More Atlantic City Casino Competition!
In a time where sales are declining, and Atlantic City is taking hits left and right, more competition seems to be on the horizon…From Ohio.
Ohio voters passed a referendum which will legalize casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo, Ohio’s four biggest cities. Over the past 19 years Ohioans have voted down gambling proposals on four occasions. This year more than half of voters turned out in support of the referendum. The casino-friendly Ohio Jobs & Growth committee rallied for the referendum, insisting that the construction of the four casinos would bring 34,000 permanent jobs and 19,000 construction jobs starting next year. Ohio currently has an 11% unemployment rate.
But what does this mean for Atlantic City, which is also facing stiff competition from surrounding states that are looking to expand their gambling? Just this past September charter flights arrived from Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, and Youngstown with the majority of travelers looking to gamble at Atlantic City casinos. The South Jersey Transportation Authority which operates ACY does not have a hard breakdown of the number of charter passengers from Ohio, but did note that casinos have been lobbying for scheduled service from Chicago and midwest states to help bring more business to Atlantic City.
Sharon Gordon, Transportation Authority spokesperson, said on the subject, “Our target for opening up new destinations would be anything east of the Mississippi, a nice short flight to Atlantic City International.” Whether or not these efforts will be impeded by the vote in Ohio and whether these new casinos will have a negative impact on Atlantic City remains yet to be seen.
