators showed that Resorts Casino Hotel generated a cool USD 4.8 million in the second quarter this year. This represents a massive 153 percent increase from the same time last year, and the numbers are expected to continue to grow. According to gambling websites online, the reason for the positive predictions is mainly due to the much- anticipated deal between Resorts Casino Hotel and PokerStars, the biggest online poker provider. So, considering the aforementioned aspects, it seems that Resorts Casino Hotel is back on its feet. If all is in accordance with US gambling laws in the prospective deal, after signing the agreement with PokerStars they will be able to trump other casinos (pun intended).