The gaming destination map in the East continues to widen as more states launch gaming, intensifying competition and opening new opportunities for entertainment and event space.
In January, Pennsylvania and Delaware approved table games. By late July all their casinos had been outfitted with poker areas and such games as blackjack, craps, roulette and mini-baccarat.
The first of five Maryland casinos recently opened, and ground breaking was held for the first of four Ohio casinos in August.
A Massachusetts bill authorizing three casino resorts has deadlocked over whether to also allow slots at racetracks. A Rhode Island bill that would have put table-game approval for its two casinos before voters in November was vetoed on grounds it did not include measures on licensing and taxes.
New Jersey
Under siege from economic conditions and growing competition, Atlantic City has seen gaming revenues at its 11 casino resorts continue to slide, tumbling 7.9 percent during the first seven months of 2010. But the nation’s second-largest casino market after Las Vegas has evolved.
"The visitor number has kept up and the meetings market is bouncing back," says Gary Musich, vice president of convention sales for the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority (ACCVA). "For the year’s first half future bookings were up 15 percent over last year, and corporate groups are beginning to grow."
Atlantic City Convention Center delegate numbers climbed 22 percent and room nights 6 percent during the first half of the year. The number attending hotel meetings increased 13 percent. Casino hotel occupancies, which averaged 82.5 percent last year, were also up.
According to Musich, future meeting and convention bookings are still running double what they were five years ago, when the city was undergoing massive infrastructure changes. Construction wound down with the 2008 openings of the 800-room Water Club, Harrah’s 960-room Waterfront Tower and Trump Taj Mahal’s 786-room Chairman’s Tower.
Located near the convention center, The Walk outlet center is slated to unveil a new 20-store expansion early next year. One Atlantic, a new special events center with 12,300 square feet of meeting space, opened early this year atop the Pier at Caesars.
Construction has slowed on Revel Entertainment’s half-completed $2.5 billion, 1,900-room casino resort while the company seeks further financing.
In July, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie proposed a controversial new casino district authority encompassing ACCVA, the convention center and Boardwalk Hall. Gaming taxes would stay within Atlantic City instead of being dispersed through the state.
"It’s a great idea. The concept is awesome," Musich says.
Pennsylvania
Boosted by two new casinos, the Keystone State’s consumer casino spending soared 21.6 percent in 2009. It has nine casinos, the first of which opened less than four years ago.
Sands Casino Resort, unveiled in Bethlehem last year, is set to open a 300-room hotel with 8,000 square feet of meeting space next May. Rivers Casino, which has meeting space and a 1,000-seat outdoor amphitheater, opened in August last year on Pittsburgh’s waterfront next to Heinz Field.
The first of two Philadelphia waterfront facilities, SugarHouse Casino, opened in September. The proposed Foxwoods Casino has suffered delays; Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn pulled out as a partner in April.
The state’s other standalone casino, the three-year-old, 188-room Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos, with 7,200 square feet of meeting space, opened an 18-hole golf course last year.
Last year, the first of two Category 3 licenses for existing resorts, allowing 600 slots and 50 table games, was awarded to Valley Forge Convention Center and its two hotels. A casino has yet to be built.
Four properties are vying for the other license: Gettysburg’s Eisenhower Hotel; Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington; Holiday Inn Harrisburg West; and the Poconos’ Fernwood Hotel & Resort.
New York
|The Empire State has five Class III Native American casinos and eight racinos.
New York established a goal of eight casinos in 2001, all of which opened between 2004 and 2006, when Aqueduct was added to the list.
The nation’s top revenue-producing racino is the $300 million, 5,300-slot Empire City at Yonkers Raceway, which has a variety of meeting spaces. Outside Buffalo, Hamburg Casino at Erie County Fairgrounds/Buffalo Raceway unveiled a new $25 million casino in August.
In a joint venture, Empire Resorts, which operates the Catskill’s Monticello Casino & Raceway, planned to build an adjacent casino with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which has the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino in Hogansburg, but the tribe pulled out in July.
The Seneca Nation has three casinos: the 604-room Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel, with 30,000 square feet of meeting space; the 200-room Seneca Allegany Casino & Hotel in Salamanca, with a 2,000-seat seat event center; and the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in downtown Buffalo.
The Seneca Nation unveiled a Robert Trent Jones II-designed 18-hole golf course near the Niagara casino in July.
Near Syracuse, the Oneida Nation’s Turning Stone Resort & Casino has 700 rooms, 100,000 square feet of meeting space and three golf courses.
New England
Connecticut’s two Native American casinos—the 2,200-room Foxwoods and 1,000-room Mohegan Sun—together boast 15,000 slots and 700 table games.
Foxwoods Resort Casino and the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, which debuted in May 2008, together include 160,000 square feet of meeting space, a 4,000-seat theater, 35 restaurants and 36 holes of golf.
A new comedy club and a luxury bowling complex debut this fall.
Mohegan Sun has 100,000 square feet of meeting space. Its last major expansion, Casino of the Wind, was completed in August 2008.
Rhode Island has two casinos—Twin River, with a 29,000-square-foot event center, and Newport Grand Slots.
Bangor, Maine has Hollywood Slots, Hotel & Raceway, which includes a 151-room hotel.
Delaware
Delaware’s three casinos, now with table games, are the 500-room Dover Downs, with 35,000 square feet of meeting space; Harrington Raceway & Casino; and Delaware Park in Wilmington, which has an 18-hole golf course.
Maryland
Penn National recently opened the $97.5 million Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County. A $45 million casino at Ocean Downs Racetrack outside Ocean City is slated to open by year’s end.
In November 2008 voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing five casinos totaling 15,000 slots at five locations, including Baltimore.
Ohio
Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment last November allowing one casino in each of four cities.
Penn National Gaming broke ground in August on the $250 million Casino Hollywood in Toledo and is planning a $400 million Columbus casino, both slated for 2012 openings. In August, Rock Gaming and Harrah’s Entertainment announced a joint venture to develop downtown casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Eastern Canada
In Ontario, Niagara Falls boasts the 368-room Fallsview Casino Resort, which has 50,000 square feet of meeting space. Across the river from Detroit is the 758-room Caesars Windsor, which has 100,000 square feet of meeting space and completed a $439 million expansion in 2008 that included a 5,000-seat entertainment center.
North of Montreal at the Mont Tremblant ski resort, Loto-Quebec opened the Casino de Mont-Tremblant last year.
Tony Bartlett has been writing for travel industry publications for over 20 years.
