Atlantic City Facts
The oldest casino in Atlantic City, Resorts Atlantic City, first opened its doors on May 26,1978. The hotel/casino boasts of 879 rooms and a 100,000 square foot casino that offers 2,930 gaming machines, and 85 tables for baccarat, blackjack, Caribbean stud poker, craps, pai gow, and poker. It was for a time also named Merv Griffin's Resorts Casino/Hotel but later on renamed Resorts International before it got its current name.
The smallest casino in Atlantic City is Bally's - Atlantic City - Claridge Tower, formerly known as Claridge Casino/Hotel. It is located at 1900 Park Place and Boardwalk and its 1,742 gaming machines and 64 game tables are situated in only 60,219 square feet of space. Though the Atlantic City Hilton has a smaller casino area at only 59,612 square feet, it has more gaming machines at 2,043 and more table games at 87 than Bally's - Atlantic City - Claridge Tower.
The newest casino to open in Atlantic City is The Borgata Hotel Casino which opened on July 3, 2003 and was the first new casino to be introduced to the city in 13 years. The 125,000 square feet casino floor offers 3,572 slot machines and a total of 135 gaming tables including 4 tables for Progressive Texas Hold'em.
In April 1981, Hugh Hefner's Playboy Enterprises and the Elsinore Corporation opened the Playboy Casino/Hotel in Atlantic City. Playboy however, was not granted a license by the city and the casino had to be run by their partner, Elsinore Corporation while Playboy tried to get licensed. After three years, Playboy gave up on its licensing efforts and in 1984 sold their stake in the casino to the Elsinore Corporation. The casino's Playboy image was revamped and it was re-launched as Atlantis Casino/Hotel. The next 5 years were unprofitable though for Atlantis Casino/Hotel and after its license was revoked in April 1989, Atlantis closed down a month later -- the first casino in Atlantic City to fail.
There could have been a Penthouse International Casino/Hotel in Atlantic City but it never opened. The structure was partially built but the developer ran out of money and in 1988 the structure was demolished, the property sold.
Many of the streets where Atlantic City's casinos are located -- the Boardwalk, and Park Place -- are familiar with Monopoly players since the American version based the game on Atlantic City properties.