CASINOS

Resorts Embraces The Roaring 20s

Dennis Gomes, who is in the process of purchasing Resorts Atlantic City, has decided to embrace the hoopla around HBO’s "Boardwalk Empire" and will makeover the property with a 1920s theme.

By Mike Pritchard
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted Oct. 15, 2010

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Nucky Johnson may not have been able to get a street named after him in Atlantic City, but the entire era of the Roaring '20s has been able to get its own casino hotel.

More precisely, Resorts Atlantic City has decided to embrace the hoopla around HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and will makeover the property with a 1920s theme.

“The 1920s was more than just a decade in a history book,” says Dennis Gomes, who is in the process of buying the casino hotel with partner, developer Morris Bailey. “It was a decade that defined and shaped our nation. Beyond that it was fun, adventurous and exciting — a period in time where people simply let loose to give way to a lifestyle where entertainment was king. Resorts will be all of that.”

Presumably, the casino will skip the violence and racketeering of Boardwalk Empire — which also dives into the early careers of mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano —  and just go for the ‘20s party atmosphere. But Gomes, in a press release, does say that the casino is responding to the success of the show, which has quickly become a critical darling.

Coincidentally, the show often features a skyline view of the Chalfont-Haddon Hall Hotel, which today is part of Resorts. The casino is actually one of the few structures left in the city that recalls the era.

In fact, modern Atlantic City looks so little like 1920s Atlantic City, the makers of Boardwalk Empire had to recreate 1920s Atlantic City on a massive soundstage in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Now, some of that ‘20s era will come home.

The casino promises that entertainment will reign supreme at the new Resorts including singing bartenders, crooning waiters and flappers as the casino transitions into a world-class resort worthy of the original 1920s icons. Resorts employees will also be decked out in custom uniforms replicating the era’s style.

The casino has set December as the launch for its new theme.

Resorts announced the change just before another discouraging report on casino revenues was released this week, showing that the economic downturn and competition from casinos in neighboring states continue to hurt Atlantic City’s gaming revenue. Casino revenues were down 11.6 percent last month.

“[Resorts] will define and shape the direction Atlantic City needs to take to survive in an increasingly competitive market,” Gomes says. “It will be luxurious. It will be fun and it will be one of the leading entertainment spots in Atlantic City.”

Click here for photos from AC Weekly's Conversatoins & Storytelling & HBO's Boardwalk Empire premiere viewing party.

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1. Oneta B Inthaphone said... on Oct 26, 2010 at 06:23PM

“Reapply for dealer jobs at new Resorts Cacino Hotel Atlantic city.”

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