There have been the inevitable comparisons between Atlantic City and Las Vegas since the Boardwalk town legalized gambling in 1976. Leaders in both cities downplay those comparisons (for different reasons), yet they continue to this day. So let’s put the myths, misperceptions and outright lies to rest. Side by side, Atlantic City and Las Vegas couldn’t be more different than the ocean and the desert. But then again, there is an uncanny similarity that will forever link the two gambling towns.

Back to the Future

Let’s start with the history of each resort. Atlantic City was really the first American working man’s resort. Built in 1854 specifically for day-trippers from Philadelphia (sometimes called “shoobies” because early train travelers to Atlantic City used to bring their lunch on the train in a shoe box), Atlantic City was a “wide open” town for most of its history… anything went! It was the original “what happens here, stays here” city. Rooming houses, restaurants, hotels, excursions, and later, motels, were the main activity for many of the city’s businessmen.

Gambling? While the town wasn’t built on gambling, the activity was certainly a part of the Atlantic City xperience. Even the most naïve visitor could find the game of his choice. From numbers to sports betting, from craps to blackjack, the back rooms of some of the resort’s most famous bars and restaurants hosted betting facilities with the complete knowledge of the political hierarchy (and with a weekly envelope guaranteeing the smooth operation of gaming). Prostitution was another well-established vice for many years, with brothels lining Westminster Avenue (Snake Alley) between New York and Kentucky avenues.

Las Vegas was a sleepy stop on a desert marsh in the 1800s. In the early 20th century, the arrival of the railroad and the sale of parcels of the largest ranch, the Clark ranch, in 1905 established an actual town that included all the vices already present in Atlantic City, including gambling. But in 1910, gambling was prohibited in Nevada, and the roulette wheels stopped—for about three weeks, after which illegal gambling, much like Atlantic City, began to thrive.

In 1931, the Nevada legislature legalized gambling and Downtown Las Vegas boomed with an influx of workers laboring on the nearby Boulder Dam. Strip development began in the mid 1940s, and continues unabated to this day. But one thing is for sure. Las Vegas would never have become what it is today without the gaming industry.

But the same could be said for today’s Atlantic City. When even illegal gambling was ended in the 1950s after the U.S. Congress investigated the activity, Atlantic City went into a steep decline. This seemed to culminate with disastrous publicity at the Democratic National Convention in 1964. With vast stretches of the city in ruin, the legalization of gambling in 1976 began a renaissance that continues to this day.

Gambling Natures

 The comparison between the two towns began when gambling was legalized in Atlantic City. Since it was the first jurisdiction outside of Nevada to host casinos, comparing the two was a natural, if not always fair, measure. Las Vegas panicked when gambling came to the East Coast. Investment money dried up (even the somewhat-questionable union pension plans looked elsewhere).

Scenes of long lines on the Boardwalk to get into the one or two casinos turned the attention of Las Vegas casino operators eastward. Harrah’s, Steve Wynn’s Golden Nugget, the owners of the Las Vegas Tropicana, the slot machine maker Bally Manufacturing and others scouted out the Boardwalk for prime locations.

The Las Vegas malaise would last 10 years, until Wynn returned from Atlantic City with his pockets stuffed with cash to build the Mirage, the development that launched the Strip into the stratosphere of gambling resort destinations.

In Atlantic City, meanwhile, the burst of gaming development leveled off in the mid 1980s. Needlessly strict regulation combined with a flat economy and the launch of other American gaming jurisdictions served to deflate the Boardwalk bubble. While massive additions to existing properties have transformed the city, there are still just 12 casinos in Atlantic City, the same number as when the Showboat opened in 1985.

Custom Visitors

 One might think that one gambler is much like another gambler, but the market for Las Vegas and Atlantic City is a bit different.

Some call Atlantic City the largest “locals” market in America, when “local” is defined by a drive time of two hours or less. Because the commute to Atlantic City is so short, the average stay is somewhere around eight hours. Even with the addition of more hotel rooms, the vast majority of visitors are still day-trippers, coming down for gambling or entertainment and going home on the same day.

That’s kind of difficult in Las Vegas. The closest major metropolitan area is Los Angeles, a good five-hour drive, without traffic. Still, more than a quarter of Las Vegas visitors come from this market, with the rest flying in.

