Borgata Casino (Atlantic City) - Aktuelle 2020 - Lohnt es ...

With the closure of almost half of Atlantic City's casinos, Newark set to vote on gambling and casinos or racinos in almost every state, it seems as if the reasons for the very existence of Atlantic City are in serious jeopardy.
Israel Joffe
Atlantic City, once a major vacation spot during the roaring 20s and 1930s, as seen on HBOs Boardwalk Empire, collapsed when cheap air fare became the norm and people had no reason to head to the many beach town resorts on the East Coast. Within a few decades, the city, known for being an ‘oasis of sin’ during the prohibition era, fell into serious decline and dilapidation.
New Jersey officials felt the only way to bring Atlantic City back from the brink of disaster would be to legalize gambling. Atlantic City’s first casino, Resorts, first opened its doors in 1978. People stood shoulder to shoulder, packed into the hotel as gambling officially made its way to the East Coast. Folks in the East Coast didn't have to make a special trip all the way to Vegas in order to enjoy some craps, slots, roulette and more.
As time wore on, Atlantic City became the premier gambling spots in the country.
While detractors felt that the area still remained poor and dilapidated, officials were quick to point out that the casinos didn't bring the mass gentrification to Atlantic City as much as they hoped but the billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs for the surrounding communities was well worth it.
Atlantic City developed a reputation as more of a short-stay ‘day-cation’ type of place, yet managed to stand firm against the 'adult playground' and 'entertainment capital of the world' Las Vegas.
Through-out the 1980s, Atlantic City would become an integral part of American pop culture as a place for east coast residents to gamble, watch boxing, wrestling, concerts and other sporting events.
However in the late 1980s, a landmark ruling considered Native-American reservations to be sovereign entities not bound by state law. It was the first potential threat to the iron grip Atlantic City and Vegas had on the gambling and entertainment industry.
Huge 'mega casinos' were built on reservations that rivaled Atlantic City and Vegas. In turn, Vegas built even more impressive casinos.
Atlantic City, in an attempt to make the city more appealing to the ‘big whale’ millionaire and billionaire gamblers, and in effort to move away from its ‘seedy’ reputation, built the luxurious Borgata casino in 2003. Harrah’s created a billion dollar extension and other casinos in the area went through serious renovations and re-branded themselves.
It seemed as if the bite that the Native American casinos took out of AC and Vegas’ profits was negligible and that the dominance of those two cities in the world of gambling would remain unchallenged.
Then Macau, formally a colony of Portugal, was handed back to the Chinese in 1999. The gambling industry there had been operated under a government-issued monopoly license by Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau. The monopoly was ended in 2002 and several casino owners from Las Vegas attempted to enter the market.
Under the one country, two systems policy, the territory remained virtually unchanged aside from mega casinos popping up everywhere. All the rich ‘whales’ from the far east had no reason anymore to go to the United States to spend their money.
Then came the biggest threat.
As revenue from dog and horse racing tracks around the United States dried up, government officials needed a way to bring back jobs and revitalize the surrounding communities. Slot machines in race tracks started in Iowa in 1994 but took off in 2004 when Pennsylvania introduced ‘Racinos’ in an effort to reduce property taxes for the state and to help depressed areas bounce back.
As of 2013, racinos were legal in ten states: Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia with more expected in 2015.
Tracks like Delaware Park and West Virginia's Mountaineer Park, once considered places where local degenerates bet on broken-down nags in claiming races, are now among the wealthiest tracks around, with the best races.
The famous Aqueduct race track in Queens, NY, once facing an uncertain future, now possesses the most profitable casino in the United States.
From June 2012 to June 2013, Aqueduct matched a quarter of Atlantic City's total gaming revenue from its dozen casinos: $729.2 million compared with A.C.'s $2.9 billion. It has taken an estimated 15 percent hit on New Jersey casino revenue and climbing.
And it isn't just Aqueduct that's taking business away from them. Atlantic City's closest major city, Philadelphia, only 35-40 minutes away, and one of the largest cities in America, now has a casino that has contributed heavily to the decline in gamers visiting the area.
New Jersey is the third state in the U.S. to have authorized internet gambling. However, these online casinos are owned and controlled by Atlantic City casinos in an effort to boost profits in the face of fierce competition.
California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas are hoping to join Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey and the U.S. Virgin Islands in offering online gambling to their residents.
With this in mind, it seems the very niche that Atlantic City once offered as a gambling and entertainment hub for east coast residents is heading toward the dustbin of history.
Time will tell if this city will end up like Detroit. However, the fact that they are losing their biggest industry to major competition, much like Detroit did, with depressed housing, casinos bankrupting/closing and businesses fleeing , it all makes Atlantic City’s fate seem eerily similar.

