Atlantic City casinos are taking hotel reservations as early as June 1. Is that a sign the casinos and poker rooms are merely a few weeks away from reopening?
New Jersey has five brick-and-mortar cardrooms, all in Atlantic City. The Garden State has been hit hard by the COVID-19 bug. Nearly 140,000 people in NJ are confirmed to have tested positive for coronavirus, with more than 1,300 deaths. Both figures rank second behind neighboring New York, which has seen more than 343,000 cases and nearly 27,000 deaths.
Despite those numbers, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is beginning to allow certain businesses and attractions to reopen, including beaches along the famous Jersey Shore, which reopened this weekend. If travel booking websites are any indication, the Atlantic City casinos are also gearing up to soon reopen.
Closed for Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day Weekend is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in the US and is often considered the unofficial start of summer. This year, the holiday weekend runs May 23-25, but it appears that Atlantic City casinos won’t be ready to rake in the dough from travelers this year.
According to various travel booking websites, including Hotels.com, reservations aren’t being accepted on any day this month at any of the New Jersey casino hotels. But on June 1, that all changes, and the rates are rather affordable.
On Hotels.com, a leading hotel booking engine, prices range from $68-$84 on June 1 at NJ casinos, including Caesars Atlantic City Resort ($71), Borgata Hotel Casino ($84), Hard Hotel and Casino ($69), Bally’s Atlantic City ($68), and Resorts Casino Hotel ($75).
Five Atlantic City casinos — Borgata, Golden Nugget, Harrah’s, Tropicana, and Bally’s — have poker rooms, but the state’s gaming board has yet to lay out reopening safety guidelines for the cardrooms. In Las Vegas, however, the Nevada Gaming Control Board has already approved procedures that must be followed by the poker rooms upon reopening.
New Jersey’s casinos, much like in Nevada, have been closed since March. No official reopen date has been announced. The decision will be up to the governor.