McCarran International Airport is one of the busiest in the country, with millions of passengers passing through each day. A second airport in Jean, Nevada, serving the growing international market, is in the planning stages and won’t open until at least 2017, so McCarran will have to suffice until then.

Because of this dependence on air travel, Las Vegas is particularly vulnerable to any threat to airlines, such as terrorism, increased fares or airline economic woes.

But Las Vegas also has a strong “locals” market, with a string of casinos owned by Station Casinos, Boyd Gaming and others that simply exist to serve people who live in Las Vegas. These “neighborhood” casinos also include some retail and other entertainment options, such as movie theaters.

Atlantic City, meanwhile, is trying to extend the average stay by appealing to the “tour-and-travel” customer who pays for a hotel room during off-peak times, who may not be such a strong gambler. More hotel rooms are still needed in Atlantic City to serve this market effectively.

Much of this is driven by the Atlantic City International Airport. While the “chicken-and-egg” dilemma remains (Do you build more rooms and then get more schedules flights or vice versa?), the airport remains one of the most convenient ways to travel to and from Atlantic City.

Entertaining Options

 Superstar entertainers have been a part of both Las Vegas and Atlantic City for decades. Even before legalized gaming came along, Atlantic City played host to dozens of the top entertainers of their times: Abbott and Costello, the John Phillips Sousa Orchestra, the Marx Brothers, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles…. They all appeared in Atlantic City.

Las Vegas started a little later but caught up quickly. Sinatra was a mainstay of Vegas (in fact, a street behind the Las Vegas Strip is now named for him, as well as streets named for Dean Martin, Paul Anka, Jerry Lewis and others). Since the 1950s, performers have made Las Vegas a stop, or even their home. But the differences in customers dictate a different style of entertainment. In Vegas, casinos can offer production shows, some extremely lavish (and very expensive), with theaters built specifically for the shows. They can do this because Las Vegas visitors don’t come as frequently as they do in Atlantic City, allowing casinos to create shows that are seen once or twice.

Superstar entertainers have also claimed a regular spot in Las Vegas. Celine Dion and Elton John share a theater at Caesars Palace (with Bette Midler rumored to follow). Barry Manilow rules at the Las Vegas Hilton. Names such as Rita Rudner, Penn & Teller, Gladys Knight, Toni Braxton and others headline showrooms in other casinos.

Atlantic City can’t offer production shows because of the repetition factor. Even regular superstars would eventually loose their luster.

But Atlantic City casinos offer stand-alone shows by a wide range of entertainers from the Foo Fighters and Nick Lachey to Tony Bennett and Engelbert Humperdinck. And when you throw in the Boardwalk Hall, with Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen and others, the excitement is palpable.

Image-Conscious

 They say image is everything, and if that’s the case, well, Atlantic City has some work to do. But it’s getting better. It was only 10 years ago when the city by the sea was viewed as a day-trip destination for senior citizens. During the same period, Las Vegas had re-invented itself with new high-end and hip resorts like Hard Rock, Mandalay Bay, the Venetian, Bellagio and more.

But that all began to change in the early 2000s. The sale of the “H-Tract” to Steve Wynn promised a new day for Atlantic City. When Wynn sold his company to MGM, creating MGM Mirage, the deal he had struck with Boyd Gaming to build a casino resort did not change. But the deal would change Atlantic City.

Even before the Borgata opened in July 2003, existing casinos realized that there were opportunities to grow their companies into markets previously untouched. Borgata execs called them Atlantic City “rejecters,” and the new resort was successful in penetrating that strata.

Entertainment has also helped to reshape the image of Atlantic City. When all the major artists consider Atlantic City (and the now-respected Boardwalk Hall) a “must-stop” on any tour, it makes a difference.

But there still are bumps in the road. It seems every misstep Atlantic City makes is magnified. For example, in 2000, when negotiating to buy the land and build three casinos in the Marina district, Wynn designated a route for a road project that would connect to the Atlantic City Expressway. He needed nine existing homes, and was able to buy five of them at above-market prices. The other four refused to sell, and it precipitated a nasty battle, covered ad nauseum by the Northeast media.

At the same time, Las Vegas was widening a highway leading to the burgeoning northwest part of the city, requiring the condemnation of thousands of homes and businesses. This was accomplished with barely a peep out of the Las Vegas media, and was completely ignored by the West Coast press.

