Atlantic City has been one of the leading blackjack destinations for many years, ever since it was forced to repeal a law that allowed it to ban card counters from its casinos. Of course, the relaxed attitude to card counting it was forced to adopt means that all blackjack tables in AC now have 8-deck shoes, which makes card counting a difficult task and goes someway to shifting the edge back into the house’s favor.
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AC has suffered in the last few years though as the leading gambling city in the north of the United States has not managed to attain the sort of footfall that Las Vegas has seen. Not only are there fewer US residents visiting Atlantic City than there are visiting Las Vegas, but there are also fewer International tourists. Simply put, whilst Vegas is seen as the Gambling Capital of the World and is revered all over, Atlantic City doesn’t have the same sort of appeal once you depart the shores of the US. Many casinos have been forced to shut down in recent years and considering these cost billions of dollars to erect in the first place, it’s a huge loss for the biggest casino groups in the country. It’s also one that few other casino groups are willing to take, which means that whilst AC is suffering now, the worst may yet be ahead.
However, a recent change in the law may go someway to helping the fortunes of AC. A law is currently in place that requires casinos built in AC to be a certain size. Simply put, to build a casino here the developers need hundreds if not thousands of rooms, along with all of the extras that you’d expect from a modern casino. Of course, that’s a risk that few are willing to take anymore and whilst it helped to bring money and big developers into the city to begin with, it’s doing them no favors now.
The current law change seeks to lower these requirements though, allowing smaller casinos to be built in the city. This means smaller investments, which means that more developers will be willing to get onboard and take their chances. These hotels will still be fairly big and the suggestion is that many will still have around 200 rooms, but this amount was considered to be too little in the past.
The same law allows allows casinos to be installed in existing buildings, taking over from a law that demanded all casinos be installed in new developments. Not only will this help the developers to save even more money, but it should also inject some cash into the city’s struggling real estate industry.
Whether this change does anything to help Atlantic City and to stop it from a crash that has seemed inevitable we’ll just have to wait and see, but it should have a positive impact, at least in the short term, and it could revitalize the casino industry and the blackjack industry in particular in the long run.