A Wall Street research firm said Monday more Atlantic
City casinos are likely to close and Philly-area casinos will suffer in the
near future, crunched by the openings of at least eight new casinos along the
East Coast.
The new supply will hit Atlantic City particularly
hard," the report said. "Increasing competition from casinos in
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New York has led to the closure of four
casinos in 2014, and the new entrants in these states will likely cause the
number of casinos in Atlantic City to continue to shrink."
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, SugarHouse Casino is taking steps to expand its offerings
while Live! Casino and Hotel inches closer to breaking ground in
South Philly.
Peter Trombetta, a Moody's analyst, told the Press of Atlantic City
the second Philadelphia casino will squeeze SugarHouse, while AC's casinos
could still see some success as long as the Jersey Shore remains a tourist
draw.
"We talk about location being key if those casinos
have similar amenities," Trombetta said in an interview. "It’s very
unlikely someone is going to drive past one casino to go to another casino if
they have similar offerings. Offsetting that to a degree is Atlantic City is on
the beach, so you still have that summer traffic going to the Jersey
Shore…you’re not going to lose that customer."
Moody's said the eight new casinos, slated to open by
2018, will also put pressure on SugarHouse and Harrah's Philadelphia, among
others, since they "have already been struggling to adapt to flat revenue
growth amid new entrants."
Press of AC has more
details.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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