Atlantic City Casinos - The Calm Before the Storm?
One day, there were all sorts of apocalyptic comments about the future of the Atlantic City casino industry.
Barely 24 hours later, the March 2026 revenue figures were released by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement offered not even a hint of melodrama.
The reality is that the industry's combined $2.89 billion in revenue in 2025 was a routine rise of 2.9% from 2024. And in the first quarter of 2026, revenue, has increased by 1.3% compared to the first quarter of 2025.
But deep trouble looms for the industry in the next few years, a number of casino executives warned at the East Coast Gaming Conference in Atlantic City.
The first step in the $7.5 billion expansion of the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. will be unveiled this summer, eventually evolving the site from a "racino" with thousands of slot machines into a full-scale casino with an extensive selection of card games similar to those found at Atlantic City's nine casinos.
A 500,000-square-foot gaming floor with 6,000 slot machines and 800 live table games; 2,000 hotel rooms; a new 7,000-seat multipurpose entertainment venue, and more than a dozen acres of new public green space are planned.
The 2030 projects
Then in 2030, two more massive gambling locations in New York City are scheduled to open to the public.
One is the $8 billion Metropolitan Park project that will open adjacent to Citi Field, home of MLB's New York Mets.
A Hard Rock casino with 1,000 hotel rooms and 5,000 slot machines and about 400 table games is the central focus of the Queens project, which also is scheduled to include a 5,000-seat music venue and 23 acres of open green space.
The other 2030 timeline project is a Bally's casino in The Bronx, with plans for 500 hotel rooms, 3,500 slot machines, about 250 table games, and a nightclub and spa.
Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen told the audience at the gaming conference - which took place on the grounds of his property on the Boardwalk - that the Atlantic City casino industry could lose up to 25% to 30% of its annual revenue once all three New York City properties are fully operational.
“If New York in 2030-31, in the first 12 months that all three new casinos are open and you allow North Jersey casinos to open, that's a tsunami on top of an earthquake for Atlantic City," George Goldhoff, Atlantic City Hard Rock casino president, told the attendees.
"If you put casinos in North Jersey, you'll still have casinos in Atlantic City," he added. "But now there would probably be three or four - at best - in the market."
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Which Atlantic City casinos could be in jeopardy?
The grave threat to the South Jersey economy from multiple casino closures is not an abstract fear. In 2014, The Atlantic Club, Showboat, Revel, and Trump Plaza casinos all shut their doors - followed by the exit of Trump Taj Mahal in 2016.
The loss of tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs from the contract of the industry from 12 properties to seven led to Atlantic County having the highest home foreclosure rate in the U.S. in various months.
Hard Rock gutted Trump Taj Mahal and Ocean Casino did the same with the Revel location, and the joint grand openings in mid-2018 boosted the casino count to nine while allowing countless local residents to resume a career in the industry.
As the city's newest properties, Hard Rock and Ocean consistently rank second and third in monthly and yearly revenue to the 23-year-old Borgata property that is located in the city's Marina District.
All three market leaders would seem to be immune from any regional casino headwinds that come along - but the same can't be said for certain for any of the other six casinos in the city.
Ocean Casino, at more than $450 million in revenue in 2025, ranked in third place - and more than double the revenue of fourth-place Harrah's at $225 million.
Caesars Entertainment currently owns Atlantic City casinos Harrah's, No. 5 Tropicana, and No. 6 Caesars.
Early in April, it was revealed that billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who owns Golden Nugget Atlantic City - which in the first quarter of 2026 slipped into last place in the market - seeks to buy Caesars Entertainment.
Resorts - the first U.S. casino to open east of the Mississippi River in 1978 - consistently ranks in the bottom three in industry revenue. Bally's Atlantic City, which is in the same boat, could be a casualty of the company developing the casino project in the Bronx only about 135 miles to the north.
Hard Rock, hard place - so a Meadowlands sale is made
Allen, the Hard Rock CEO, in 2015 announced a deal with Meadowlands Racetrack owner Jeff Gural to make the global brand the exclusive partner in a casino should voters approve a referendum a year later.
The vaguely-worded casino ballot question was overwhelmingly defeated just as Hard Rock was setting its sights on setting up shop in Atlantic City.
With plans for casinos in both Queens and Atlantic City starting in 2030, it perhaps isn't too surprising that just one day after the East Coast Gaming Conference concluded, it was revealed that Hard Rock had sold its 50% stake in a possible Meadowlands casino.
There has been a revival of talks in 2026 among state elected officials about having another ballot question on the subject of a Meadowlands casino, but there are quite a few moving parts remaining as a June 30 end-of-legislative-session looms.
A majority of lawmakers would have to agree on whether the referendum would specifically list only the Meadowlands as a potential site, whether to add only slot machines to make it a "racino," and whether Monmouth Park - the state's other surviving racetrack - should be in the picture at all.
Atlantic City casino operators and leading South Jersey lawmakers have expressed strong opposition, and ballot questions must gain formal approval from at least 60% of legislators and be the subject of at least two public hearings.
Factoring in all those obstacles, it may already be too late for the question to go before New Jersey voters in 2026.
