ATLANTIC CITY - Change is in the seaside air here.
The tiny Sands Hotel Casino, which had a loyal following among mostly older clientele, will be imploded Thursday.
After that piece of the past is blown away, a $1.5 billion casino run by Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., of Las Vegas, will take its place.
On the northern end of the Boardwalk, the Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley will top that with a $2 billion mega-casino with two hotel towers.
Not to be outdone, MGM Mirage, owner of some of the most prestigious casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, announced plans last week for a gleaming gambling palace with three towers and a price tag of up to $5 billion.
Despite Atlantic City's loss of $57 million in business to Pennsylvania slot parlors so far this year, there seems no slowing the trend toward monster-size casinos boasting luxurious rooms, spas, high-end retail and fine dining.
The idea: Extend Atlantic City's geographic reach and broaden its customer base beyond day-tripping slots players to attract more affluent, overnight customers who seek luxury. The hoped-for new customer will pay for a good meal and a nice room rather than rely on "comps," or giveaways, from the casinos.
"It's definitely a smart move by MGM," said gambling historian David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
"They see there is a big opportunity there," Schwartz said. "Atlantic City operators have to make a decision in the market," he said. "If they just coast on what they have now, it will be something like Laughlin, Nev. - which is mostly a regional destination in the shadow of Las Vegas and competition from Indian casinos in California and Arizona.
"Or they could become Las Vegas, which draws people from around the world because of the extensive nongaming amenities."
Operators in Atlantic City are clearly choosing to follow the path of the nation's No. 1 gambling mecca. Las Vegas took the same steps to reinvent itself after the successful launch of Steve Wynn's market-changing $650 million Mirage Hotel & Casino in 1989.
The Mirage, which featured an erupting volcano at its entrance, was the first Las Vegas supercasino, featuring shopping, dining and other nongambling amenities. It got everyone else in town to follow suit to build bigger and better.
Mark Juliano, a former president at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, remembers that defining period in the early 1990s well.
