Caesars says it will close Showboat Casino in Atlantic City on August 31, 2014

[SteveBourieOLD]

Caesars says it will close Showboat in August (updated)

[dewey089]

Re: Caesars says it will close Showboat Casino in Atlantic City on August 31, 2014

Yes. Here is the newspaper article


Showboat Casino to close on August 31 - pressofAtlanticCity.com: Breaking News

[keno60]

Re: Caesars says it will close Showboat Casino in Atlantic City on August 31, 2014

Interesting article, I may be flying in to AC this Sept. for a family reunion in Wildwood NJ.

[dewey089]

Re: Caesars says it will close Showboat Casino in Atlantic City on August 31, 2014

I know the article expresses shock and wonders why they would close if they are making money.
I don't completely understand the shock. I posted this closing here on the board quite a while ago. It should not be a surprise. The unofficial information was everywhere.
As for Atlantic City being a money maker. Well, I don't know that it is. The opening of casinos over the next few years in Mass and NY is certainly going to put enormous pressure on Atlantic City, so getting out while the getting is good seems wise from the business perspective.
Jobs will be lost and that is a shame. I wish that folks in my area could take a lesson from this too. The argument here for new casinos in NY and Mass is that they will create jobs. However, folks taking those jobs need to be flexible to move to other places when the gambling dries up. And towns thinking they have an instant tax advantage need to use those new tax revenues for improvements that are investment in the future rather than for ongoing expenses. Then when the taxes go away, the locality is not hurting by being addicted to their taste of gambling revenue and have it dry up. And high taxes as much as anything drive casinos out of Atlantic City because AC is not content to make a small profit. They want to gouge a huge take.

For me personally, the place does not attract me. Atlantic City is about a 5 hour drive from my house. I go perhaps once a year. There is very little to no good video poker, and what there is often earns no points.
The last time I went I stayed at Showboat. I went to play poker there and found the bad beat was ridiculous (as it has been lately at all CET properties except the new Caesar's.) The first day I played and that night the bad beat was hit, so on the second day one would have to lose with four kings or better.
Of course, the rake is stayed the same.
They had some high hand bonus (highe hand in the room type) that was so confusing that no one, even the dealers, could understand what had to happen. I think they demanded the high hand go to the river to qualify and there were other bits poorly communicated.
I went next door and played the 2-4-6 Taj game and liked it much more. But none of AC limit poker games compare with Vegas games: not in rake, not in bonus and promotions, and not in table selection.
So, Vegas is also 5 hours from here, only by airplane.
I can pay for the air in what I don't pay for in room rates. Because there is nothing worth playing at AC, I don't get more than a couple free nights and paying for nights on the boardwalk is nothing like finding the bargains in Vegas.
And forget the food costs. I ate in my room most of the time. The buffets were like strip priced. There was nothing like Orleans or Gold Coast or all the Stations or anything out Boulder.
There is nothing there that will draw me once NY has nearby casinos or Springfield has one. Even now I'm more attracted to Foxwoods and Mohegan for live poker than AC.
I like the ocean and sitting on the beach.
I don't like it that driving from casino to casino means paying over and over to park.
I like very much that I can pack my bike and during certain hours ride on the boardwalk. That is how to go from casino to casino, but it misses those casinos located off the boardwalk. If you skim this old trip report, you'll get a discussion of a bike on the boardwalk and photos as well. Look the section labeled "My Bike"
http://foxwoodspokertr.blogspot.com/...verall-it.html




And the final thing that Vegas offers is live poker where most of the players are tourists on vacation. All these other venues offer games of old men regulars who have the same jokes, the same grumbles, and who are neither loose nor on vacation. So, the fun of the party of the place is just not there.
And I have yet to go to AC and not have a least one whining PAI at the table, complaining, nearly insulting the dealer, full of depression. Why these folks even get out of bed to play poker is beyond me. They should stay home and rant at the television news or start family fights or yell at the neighbor kids to get off their lawn.
To some extent too it is a carryover from the classic NYC attitude which can be less than friendly and never compares to the attitude in general of the Western folks. I know that is a stereotype, but one perhaps rooted in truth.
Why, I once got chewed out by a waiter in an AC buffet because when I did not have a fork in my table setting, I got up and took one off a nearby table. I was so mad I almost went over and took all the silverware to my table, and the napkins as well.
I wish that nastiness was atypical, but it "comes with the territory."
Well, win big Keno when you visit.

[keno60]

Re: Caesars says it will close Showboat Casino in Atlantic City on August 31, 2014

Dewey, Did I tell you I hit 2 royals on my May trip, the last one was on my last night -last session. I was very lucky that trip. Its important because of all the talk about "tightening machines". When you hit a dry spell that type of talk gets pretty depressing. Take care.

[dewey089]

Re: Caesars says it will close Showboat Casino in Atlantic City on August 31, 2014

Nice, Keno. I never pay any attention to "tight" arguments. They have no bearing on VP in Vegas. None whatsoever.