Genius businessman and Nostradamus of the casino business, Steve Wynn told the Wall Street Journal that he saw the Atlantic City implosion coming. It was obvious, says the casino mogul, whose Bellagio, Mirage, and Treasure Island hotels helped make Las Vegas the gaming capital that it is today.
New Jersey had a chance to do a similar thing with Atlantic City while it still had an East Coast monopoly on gambling, Wynn said. But they blew it. Wynn told the WSJ: “I kept saying to governors of New Jersey: ‘You must take control of the central planning of this community if it’s to save itself.'” Wynn said AC needed to build infrastructure and become a major city like Las Vegas or it wouldn’t be able to withstand competition when it eventually came. Which is exactly what happened. Atlantic City casino revenue has been cut almost in half since 2006.
