Casino news from http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Ginger Cristiano has a 20-year track record as a regular at the Sands Atlantic City Hotel & Casino. That relationship comes to an end Nov. 11 when the casino-hotel closes its doors.
Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., which agreed to purchase the Sands in September, will take over the property Nov. 17, intent on demolishing the building to make way for a mega-resort to open five years down the road.
"I'll be very sad when it closes," said Cristiano, a retiree from Little Egg Harbor Township. "I'm used to the nooks and crannies."
In the coming weeks, casinos will be pitching for the business of folks like Cristiano. Hilton and Resorts have combined to put up a billboard at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway aimed at attracting Sands customers. The board reads: "As one door closes, two doors open."
Catchy, but it's not the only step that existing gaming halls expect to take to woo Sands regulars in need of a different place to gamble. Many have hired key marketing people from the Sands, and the customer database they bring with them.
"That will be the primary way we picked up some of their customers," said Mark Juliano, chief operating officer for Trump Entertainment, which owns three casinos in Atlantic City.
Phil Juliano (no relation), senior vice president of regional marketing for Resorts Atlantic City and the Atlantic City Hilton, said his casino-hotels have also hired Sands' marketing staff.Customers who have one of the better players cards at the Sands will be granted immediate access to the benefits of a corresponding level of the Resorts Destination Casino Club, which covers Hilton and Resorts. The benefits will match or surpass what the Sands offered.
"We have a better chance getting customers," Phil Juliano said. "Visitors to the Sands don't want a big casino, so we're a great choice for them."
How successful these efforts will be remains to be seen. Given the Sands' lame-duck status, fewer customers are left to woo, said Roger Gros, editor of Global Gaming Business Magazine.
Still, the Hilton offers the same smaller-is-friendlier attitude and to a lesser extent, so does Trump Plaza, he said. While Bally's -- Sands' next door neighbor -- is a much larger casino, it consists of smaller locations within the larger framework, said John Payne, regional president for Harrah's Atlantic City casinos.
"There's Bally's, the Claridge and the Wild Wild West. Customers can go from one to another to change their luck," he said. Like other casinos in the city, Harrah's Entertainment will take steps to solicit the Sands player for all its properties after the closure, Payne said.
Cristiano isn't waiting until closing time to switch allegiances. She already moved her play to the Hilton. She gave the hotel a try in the past, but always gravitated back to the Sands. Now that she has no option, she gave the Hilton a better look.
"I like it," she said. "It's not overpowering."
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