When it comes to Atlantic City it literally is a question of whether the glass is half-empty or half-full. The city’s casinos are 48% off their 2006 high of $5.2 billion. In 2014, the decline 
was slowed somewhat by $123 million in Internet gambling revenues. Even so, the industry is opting to look at the 2014 glass as half full, considering that revenues fell only 4.5% despite the closure of four casinos. Israel Posner, executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton College, called it “an absolutely remarkable result for a year that saw so much tumult in the gaming market.” Those casinos, such as the Golden Nugget and the Tropicana Atlantic City, that saw revenue gains attributed it to capex investments that kept their properties fresh for customers.
Looking back over 2014, the Nugget led all gainers, up 48%, scooping up many of the customers orphaned by the closings of the Atlantic Club, Trump Plaza, Revel and Showboat. (Nugget General Manager Tom Pohlman candidly said that one of his priorities was “to steal market share.”) The Trop also boasted a 30% 
increase, while Borgata was up 11%, grossing a market-leading $687 million. Trump Taj Mahal registered the year’s worst performance, down 17%. Thanks to the management of Trump Entertainment Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, three of Atlantic City’s eight remaining casinos are in bankruptcy.
Considering the dramatic shakeout of the Boardwalk, New Jersey Casino Control Commission Chairman Matthew Levinson put the best face on it, saying, “The closure of four casinos last year was a traumatic contraction of the industry, but it clearly has left us with a casino industry that is better positioned for growth in the future.”
* Elsewhere in New Jersey, the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen‘s Association led a counterattack against the major sports leagues and their litigation to keep sports betting verboten in the Garden State. Given the coziness of several leagues with fantasy-sports sites, the leagues have “unclean hands, rooted in … hypocrisy” despite their sanctimony, argues the filing.
“The Leagues sponsor, promote, invest in, profit from, and own sports betting business enterprises that engage in the very kinds of sports betting activities the Leagues claim irreparably harm them and, thus, entitle them to an injunction,” the filing continued. The odds against the Horsemen’s Association are long but you’ve got to admire their spunk.
* Of all unlikely places, Mississippi is the next state to kick the tires of the Internet-betting bandwagon. State Rep. Bobby Moak (D) is hoping that the third time is the charm as he tries 
to legalize online poker in the Bayou State. “Millions of people have chosen to engage in online gaming through illegal off-shore operators, and such unlawful gambling is conducted without oversight, regulation, or enforcement. Without regulation of online gambling, the public’s trust and confidence in legal gaming is impacted,” Moak wrote back in 2012 but his argument fell on deaf ears, as did a 2013 effort.
However, this year Moak will be able to draw on the results of a study of legal Internet poker, being conducted under the auspices of the Mississippi Gaming Commisssion. The Moak bill would provide for compacting with other states (as Nevada and Delaware have done), thereby enlarging the revenue pool. It would also levy stiff penalties on illegal players. That last bit doesn’t well with Poker Player Alliance Vice President Rich Muny, who called player penalties “misguided,” adding that they “wrongly shift the target of enforcement efforts from hard-to-reach offshore sites to the players.” Some see Moak’s bill as not a serious legislative contender but a means of keeping the discussion alive until acceptance of online poker widens.
