New York Concerns About Competition, Smoking and Internet Gaming Disrupt Northeast U.S. Gaming Markets

ATLANTA, N.J. (AP) - Casinos in the Northeastern U.S. are taking on a number of challenges as they prepare for the arrival of new competitors in New York City.

At a major casino conference in Atlantic City on Wednesday, attendees raised a number of challenges, including a possible smoking ban in Atlantic City, the ongoing debate over whether Internet gambling is hurting or helping the bottom line of brick-and-mortar casinos, and the loss of illegal online businesses.

At the East Coast Gaming Conference at Hard Rock casino, experts discussed the upheaval in the gaming industry, particularly in preparation for the influx of three casinos in downstate New York, which is widely seen as redefining the gaming market in the region.

New York State is in the process of selecting casino sites and preparing to answer hundreds of questions from potential casino operators before issuing licenses.

Mark Giannantonio, director of the Atlantic City Resorts Casino and the New Jersey Casino Association, said his city has had "two years" to prepare for new competition from its neighbors to the north.

"It's clear to us that the New York gaming industry is massively hypochondriacal," he said, predicting that competition will intensify as customers from the region and other countries choose to travel and gamble in New York.

He also said the New York casino would affect competitors in eastern Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Giannantonio said Atlantic City needs to improve cleanliness, infrastructure and public safety to meet new competitive challenges.

"There's only so much a casino can do," he said." We provide jobs and money. Let's complement the beauty of the ocean with our streets. Let's solve the problem of homelessness once and for all. Investments and programs are needed to take the homeless off the streets and under the sidewalks and provide them with the help they need.

Mayor Marty Small did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Stacey Rowland, director of the New York Gaming Association, said the upcoming new casinos in New York State hope to capture the gambling dollars that are currently flowing from other states.

"Competition is a good thing," she said." Competition from New York City will push (competitors) to step up their game."

Atlantic City is also facing a relentless push by casino workers to get smoking out of the casinos. They have been urging lawmakers to pass a smoke-free bill and recently filed a lawsuit to overturn a state law that exempts Atlantic City's casinos from the state's clean indoor air law.

Giannantonio called the smoking ban "one of the biggest hypochondriacs to our business right now."

He predicted that this would result in the loss of up to 2,500 casino jobs and millions in state tax revenue. He supports a compromise that would allow smoking to continue away from table games and in areas where no employees are forced to work.

Casino workers rejected those claims, saying the casino would be better off financially by attracting the non-smoking customers it now shuns.

"Lamont White, a licensee and leader of the employee anti-smoking campaign at Borgata, said, "Casino executives have been making the same unsubstantiated claims and advocating a false compromise that will only continue to force us, their own employees, to breathe toxic air every day on our breathing toxic air every day on the job." They don't give a damn about the cancer, heart disease, strokes, COPD and countless other illnesses that result from this unacceptable work environment that other workers in New Jersey don't have to face.

Some states are reintroducing Internet gambling as a way to generate new revenue. Currently, Internet gambling is legal in New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Giannantonio says that online gambling has helped Atlantic City's live casinos, and that Resorts has a successful online division, which is associated with DraftKings.

But Rob Norton, Arbitroller of Cordish Gaming Group and Live! Casinos, which includes casinos in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida, said online casino gambling has had a negative impact on live casinos.

"It's eating into the real casinos," Norton said. Speaking about the industry as a whole, he said: "The approach we are taking is suicidal.

His view was challenged by others in the industry, who said that Internet gambling complemented the live casino business.

"For New Jersey, Internet gambling is complementary," said Giannantonio. He said the resort has successfully integrated its customer loyalty program into both its physical and online operations.

He said that online sports betting has always been a "leakage" between "internet betting" and real betting.

"We have a lot of people who bet on sports online and come to our real store to place their bets," Giannantonio said.

Members of the Subcommittee have mentioned that illegal offshore gambling websites and unlicensed and unregulated slot machines on land are another form of hypochondria to the casino industry.

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