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Atlantic City is doing its best to make a quick bounce back after having to shut down its 11 casinos for a few days due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irene.  It was a necessary loss of business, though unwelcome.  However, if it had to happen at any time during the year, luckily it was the weekend right before Labor Day weekend.  Labor Day weekend is usually a killer weekend for the Atlantic City casinos as people get the opportunity to spend their long weekend soaking up the sun and wagering at slot machine.  Labor Day weekend is usually a time when the casinos get a chance to pull ahead in the revenue numbers, but since it follows a weekend of no business it will be more playing catch up than pulling ahead this year.

The casinos estimate that they lost several millions of dollars from lack of business during the storm, a would that may be feeling particularly salty as Tropical Storm Irene had little impact on the casinos or the resort town.  However, Labor Day weekend seems to be right back on track.  Many of the casino hotels are already booked up for the holiday.  Closing down the casinos for the day may have been the best financial move for the casino in the long run.  They did not have to pay staff to work during a period where there were likely to be few if any guest for fear of the storm. Such is life on the beachfront.

In many ways it seems like Las Vegas just sprung up out of the desert, but I think it would be a disservice to the pioneers of that town to not think that it was perfect planning for a resort town.  Las Vegas has long been a special place in the middle of the desert. Long before the white man settled there, native people new of it as an oasis in the miles of Nevada desert.  When the Second World War broke out the place became a perfect place for a layover as soldiers were in route to the coast.  The steady stream of soldiers on leave made it a perfect place to have a resort town with a very active night life.  However, it turns out that being located in the desert is also a perfect reason to turn it into a resort town.

Now when most people think of a resort they think tropical weather or at least an ocean view.  However, as nice as those things are, both a tropical climate and ocean front property come with its liabilities.  Atlantic City witnessed that first hand as the 11 casinos had to make their table games and slot machines off limits to guests because the venues were boarded up for the approach of Irene.  I think it is safe to say, being in the middle of the desert, Las Vegas, Nevada has never had to shut down for a Hurricane day.  A desert, though it will get very hot, provides consistent weather for business.

In many ways it seems like Las Vegas just sprung up out of the desert, but I think it would be a disservice to the pioneers of that town to not think that it was perfect planning for a resort town.  Las Vegas has long been a special place in the middle of the desert. Long before the white man settled there, native people new of it as an oasis in the miles of Nevada desert.  When the Second World War broke out the place became a perfect place for a layover as soldiers were in route to the coast.  The steady stream of soldiers on leave made it a perfect place to have a resort town with a very active night life.  However, it turns out that being located in the desert is also a perfect reason to turn it into a resort town.

Now when most people think of a resort they think tropical weather or at least an ocean view.  However, as nice as those things are, both a tropical climate and ocean front property come with its liabilities.  Atlantic City witnessed that first hand as the 11 casinos had to make their table games and slot machines off limits to guests because the venues were boarded up for the approach of Irene.  I think it is safe to say, being in the middle of the desert, Las Vegas, Nevada has never had to shut down for a Hurricane day.  A desert, though it will get very hot, provides consistent weather for business.

It simply is not easy being Atlantic City at times.  There are major pros and cons to being a beach front resort town.  The advantages are obvious.  When the summer comes around I am sure most people would rather go to a gambling town where you have a section of slot machines and table games comparable to that of the Las Vegas Strip and the option of sunning yourself on a beach or just getting some fresh ocean breeze.  Of all the displays available in Las Vegas, Nevada you certainly are not going to get any beachfront activities.  However, the dark side of having a beach front town is that you are very vulnerable to nature.  While the Atlantic Ocean is a beautiful view, it only takes one bad storm to remind you how powerful it can be.

When word of Hurricane Irene reared its head New Jersey was not taking any chances.  Atlantic City had to close its doors for the weekends.  All 11 casinos were shut up in preparation for the damaged threatened by Irene.  That means there was no revenue coming into the casino for the weekend.  That is a big hit for Atlantic City at a time when competition is very stiff in the region.  If there is a plus side, it is that most of the casinos on the west coast likely lost a day or two of business.  The other positive is that the slot machines will be fully operational for this coming Labor Day weekend.  Labor Day, a traditionally very busy day for Atlantic City, will give the casinos a chance to make up for their losses.

The life of a public servant is not very easy.  It is sort of like be a parent.  A public servant must have the ability to play both good cop and bad cop and do so seamlessly, much in the way that a parent must be loving but rule their household with a firm and steady hand.  That is exactly what Governor Chris Christie had to do in this last week.  He was in a very tough position, like many of the Governors on the east coast, of not being able to take any risks with Hurricane Irene and demanding people leave their homes before the storm reached.  Last weekend he literally told people to “get the hell off of the beach.”  If it was his intention to alarm people, he succeeded, but I guess whatever it takes to get them to listen.

Last week was last week,  but this weekend brings Labor Day.  This is a great weekend for the slot machines of Atlantic City.  That is the reason Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno was on the beach this way welcoming people back to Atlantic City.  It was her mission to make sure all of the people that were told to get the hell out were well aware that the resort town weathered the storm in tack and that New Jersey was ready to receive the gamblers that take their annual trips out to the resort town.  Let’s just hope that the welcoming party was strong enough to counteract the fear mongering of Governor Christie.

