Borgata

ATLANTIC CITY - This town isn't Las Vegas, but the $2.4 billion Revel Casino wants to take visitors there with A-list entertainment, posh rooms, and celebrity-chef restaurants in a luxurious setting where the champagne and water in 10 swimming pools are always flowing. The 20-acre resort - draped in silvery-blue reflective glass - literally curls to and fro like the ocean it embraces. Many see Revel as the lifeline for this down-on-its-luck gambling mecca in need of a revival.

Borgata officials released revenue results from their first month yesterday that they said already put their $1.1 billion casino hotel near the top of the Atlantic City market. Despite vigorous marketing of the property to a younger crowd, the majority of Borgata's customers have so far come from a familiar Atlantic City demographic: the over-50 crowd that lives within 100 miles, company officials said. Ellis Landau, chief financial officer of Boyd Gaming Co., said Borgata slot machines had averaged a win of $306 per slot machine per day in the first 26 days, compared with a citywide average of $262 per slot machine per day in July 2002.

The Borgata wants you, particularly if you live in Camden or the Lindenwold area. Atlantic City's 13th casino - facing a severe labor squeeze - is reaching out to fill thousands of jobs. Sixteen billboards in South Jersey, including one on the Walt Whitman Bridge, advertise the Borgata's need for about 4,800 workers when it opens next year. A job fair, described as "grassroots outreach" by the Borgata, is scheduled for Nov. 19 in Camden. Another one will be held early next year in Lindenwold.

MGM Resorts International has been granted another year and a half to sell its 50 percent stake in Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. New Jersey's Casino Control Commission granted approval Monday with the support of the state's Division of Gaming Enforcement. The Division of Gaming Enforcement granted its approval July 22. The planned sale came about because New Jersey regulators found that MGM's business partner in a casino in the Chinese enclave of Macau is "unsuitable" because of her father's reputed connection to Asian organized crime.

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which opened in a publicity blitz on July 2, filled just 80 percent of its hotel rooms during the peak months of July, August and September. But visitors to Atlantic City's first new casino in 13 years bucked a different trend by dropping their own money, not the casino's, on more than just slots and table games. Borgata pulled in $48 million from hotel rooms, restaurants, entertainment and retail. That represented 26 percent of Borgata's total revenue of $184 million.

So you wanna name a new casino. You wanna bring a brand-new image to the gambling capital of New Jersey. You wanna bring class, sensuality, sophistication. You bring in the best and the brightest brains from the West, the trendy types with their laser-pointer shows and laptops and color consultants. So whaddaya come up with? The Borgata. You tell everyone it means Tuscan village. It does. But deep down, you know. You know the word also is a mob term, the kind that, these days, can be found under the Mobspeak section of the official Sopranos Web site.

Everything about the Borgata is wired, and when you walk through the place, you are, too. I checked in and stayed overnight twice this past week, and both times it hit me squarely: Not only is the Borgata beautiful, in earth tones and marble and endless inlays of wood upon wood, with a perfectionist's attention to furniture and art, flowers and lighting. It's also the first big-deal casino born into a fully digital world. No other gambling joint pulses in a plasma-screen glow like the Borgata, Atlantic City's first new casino in 13 years, which opened nine days ago. Fifty-six screens, all with the same constantly changing images, sweep along the side of Mixx, a techno-rap-and-writhe club with great professional dancers and a $20 cover.

On a recent Saturday, everything was on the house for Ron Smith, who frequents this seaside gambling resort at least twice a week. Smith enjoyed dinner, drinks and a band at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. He had dessert and listened to cool jazz at Bally's Park Place Casino Hotel, and though he later drove home to Stratford, he had a complimentary room at the Resorts Casino Hotel - his favorite casino. "They're afraid of the Borgata," Smith said of the $1.1 billion mega-resort casino scheduled to open tomorrow.

The Borgata, the billion-dollar new kid in town, did just fine last month, winning a hefty $42 million from gamblers in its third month of operation. But nearly every other casino in Atlantic City registered steep revenue declines from a year ago, leading some to wonder whether the Borgata will be able to expand the market or just load its plate from competitors' buffets. Overall, the city's gambling revenue last month - even with the Borgata - was down 0.6 percent at $368.

Let's get this straight. Atlantic City, home of the geezer bus brigade, all-you-can-eat buffets, and regulars who bolt before sundown, is starting to embrace its naughty side? Well maybe just a little naughty. Following in the steps of big sister Vegas - where the pirate show at Treasure Island is being ditched for one starring women who are "part muse, part pirate, part wench, part temptress" - some Atlantic City casinos and image makers believe it's time for a more risque image.

