The summers in Atlantic City can be beautiful.  The beach is among the most prized attractions on the east coast of the .  Atlantic City was the second city to be designated as a “legal gambling area,” following Las Vegas .  Atlantic City has provided gambling excitement for millions of people for over thirty years.

Like everything else, gambling in Atlantic City has been affected by two factors over the past three years:  the downturn of the economy and the emergence of online gambling as a legitimate threat to the land-based casino empire.  There are eleven casinos in Atlantic City , and not one is turning a profit in 2010.  In fact, the losses in some casinos have been so dramatic that they are considering packing it in.  

Others are developing a strategy to improve their presently bleak financial picture.  Only last week, The New Jersey State Senate released a bill through its Tourism and Wagering Committee that would allow the eleven casinos in Atlantic City to create websites so that the people of New Jersey could bet online.  The online gambling portion of the action would become New Jersey State-regulated, and the State, in turn, would get 20% of the new revenue in taxes.

The sponsor of the bill is Senator Ray Lesniak.  He believes that this new legislation would be a boon for the Atlantic City casinos in that they could take advantage of the burgeoning online gambling market.  As an example, Lesniak stated that over 500,000 New Jersey residents have online poker site accounts.  He says that these gamblers wager in excess of $150 million a year in online gambling.  Therefore, the State of New Jersey will be able to transfer the lost revenue into found revenues.

The bill is being considered at the present time.  One of the sticking points is that it is illegal to wager across state lines.  As Lesniak tells it, it is only a matter of time before this law is written off the books.  Bill Pascrell, a lobbyist representing the online entertainment industry, says that establishing intra state Internet gaming for state residents in New Jersey will enable the State to channel new and existing online gamblers into online gambling sites that are licensed through Atlantic City ’s land-based casinos.  This will recapture lost tax revenues and offer these casinos a new source for driving traffic to their resorts.  We’ll keep an eye on this development in the weeks and months to come.