Prohibition is housed in a 13th-floor room that used to be a lounge for slots players. Its name is a play on the casino's new Roaring '20s theme, inspired by the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
Friday afternoon, a few hours before the club would open for the night, the colored lights were flashing, four giant palm trees scraped the ceiling, and Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" played on a giant video screen.
"I think it's going to work," said Gary Hill, executive director of the Metropolitan Business and Citizens Association and a leader in the city's gay community.
"A lot of casinos have done things for the gay and lesbian community, but never to this level," he said. "They'd do a weekend or a night or hold a special event. But this is what this community wants and needs."
Atlantic City has long been popular with gays. John Schultz, a former city councilman and a philanthropist, owned nine gay clubs during the 1970s. Back then, he said, 250,000 gay visitors would come to Atlantic City on holiday weekends.
But when casino gambling arrived, land values soared and developers knocked down old hotels that contained many gay nightspots.
"Who could afford to open a gay bar anymore?" Schultz said.
He sold his last business, Studio Six, five years ago. But he and Hill, his longtime partner, helped talk new Resorts owner Dennis Gomes into opening a permanent gay bar.
"People think gays don't gamble," Schultz said. "That's not true. They gamble. They drink. They like to travel. And they have that extra income. Why do cruise lines have gay weeks? Because 2,000 to 3,000 gay people who can afford it go on their ships. It's a new world now."
