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Report Calls Atlantic City's Convention and Casino Future a Failure

The August 02, 2023, By Jerry K. Polak

The Report calling for the state control of the resort city’s casino and entertainment district says that Atlantic City’s ability to attract meeting and convention business is limited, as it has been a failure in the past and is contributing to its economic decline.

However, the same report also said that the problem can be fixes. During the process, the benchmark will be increasing the business in the Atlantic City market by 30 per cent or more over the next five years. As state legislators review the report, and ultimately decide on whether Governor Christie’s plan for reversing the economic slump that Atlantic City has been suffering from is worth implementing, observers say that trying to turn around the convention business in this economic climate is daunting.

“The notion that Atlantic City will be able to increase its convention business at all, let alone by 30 percent annually over a period of years, seems implausible,” said Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who is working on a book about the convention center industry.

Sanders said fewer people coming in for events and meetings at the Atlantic City Convention Center stayed overnight in hotels the past two years — a key point because hotel business drives the local economy and means visitors are shopping and going out to eat.

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