New Owners Bring Bally’s Atlantic City Back to Game

Phil Juliano was looking at the Bally’s casino through rosy glass. To be more precise, the rosy glass is studded with awkwardly misaligned blue squares.

Walking along the Atlantic City boardwalk, he looked up at the glass tower, which was once the hottest and most successful casino at a seaside gambling resort. What he saw was very frustrating to him wherever there used to be broken windows.

“I said,’That’s it,’ reminded Juliano, an executive of the new owner of the casino. A Rhode Island-based company formerly known as Twin River, but later throughout the company. Adopted the Bally’s name. “By mid-July, all the windows of its magnificent and iconic hotel tower, fixed in blue, will rise. It’s a symbol of what we’re trying to do. Under this leadership, this place shines. ”

What Bally’s is trying to do is probably revive a comatose casino in America’s most radical gambling market. Bally’s had a low priority for Caesars Entertainment, its owner many years ago, and was willing to pay attention to and reinvest in two well-known Atlantic City casinos, Harrah’s and Caesars.

As resources decreased, so did performance. Last year, a coronavirus pandemic closed the casino for three and a half months, but Barry was the last of the nine Atlantic City casinos to die in terms of the amount of money he earned from gamblers. The situation in 2019 was about as dark before the pandemic, as Bally’s rarely avoided finishing at the end.

Back in 2014, Caesars Entertainment closed showboats and Atlantic clubs, and four casinos got angry, and Gary Loveman, then chairman, achieved a similar goal for Bally’s. It subtly showed that he was at risk of doing so. “We need to make money there,” he told The Associated Press.

After all, Bally’s lasted longer than Loveman, but was trapped in a downward spiral.

Providence-based Twin River Worldwide Holdings was a small regional casino company that acquired Bally’s for $ 25 million in April 2020, along with casinos in Shreveport, Louisiana and Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

The company later purchased the Bally’s name and embarked on the acquisition of gambling, technology and content companies with the aim of becoming a fully integrated mix of face-to-face and online gambling and entertainment. The company owns 14 casinos and acquisitions await regulatory approval in Las Vegas and Pennsylvania.

Bally’s Atlantic City is a big part of those plans. Last November, gambling regulators in New Jersey promised to invest at least $ 90 million in casino hotels over the next five years.

Juliano, from Atlantic City, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the company’s casino operations, said: “We have a mission to bring this place to the standards we set, no matter where we do business. We are very confident that we will bring this property back to a good place. . ”

Jane Boknevic, coordinator of the Stockton University Gambling and Tourism Institute, said Bally’s has had the opportunity to reintroduce herself to markets that have known it since 1979.

“Like any other newly opened property, Bally’s will benefit from general curiosity about what’s new and what’s different,” she said. “Customers want to know what has changed under the new ownership.”

On the challenge, Bokunewicz said, “If you want to keep up with your neighbors, you need to quickly understand the offerings of online casinos and sports betting.”

Early priorities include casino floor refurbishment, new slot machines, and table games.

As I strolled through the casino on Monday, an electrician was working on a long wire, a handyman was removing an old sign from the wall, and an old slot machine stool was sitting on a mountain that was about to be scrapped. Workers with spray bottles and wipes seemed to be everywhere.

The company is adding restaurants, including a reputed Italian restaurant that opened a few weeks ago. It will also recreate a complete inventory of over 1,200 hotel rooms. The FanDuel branded sportsbook opened last winter.

And Julianopromises to bring entertainment back to Bally’s with a review of Motown’s 1,200-seat ballroom on July 3 and live music on the sand at a popular beach bar.

New Owners Bring Bally’s Atlantic City Back to Game – NBC10 Philadelphia