After years of hand-wringing about the future of Atlantic City, there is a sudden imperative to do something about the seaside resort. It’s gone from a leadership vacuum to possibly having too many chefs in the kitchen. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D, left) is proposing the creation of a private-sector version of the CRDA to channel money from theoretical Meadowlands and Jersey City casinos. (“I just don’t want to give money to government, because I know what they do with it.”) From the point of view of Sweeney and others, Gov. Chris Christie‘s five-year grace period for Atlantic City but the sudden collapse of the casino market there calls for extraordinary measures.
Even Christie seems to be softening towards elements of Sweeney’s scheme, saying, “any expansion of gaming to other parts of the state would have to have, as an element to that plan, how that gaming will help the folks in Atlantic City.” Meanwhile, other lawmakers are continuing to put the arm on the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to force the endangered casinos — Revel, Showboat, Trump Plaza — to remain open. They charge that the owners ‘are simply looking to protect their interests.’ (Capitalism in a casino; imagine that!)
The influx into the job market of 6,578 ex-casino works is certainly going to be catastrophic … it’s no wonder Forbes ranks Atlantic City last among 
the top 200 places to do business in the U.S. Fortunately for employees, there are faint glimmers of hope. Caesars is, somewhat nonsensically, alleged to be entering the Revel bidding before the corpse of Showboat is even cold. (Caesars spends money like it had a bottomless purse.) Others interested in the $2.4 billion megaresort are mooted to be Tilman Fertitta — latterly rumored to be wanting to sell the Golden Nugget, Hard Rock International and surprise candidate Carl Icahn. Bidding wars aren’t Icahn’s style and one usually doesn’t know he’s coming until it’s too late.
Penn National is tapped as a potential bidder (as is Churchill Downs) for the Showboat, but take that with a grain of salt. Penn swore off any interest in Atlantic City during its last earnings call — a head-fake, maybe? As for misery-beset Trump Plaza, it may be stuck between death and life. The state can’t prevent it from closing but creditor Icahn might, in which case it will keep going down, down, down.
Today’s best headline is “5 O’Clock Nowhere,” a well-researched autopsy of the Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi. Non-owner Jimmy Buffett emerges as an unsung hero of the saga, having allowed the casino to operate for the last two years without paying the licensing fee for the “Margaritaville” name. Who knew that other casino companies controlled the surrounding land, meaning that Margaritaville couldn’t erect a marquee, let alone find a new shaker of salt? It was an ill-starred property from the start, fined last year for not having enough cash in the cage and hurricane-lashed in its first quarter of business. It’s as though the place wasn’t meant to succeed.
