Many casinos had planned to reopen Thursday, the first day the state will let them. “I really don’t even think they should open. “No booze? No one’s coming,” said Bob McDevitt, president of a casino employees union. Phil Murphy landed like a one-two punch on Atlantic City’s casino industry, already reeling from lost revenue during the pandemic, and making plans to creak back to life at the state-mandated 25% of normal capacity. That lasted for 20 days as smokers stayed away, sending casino revenue plummeting.īut New Jersey will ban both, again, when Atlantic City’s nine casinos reopen after more than three months of coronavirus-related shutdowns. It worked so well that Nucky Johnson, the legendary politician and racketeer, built a Boardwalk empire immortalized on HBO nearly a century later. Atlantic City tried Prohibition once before.
