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Landmark Atlantic City Casino May Close
ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY --
After voters changed the gambling law in 1976, the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel was remodeled and opened as Resorts International on May 26th, 1978, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. That, day, Resorts became the first legal casino in the US east of the Mississippi.
This month, Resorts International Holdings, owner of both Resorts Casino and the Atlantic City Hilton, announced it had been unable to meet its monthly interest payment, which had been due on November 7th. The company said it was in negotiations with debt-holder Column Financial to restructure its loans.
The company also has said that as of the first of the year, it will no longer match 401(k) contributions by employees, a measure taken to try to cut costs. Gross operating profit at Resorts was down 62.3 percent from November of last year.
Resorts and its sister casino at the Hilton are the smallest gambling floors in Atlantic City. The Borgata, which has surged to lead the Jersey casino market since it opened in 2003, has more square footage than Resorts and the Hilton combined, and 150 % as many hotel rooms as the two older properties.
It seems likely that, given the state of the company, the economy, and the casinos' inability to compete with newer, bigger resorts, Resorts Casino and the Hilton will soon join the Sands, the Stardust, the New Frontier, and the Desert Inn as only memories from the past.
Even as new, impersonal testaments to greed and excess somehow are financed and built, classier casinos linger with magic names like Seigel, Sinatra, Bennett, and Howard Hughes. Resorts Casino, if it is demolished for a bigger, supposedly better place, will carry with it the best of Atlantic City.
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