Atlantic City welcomes back two shuttered casinos

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Patrons streamed into two newly reopened Atlantic City casinos on Thursday as the struggling gambling resort reclaimed 6,000 of the 11,000 jobs it lost during a brutal stretch of casino shutdowns.

The Hard Rock, which was the former Trump Taj Mahal, was to hold a mass guitar smashing ceremony inside its concert arena that holds nearly 8,000 fans. Just as that wraps up, the Ocean Resort Casino, which is the former Revel, was to hold a ribbon cutting a few hundred yards north on the boardwalk.

“We believe in Atlantic City,” said Jim Allen, CEO of Hard Rock International. “We truly believe that Atlantic City’s best days are in front of it.”

The two shuttered casinos reopened ahead of schedule Wednesday afternoon after being cleared to do so by New Jersey gambling regulators. Allen said the company had spent $500 million renovating the former Taj Mahal property.

“We promised you we wouldn’t just paint it and put up a guitar,” he said.

After a brutal two-year stretch in which five of its 12 casinos closed, Atlantic City now has nine. The reopenings have generated cautious optimism for the seaside gambling resort that once was the only place in America outside Nevada with casinos, but which has struggled mightily as gambling spreads in states all around it.

Julie Herron, of nearby, Galloway Township, New Jersey, was awe struck when she walked inside the Hard Rock Thursday.

“It’s beautiful, just fantastic,” she said. “It’s really uplifting. The music is awesome, just the rhythm. Sometimes all you need is rhythm.”

Elvis Presley’s Rolls Royce is one of the first things patrons see after they pass beneath the giant replica of a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar (cherry sunburst model) at the casino’s front entrance.

“I’ve been an Elvis fan forever,” Joe Emanuele said. Driving (very carefully, with a police escort) from a warehouse in nearby Pleasantville, New Jersey, to the casino site, Emanuele, whose vast portfolio at Hard Rock International includes securing music memorabilia, parked his derriere in the same leather seat that once supported the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

“You feel a little bit of prestige behind the wheel,” he said. “This is Elvis’ car that he picked the Beatles up in when they first came to Los Angeles.”

The car is part of a vast trove of memorabilia on display at the Hard Rock.