ATLANTIC CITY - Free parking! Low limits. Free parking! Cheap food. Free parking!! In the long shadow of the new Revel Resort (double R, like a ranch), the casino formerly known as the Hilton, then ACH, and now the Atlantic Club (and, once upon a time, the Golden Nugget) has fashioned a marketing strategy aimed at the people everyone else wants to snub: the regulars who don't want to pay for anything. "The rest of us," as one of their slogans goes. The ones who value a comfortable seat, penny slot machines they haven't seen before, casino comfort-food offerings (Chinese, steaks, Italian)

ROSEANN WILKINS, of upstate New York, took a deep breath on the gambling floor of the new Revel casino and liked what she didn't smell: cigarettes. "It just smells so good in here," said Wilkins, 64, seated next to friend, Larry Teeter, 55, from Chemung, N.Y., as they played penny slots in Atlantic City's flashiest new resort since the Borgata nearly nine years ago. "The decor is really state-of-the-art. "So far, it hasn't given me any money," she said, "but I like it. " Wilkins, of Elmira, was among the throng that packed Revel on Monday for its "soft" opening.

Fiona Apple is playing just a handful of small-venue shows this month in advance of the June release of her first album in seven years. (It has a 23-word title, the first three of which are The Idler Wheel .) So there was electricity in the air for Saturday night's sold-out performance at the cozy Music Box theater at the Borgata in Atlantic City - a space less than half the size of the casino hotel's Event Center, where marquee acts normally perform. That wasn't due only to the show's rarity or relative intimacy, though.

ATLANTIC CITY - This town isn't Las Vegas, but the $2.4 billion Revel Casino wants to take visitors there with A-list entertainment, posh rooms, and celebrity-chef restaurants in a luxurious setting where the champagne and water in 10 swimming pools are always flowing. The 20-acre resort - draped in silvery-blue reflective glass - literally curls to and fro like the ocean it embraces. Many see Revel as the lifeline for this down-on-its-luck gambling mecca in need of a revival.

Atlantic City's biggest and most luxurious casino yet, the $2.4 billion Revel at the northern end of the Boardwalk, is to begin an eight-week-long preview for guests April 2. The giant casino-resort will open its doors to the public with a lavish grand opening May 25 to kick off Memorial Day weekend. Revel announced Monday that Beyoncé will be the opening act in the casino's state-of-the-art, 5,000-seat entertainment venue, Ovation Hall. On Tuesday, members of the news media were given their first tour of the inside of a casino that has been highly anticipated by the city.

Atlantic City's 11 casinos continued their downward spiral last month, reporting $242.7 million in revenue - a 5.9 percent decrease from last February's take. Shore casino operators had hoped the 4.2 percent bump they got in December - the first in 39 months - was the beginning of a reversal of fortunes. But February's numbers, just like January's, showed that's not case - at least not yet. Despite mild weather and an extra day in February, the resort continued to struggle.

Woodbury has given a green light to a discount supermarket project that has some celebrating and others questioning whether downtown is heading in the right direction. Bottom Dollar Food, a well-regarded retailer rapidly expanding its presence in South Jersey and Philadelphia, will build a suburban-style store (translation: set back from the sidewalk amid beaucoup parking) on the vacant site of a former car dealership. The city's planning/zoning board ended a marathon meeting Tuesday with a unanimous vote in favor of the project.

Propelled by more favorable winter weather and an extra weekend day in December, Atlantic City's 11 casinos recorded a revenue increase last month, snapping a 39-month losing streak. Total gaming revenue for December was $246.5 million, up 4.2 percent from a year ago. Tiny Resorts, which marked its one-year anniversary under new owners, and the market-leading Borgata led the surge, with revenue increases of 23.1 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively. The resort's gaming operators, battered for so long, suddenly found a reason to smile as the revenue numbers were released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Propelled by more favorable winter weather and an extra weekend day in December, Atlantic City's 11 casinos recorded a revenue increase last month, snapping a 39-month losing streak. Total gaming revenue for December was $246.5 million, up 4.2 percent from a year ago. Tiny Resorts, which marked its one-year anniversary under new owners, and market-leading Borgata led the surge, with revenue increases of 23.1 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively. The resort's gaming operators, battered for so long, suddenly found a reason to smile as the revenue numbers were released Tuesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.