The 27th annual East Coast Gaming Congress, an industry gathering focused on business issues and concepts geared toward that part of the United States, kicked off Wednesday at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The two-day conference’s first panel discussion was dubbed “Competitive-Climate Change: Gaming Heats Up in Eastern U.S.” Despite that rather specific label, the session was actually quite wide-ranging, as panelists weighed in on subjects including the role of AI in the industry to the future of perpetually beleaguered Atlantic City.

Exploring Regional Gaming Dynamics

On the subject of the increasingly competitive brick-and-mortar environment in that part of the United States, there was general agreement that the looming construction of as many as three multi-billion-dollar casinos in New York City was the most significant development on the horizon.

Not surprisingly, the speakers were not unanimous on what that would mean going forward. Stacy Rowland, chairperson of the New York State Gaming Association, clearly landed on the optimistic side, voicing the hope that residents of that part of the state would stay there to gamble and partake of the amenities such facilities will offer, rather than gambling (and usually leaving) their money in neighboring New Jersey (specifically Atlantic City) and Connecticut.

Equally unremarkable was the stance of Mark Giannantonio, president and CEO of Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino-Hotel and president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, the local industry’s trade-and-lobbying arm. He insisted the prospect of gaming halls in New York City constitutes a “serious threat” to his city’s long-term outlook. 

That opinion is obviously rooted in The New York-North Jersey metropolitan area being Atlantic City’s largest feeder market; it’s already been significantly encroached upon by Wind Creek Bethlehem in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, which is a significantly shorter car ride from the area than Atlantic City.

Atlantic City’s Strategies for Revival

As for what Atlantic City can do to change its fortunes, Giannantonio identified city and state-elected officials as those on whose shoulders the city’s fate rests. 

“We have not been as well capitalized as we should be,” Giannantonio said. “It is really the state and city that have to refocus efforts to revitalize Atlantic City. We need to reinvent ourselves as a real entertainment destination.”

Speaking to reporters after the session, which was moderated by Joe Weinert of Spectrum Gaming Group, a leading industry consulting firm, Giannantonio elaborated on his remarks, suggesting "there are a lot of opportunities in having the city present itself in the very best light."

Mark Giannantonio, president and CEO of Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino-Hotel (C: Alamy)

He cited the need to fix the “perception” of the seaside town, which remains the largest legal-gaming jurisdiction outside Nevada. Among the major problems, faced by Atlantic City and enumerated by Giannantonio, are the city’s aging infrastructure and perpetually vexing homeless problem, and lack of a visible police presence that, he said, would create a needed sense of security for visitors.

Another topic of conversation was the iGaming explosion and its effect on brick-and-mortar casinos. Cordish Gaming Group President Rob Norton, whose Baltimore-based company has properties in Maryland and Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia) and is developing casinos in Bossier City, La. and Petersburg, offered that land-based gaming halls aren’t just being affected by competing Internet entities but, in some cases, by their own digital operations.

“We definitely see it as cannibalistic,” said Norton, whose late father Steve was, in 1978, a top executive at what was then Resorts International, when it became the nation’s first legal casino outside Nevada. 

He suggested that not only does online gaming keep customers from playing at Live! properties, but that customers themselves are shortchanged because iGaming “doesn’t create the whole entertainment experience” for them. Which, he continued, is why “we think building and creating a destination with an entertainment experience is what’s going to [effect positive change].”

Specifically, Norton pointed a finger at online sports betting, explaining that when Maryland sanctioned Internet wagering, Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland “lost 65 percent of our sports betting to online.” He added that the building’s slots and table-game revenue were also negatively impacted by digital gaming.

New York’s Rowland admitted her fears about online gambling are grounded in the potential for corruption and abuse fostered by a lack of governmental oversight. To her, the biggest threat is “iGaming licenses going to non-land-based companies.”

As for the AI revolution that is currently playing out in various ways, there was general agreement among the panelists that the gaming industry has lagged behind the rest of the business world in utilizing the technology, both in actual gaming and back-of-house operations.

The session ended with each participant being asked by Weinert to identify the industry’s next big addition/innovation.

Of particular note was Rowland’s answer: “Esports,” she said without hesitation. “People pay to watch people play esports.” 

She admitted she couldn’t articulate exactly how esports would manifest itself within the gaming industry, but she insisted, “I think there’s something there.”

The ECGC concludes Thursday after a series of presentations by numerous top gaming executives, including James Allen, Hard Rock International CEO, Caesars Entertainment CEO Thomas Reeg and Atlantis CEO Audrey Oswell, who, like Allen, cut her gaming-industry teeth in Atlantic City.