A couple years ago, I was playing poker full-time during a gap year in college. I'm from Jersey (grew up like 15 minutes away from Anna, apparently - took the SAT's at her old high school) and was mainly grinding at Parx outside Philly and Borgata in AC when I wasn't playing online (thank god it's legal here, fuck Sheldon Adelson - wishing death on decrepit old Jews like Kissinger who have receded into the shadows long after their damage has been done is usually weak shit, but I'd laugh if Adelson caught one in the dome), but I was pretty active in the Central Jersey home game scene. One of my good friends was a home game dealer at the time and started working at this juicy game consisting solely of ex-convicts who met up twice a week to lose their drug money to each other. He'd gotten the gig through a connection with one of the game runners who he'd been selling stolen iPhone parts at Rutgers for and told me to drop by since they were always looking for new players. He said the game was "shady" and told me to bring as little cash as possible as there'd be a non-zero chance I got robbed but gave me no details beyond that.
I show up to the game for the first time, hosted in the upstairs of run-down chiropractic office off Route 1, and "fish out of water" doesn't quite do it justice. I'm a sandy-haired twink, 135 pounds soaking wet, and I waltz into this place where everyone has done 5+ years (verbalized by at least three of them, my friend told me pretty much everyone had a record, usually narcotics charges with some domestic abuse sprinkled in) wearing salmon shorts and a button-down. Still, everyone was very cordial, happy to see a new player. Among the cast of characters playing was one of the hosts, an ex-DI defensive tackle who wore the same barbecue sauce-stained wife beater to every game while draped in what looked like 20 pounds of diamond jewelry and rolled up each night in a different Audi A6. There was also "Shorty", a wicked nice guy who'd been wheelchair-bound for over 20 years after taking 5 shots from a Tec-9 for saving his little cousin from getting his shit pushed in (whenever he was dealt 9 5 in Hold' em, after the hand he'd go "man, '95. The year my daughter was born and the year I got shot." which I got him to elaborate on that first night). There was Bri, a woman in her late 30's with an awful weave who'd lose exactly $300 every game in quick $50 increments, always seething on her bustout hand, cursing out the dealer and occasionally throwing chips at them (didn't know why they let her back every game since she brought so little to the game, but it was a very Snot Boogie-esque moment, if you're into The Wire). The only other white person there outside of my friend was "Big D," a paunchy woman in her 40's who'd gone to jail for beating her cheating husband with a baseball bat (omg queeeeeeen slayyyyyy).
I started going most Wednesdays since the casinos were usually slow that night and the Omaha game they ran was very fat. I didn't speak much, and I was mostly known for being a "serious player" and for my ability to snarf down a penne vodka tray faster than "Big Anthony" despite having the effete physique of a John Singer Sargent portrait subject. One night, I'm a few Millers deep (people tolerate you draining thousands from their game better if you're not stone sober all the time) and they started bumping some tunes, not super common at home games but the host was in the mood for it. As I'm sitting there stimming with my chips, my ears perk up when I hear the ethereal melody of "Life's a Bitch" fade in. As an autistic backpacker proto-fantanofag whose music taste was birthed out of the annals of 2011 /mu/, all those Illmatic verses are practically etched into my hippocampus.
I start mouthing the conversation between Nas and AZ at the beginning, and Shorty sees me as I say "cause we spendin' these Jacksons, the Washingtons go to wifey, you know how that go" and tells the table "yo, look." AZ's legendary verse begins and I drill it. 'Visualizing the realism of life in actuality / fuck who's the baddest, a person's status depend on salary..." and the rest seamlessly leaks out of my grapefruit. The whole room erupts out of bewilderment that this skinny nerd just nailed such an immaculate verse, and they're saying "keep going, keep going" during the chorus. I do a clean run of Nas' oft-overlooked second verse and the host is out of his seat yelling at this point as Olu Dara's cornet gently glides us to the end of the track. He goes "let's see him do another one" and the game is de facto paused at this point (very rare as it stops the collection of rake) and turns on "The World Is Yours," very fitting as the next track on the album.
We collectively sing the chorus and then I'm solo when the first verse hits - "I sip the Dom P watchin' Gandhi 'til I'm charged, then / Writin' in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin" powerful enough lines to carry me through the rest of it. When we get to the third verse, Shorty notices me skip a word in "I need a new nigga for this black cloud to follow / ‘Cause while it's over me it's too dark to see tomorrow" (Jesus, who hasn't felt that at some point?) and at the end of the track, gets his hand on my shoulder and gives the proclamation "anybody who can spit Nas like that can say nigga." The game restarts and I'm asked for an encore, so I do "N.Y. State of Mind", a fortunate ordering since it has by far the highest n-word density of the three. I briefly stumble over "45’s and gauges, MAC's in fact / Same niggas will catch you back-to-back, snatchin' your cracks and black," a difficult string of exact rhymes, but they're equally impressed. The light-skinned drink runner grabs me another Miller and they transition to listening to All Eyez On Me, disappointed I don't have the same proficiency in Pac.
Stopped going to the game when I went back to school. Hope they're still drinking and throwing cards around, they were some cool people.
TL; DR: I can say the n-word because the Dionysian transcends all cultural boundaries.

Does anybody know when poker rooms will be opening up in Atlantic City? The casinos have been open for a few weeks with the exception of Borgata. I called Harrahs, Golden Nugget, and Tropicana all to no avail. New Jersey has been taking a slow, methodical approach to reopening so I understand why they’re still closed. Just looking for some insight, thanks!

Just saw this review on Trip advisor. what the heck is going on here?
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https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g29750-d282804-r727002529-Borgata_Casino-Atlantic_City_New_Jersey.html?m=19905