ATLANTIC CITY - Liquidate your stocks. Sell your car. Take your penny jar to the bank. You could raise enough money to play a hand of blackjack at Caesars Atlantic City, where the new betting maximum is $50,000.
By bolstering its table games offerings in a bid to lure new customers, Caesars introduced dramatic increases this week to betting ceilings for blackjack, roulette, craps and various Asian games. The casino is calling them the highest limits in the resort.
"I think everyone in the mid-Atlantic market now realizes there are more choices," Caesars' general manager Dan Nita said. "So while we're still going to focus on our slot business, which represents 70 percent of our gaming revenue, we want to make sure we're having a diversified offering and working even harder to attract our table games player."
As Atlantic City faces its first year-over-year gaming revenue decline in the industry's 29 year history because of newly opened slot parlors in Pennsylvania, the casinos are reaching for freer-spending customers.
Caesars' parent company Harrah's Entertainment Inc. also is striving to make limits at its flagship Caesars properties comparable with the high limits at some of its overseas casinos, according to Nita. Moreover, he noted, the weakened U.S. dollar has attracted interest from clientele abroad to play in America, "where their money goes farther."
The new limits: Craps players can wager $50,000 on the line with $50,000 odds. Roulette players can wager as much as $1,000 on any number. Posted limits on all Asian games are $15,000. And blackjack players, in addition to being able to bet as much as $50,000 on one hand, can also bet $25,000 per hand on three hands.
Previously, limits on Asian games, such as Fortune Paigow, typically were $2,500 to $3,000; for blackjack, $6,000, according to Paul Natello, the casino's table game operational director. The maximum payout for roulette has gone from $46,800 to $156,000, he said.
Customers can always arrange to bet even higher on a case-by-case basis; the new limits reflect what is posted. Nita said the increases also are taking effect at the Caesars in Las Vegas, but nothing will change at Harrah's Entertainment's three sister properties here.
"The opportunity for the player or the casino to win or lose has some more volatile swings, but with us being the world's largest gaming company, we want to make sure that we're taking care of and attracting some of the world's best players," Nita said.
So just who is willing to wager a sum that tops Americans' median household income?
On a Saturday night visit to Palace East and Palace Court, the high-roller areas offering the new limits, no such high bets were observed.
The change is so new that what was meant to appeal to only a tiny portion of Caesars' customers to begin with has, in the last few days, drawn a mere handful, most of whom started much lower and then went on a winning streak, Natello said.
The casino is considering a $25,000 chip, he said, although identifying a new color that doesn't blend in with the others - not to mention a new emperor for its surface - "will be a challenge."
Still, Caesars is realistic: The majority of its customers bet between $25 to $100 at blackjack and craps, Nita said.
"For most guests," he said, "this won't make really a difference at all." |
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