Oh Politics.  I feel it goes without saying that I often fear for the future of this country.  Perhaps I am just getting older and are more cognizant of the human animal, but it seems to me that the candidates for important offices seem to be getting crazier and crazier.  Last election was a very swift kick in the pants for the conservatives in this country, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt as they scramble to find new leadership and a relevance in this country.  However, the people that they have propped up as Presidential candidates seem better suited for straight jackets in a psych ward.  I firmly believe that candidates like Perry and Bauchman are in serious need of professional help and are in no condition to be touring the political circuits. However, every once in a while politicians manage to do something that I find charming.

In preparation for the big storm, Governor Chris Christie had to be sure that people living in the beachfront communities stopped straggling.  The Governor went so far as to tell them to “get the hell off of the beach.”  This rather crass warning, made completely out of love I am sure, afforded a unique publicity opportunity for Atlantic City and its slot machines.  This week, the Governor sent his Lt. Governor, Kim Guadagno to Atlantic City with a very clear message: “I’m here to tell you to get the hell back on the beach.”  Touche Governor Christie, way to spin a moment.

Now that the storm has passed, New Jersey is doing its best to get back to work, especially in their ever resilient beachfront gambling paradise.  That might be a strong term for Old Atlantic City, but it is necessary for them to pitch the town as such.  At a time like this where casino after casino seems to be cropping up all over the east coast, New Jersey cannot afford to miss out on the all important Labor Day weekend.  Labor Day is a very big money making day for the resort town as people are trying to soak up the last days of summer on the beach fronts and boardwalks.  For all of the convenience that the Pennsylvania casinos have to offer, they do not have the beachfront real estate that has helped Atlantic City maintain its status as the Boardwalk Empire.

I am pretty sure Hurricane Irene was the only real advertising that the beach needed.  I am pretty sure most people were sick of being cooped up all of last weekend fearing the end of days.  Now that it suddenly feels like Summer again and there is not threat of a major storm system moving through and everyone seems to be on this carpe diem kick after being rattled by the earthquake, I am almost positive that it is enough to get people out to the casinos of Atlantic City.  Now that the storms of have passed it is time to make some more cash before the last raise of summer cools off.

New Jersey has taken its lickings this year, yet Atlantic City lives up to its reputation of being the sort of town that can make it through the worst economic times.  Atlantic City was not always the casino giant that it is today with slot machines and table games keeping the town above the sea level view it was built on.  After World War II the town fell on its worst times every after the the military no longer had any use for it in the arms race.  It was not until 1975 that the New Jersey legislature decided to revive the town to its former glory by building casinos on the boardwalk to lure people back and take a second shot a reviving the liveliness that the town enjoyed post World War I.

Other than the looming recession, it was not so much economic issues that plagued the town this year.  However, Atlantic City, and in all fairness the rest of the casinos on the east coast, had to deal with quite a few out of place and out of season natural disasters.  This months started off with a very rare east coast earthquake and then was capped off by a rare northeastern hurricane.  Just in case it is not obvious, natural disasters are extremely bad for business. Luckily, all of God’s fancy spectacles happened before the coming Labor day weekend where Atlantic City tends to make a lot of money.  After all the ground shaking and rain clouds, the northeast could use gambling get away.

The casino business is cut throat enough as it as, but casino operators often times have to worry about more things than just what the competition is doing.  This past weekend, New Jersey had to face the very real threat that many of their casinos may not be opened in time for the profitable Labor Day weekend.  Hurricane Irene raged up the coast threatening to do damage to several businesses right before one of the most profitable long weekends of the year.  Some areas of the country were not as lucky as others.  Irene did a lot of damage down south where it landed with full force in North Carolina.  Then it seemed to roll through the middle portion of the east coast doing little more than saturating the ground with enough water to loosen some old tree roots, then the high volumes of then Tropical Storm Irene was enough to flood many of the port towns in farthest northeastern stretches of the country.

New Jersey could not have been happy to see the massive storm crawling their way so close to Labor Day weekend.  Atlantic City has had more than enough trials to overcome as late without having to suffer goods wrath in the form of a storm.  Atlantic City is very quickly losing its grasp on the number two spot for biggest gambling destination in the country.  It is extremely important that the casinos of Atlantic City make their table games and slot machines available to customers over the long weekend.

I hate to come across as arrogant or a know it all, but I think I was one of the few people in the Northeast that did not fear the wrath of the great Hurricane Irene, as it threatened to tear apart the entire eastern seaboard.  Obviously a category 3 Hurricane large enough to be seen from outer space is nothing to take lightly.  I would have been humbled by the thought of the approaching storm if I lived anywhere near North Carolina where the storm finally landed, however, the prospect of a storm hitting land at Category 2 and dropping to a Category 1 within a few hours and then having enough juice to stretch all the way up the close still ranked as a hurricane would be the greatest underdog story ever told.  I knew, from my time down in Florida that the storm would not be much better than a Tropical Storm by the time it got up to New York.

However, the people of the northeast could not take a chance.  This is especially true of a beach front town like Atlantic City.  The last thing Atlantic City needed was to have their table games and slot machines washed away by the storm surge.  However, only a few days after the storm has passed and though the rain fall did cause some havoc in the northeast, you would not be able to tell that any sort of natural disaster ever raged through the gambling town.  Atlantic City is prepared for Labor Day.