Mark Giannantonio, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, gives Atlantic City about two years to clean up its act or risk losing significant business to future New York City casino-resorts. (Image: Wayne Parry/Associated Press/Alamy)

One of the top casino executives in New Jersey says that the potential for up to three casinos to be built in New York City in the coming years could pose a major threat to the future of the gaming industry in Atlantic City.

Mark Giannantonio, who serves as president of the Casino Association of New Jersey and as the president of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, made those comments during the East Coast Gaming Congress at the Hard Rock casino-resort in Atlantic City on Wednesday.

Manhattan Casino Could Lure Gamblers Away from Atlantic City

The northeastern United States has already become a hotbed of casino activity. However, Seminole Gaming CEO James Allen estimates that between 20 to 30 percent of all Atlantic City traffic comes from New York City and North Jersey, two areas that would be much closer to the new casinos than those in the coastal resort town. 

“If it ends up in Manhattan, either Hudson Yards, Times Square, or the East Side, it’s going to be fairly devastating, I think, for Atlantic City,” David Naczycz, executive director of the Fintech and Sports Wagering Innovation Center, said via NorthJersey.com. 

Naczycz was less concerned about potential Queens locations such as Steve Cohen’s proposed casino next to Citi Field.

“The trip from Montclair to far east Queens is just as bad as the trip down to Atlantic City,” he said.

While there are already gambling options in and around New York City, the scale of the new casinos – the first fully-fledged casino resorts in the city – would be a completely new threat to Atlantic City.

“They’re going to be Las Vegas-style massive properties and they will generate new business,” Giannantonio told reporters. “It’s also going to impact eastern Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, Connecticut.”

On Thursday at the same conference, an executive from the Meadowlands Racetrack in northern New Jersey, across the river from New York City, said he also could see casino gaming at the Meadowlands in coming years, putting additional stresses on Atlantic City. 

Workers Battle Execs with Efforts to Ban Smoking in New Jersey Casinos

Giannantonio also pointed to a potential smoking ban as “one of the greatest threats to our business right now,” predicting it could cost up to 2,500 jobs at Atlantic City casinos. Employees at the city’s casinos have pushed for legislation that would end the casinos’ exemption from a New Jersey indoor clean air law to end smoking at the resorts. Giannantonio instead proposed a compromise that would allow smoking in certain rooms and away from casino tables.

However, casino workers say that such a ban would pose no threat to casinos. A 2022 report from C3 Gaming found that there was little financial impact from such bans.

“Data from multiple jurisdictions clearly indicates that banning smoking no longer causes a dramatic drop in gaming revenue,” the report read. “In fact, non-smoking properties appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking.”

Borgata dealer Lamont White, who is a leader in the push for smoke-free casinos, reacted harshly to Giannantonio’s comments. 

“Casino executives keep making the same discredited claims and are promoting a false compromise that will only continue to force us, their own employees, to breathe toxic air at our jobs every day,” White told the Associated Press. “They don’t give a damn about the cancer and heart disease and stroke and COPD and countless other diseases that result from this unacceptable work environment that every other New Jersey worker doesn’t have to face.”

The debates and comments at the East Coast Gaming Congress come as Atlantic City’s casinos are seeing profits slip. According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, casino profits in 2023 were down 1.6 percent from 2022, dropping from $756 million to $744 million.

“This particular town, where revenues are flat, going backwards – how do you continue to keep up with inflation, whether it’s the cost of food and beverage, labor, health care, investing in the buildings,” Allen asked on Thursday.