If there were a roving band of youths accosting tourists on the Boardwalk, it would generate headlines in all the newspapers and TV news shows. But when the same happened on the Las Vegas Strip, it barely caused a blip on the tourism radar.

On the Job

A job in a casino is the same everywhere, right? Not necessarily.

In Las Vegas, to work in a casino, you only need to be issued a “sheriff’s card,” which essentially tells the casino that you have no criminal record. The cost to the employee is $70, which includes a “work card,” entitling the person to be employed in Clark County.

In Atlantic City, the Casino Control Commission must issue a casino employee license (#2 license) with an initial application fee of $350. It must be renewed for five years at a cost of $250.

The job itself is similar. The games are essentially the same and the machines are identical.

But there are differences. Take, for example, the decision last month by Steve Wynn to include floor supervisors and boxmen in the dealer tip pool at his Wynn Las Vegas property. It seems dealers at Wynn were far out-earning their supervisors ($100,000 versus $60,000, by some accounts), so Wynn wanted to level the playing field as well as change the corporate culture and reorganize the way the casino floor is run. In the worst case, dealers would lose up to 20 percent of their annual salaries.

Dealers weren’t happy, but in the end, they agreed to the changes because there was nothing else they could do (and some were convinced that it would create more tips in the long run).

In Atlantic City, that couldn’t happen, since the Casino Control Act specifically states that supervisors on up cannot share or solicit tips.

Conventional Wisdom

When the Atlantic City Convention Center debuted in the mid 1990s, it was a milestone for a city that had always leaned on conventions to fill its hotel rooms in the off season. The 500,000-square-foot facility is generally full during the shoulder periods of winter, fall and spring, but is usually empty during the summer since the demand for hotel rooms ramps up so high during that period.

Las Vegas uses conventions in the same manner, but has many more hotel rooms to fill, even during its busy periods in the spring and fall. In addition to the 1.5 million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center, two private facilities with at least 1 million square feet are also operating: the Sands Expo Center at the Venetian and the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The result is a massive amount of floor space available for conventions and meetings, and that’s not even counting the larger casinos like MGM, Bellagio, Mirage, Wynn, Riviera and others that also have substantial meeting space.

MGM Mirage’s rumored Atlantic City facility at Renaissance Pointe is supposed to have more than the usual amount of meeting space, so maybe this is another road that Atlantic City will follow.

Traffic Jams

Now here’s an area where Atlantic City is catching up to Las Vegas. Traffic is abysmal in both locations.

In Las Vegas, the explosive growth has left behind the road system. For three hours every morning and afternoon, the road system is virtually gridlocked. Holiday weekends, the locals know to avoid the highways and the Strip. And public transportation is virtually non-existent. Yes, there is a bus system, but counting on a bus to arrive on schedule and take you to your destination in a reasonable amount of time is gambling.

Much the same can be said for Atlantic City, except for the length of the rush hour. The road systems have not kept pace with community growth. Travel time across the region has steadily increased. And the influx of the summer visitors only makes it worse.

Concluding Assumptions

As most observers note, it’s not fair to compare Atlantic City and Las Vegas. The populations vary widely (approximately 250,000 in the Atlantic City region versus 1.7 million in Las Vegas); the climate is completely different (Northeast seacoast versus Southwest desert); the locations are completely diverse (drive-in versus fly-in); the convention business is regional rather than national; and many other points too detailed to note in this feature.

So no, it’s not fair to make the comparison, but that won’t stop all the pundits from mentioning Las Vegas every time "Atlantic City" crosses their lips. That’s why it’s important to realize that while Atlantic City will never be Las Vegas, the converse is also true. Las Vegas will never be Atlantic City.

By Roger Gros

Roger Gros is publisher of Casino Connection and Global Gaming Business, a the industry’s leading gaming trade publication. Prior to joining Global Gaming Business, Gros was president of Inlet Communications, an independent consulting firm. He was vice president of Casino Journal Publishing Group from 1984-2000, and held virtually every editorial title during his tenure. Gros was editor of Casino Journal, the National Gaming Summary and the Atlantic City Insider, and was the founding editor of Casino Player magazine. He was a co-founder of the American Gaming Summit and the Southern Gaming Summit conferences and trade shows. He is the author of the best-selling book, How to Win at Casino Gambling (Carlton Books, 1995), now in its third edition. Gros was named “Businessman of the Year” for 1998 by the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.

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