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ATLANTIC CITY - Some new casino billboards have been popping up in the Lehigh Valley, home turf of the $743 million Sands Casino Resort, Pennsylvania's newest and most expensive slots parlor.

But instead of beckoning customers to the Sands, the billboards invite gamblers to the Trump casinos in Atlantic City, about 120 miles away. They feature a side-by-side comparison of the amenities the resort-style casinos in Atlantic City have and the more modest slot parlors in Pennsylvania do not.

The billboards are part of a marketing effort by casinos to entice Pennsylvania gamblers to Atlantic City this summer, the peak time for tourism. After watching the slot parlors steal their business for the past two years, the casinos seem more willing to raid Pennsylvania for customers.

"Atlantic City has so much more to offer - the beach, the Boardwalk and table games. We want to remind them that, although there are slot parlors in their backyard, we have so much more than they do," said Paula Mauk, vice president of marketing at Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.

The three Trump casinos are attracting Pennsylvania gamblers through multimedia advertisements in the Bethlehem, Allentown and Philadelphia area. They also are tapping their customer database to mail special promotional giveaways to Pennsylvanians.

"When Philadelphia Park and Chester opened up, we tried to attack it through our database," Mauk said of the competition from two other slot parlors in suburban Philadelphia. "They've opened up a new audience for us by putting gamblers in the Philadelphia market. We've tried to push that by saying, 'Hey, we have hotel rooms and they don't.'"

Rob Stillwell, a spokesman for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, said Borgata is using its own billboards and marketing offers to draw customers away from the "single-dimensional" slot parlors.

"Everybody understands just how important the Pennsylvania market is to the Atlantic City market," he said. "We're definitely focused on making folks in those areas know what's going on at Borgata."

May's grand opening of the Sands casino in Bethlehem has Atlantic City's casinos scrambling to protect their feeder markets in New York and northern New Jersey. The Sands is conveniently located along the Interstate 78 corridor connecting northern New Jersey with eastern Pennsylvania.

While the arrival of the Sands has intensified the competition, some casinos have strategically targeted the Lehigh Valley for years. Resorts Atlantic City says it has strengthened its ties to the Lehigh Valley by offering gamblers another round of complimentary hotel stays, free slot play and meal deals this summer.

"Like the other slot parlors in Pennsylvania, the new Sands Bethlehem gives players a one-dimensional offering, as compared to the complete beachfront, casino and entertainment experience of Atlantic City," Resorts spokesman Brian Cahill said. "We recently launched an aggressive direct mail campaign to reinforce that fact."

In addition to its mailing campaign, Resorts continues to have a public relations and advertising presence in the Lehigh Valley, Cahill said. As an example, Resorts has teamed up with a Lehigh Valley radio station for a live broadcast Thursday on the Boardwalk to promote the casino's Fourth of July events.

"All of this is aimed toward the biggest holiday weekend of the year," Cahill said.

May, June, July and August are traditionally big money-making months for the casinos, but the recession and intense competition from Pennsylvania could make this summer a bust for Atlantic City. May's casino revenue plummeted 15.4 percent to $351.3 million, the lowest level for that month since 1997. Revenue figures for June will be released July 10.

Unlike Atlantic City, the Pennsylvania casinos have flourished during the recession. Continuing their upward trend this year, the eight Pennsylvania slot parlors took in $178.4 million in revenue in May, a nearly 18 percent increase over the same month last year.

E-mail Donald Wittkowski:

DWittkowski@pressofac.com

13 comments:

• pawins (7) posts 6:27 am

  Hey Pennsylvania Sucks, by the way, did you realize that two of NJ's tracks are owned by owners of PA casinos? the other two are owned by the state. Do you really think the state of NJ can run a casino on a permanent basis? I hear the lawyer who ran the Trop, Stein is becoming available. I think Penn National and Greenwood would be happy to drive their customers, literally, if need be to Jersey to gamble in an 8% climate. I don't know what you've got specifically against Beth Sands, but the only reason they won't do well is overspending on the job by Vegas egotists. Fortunately for them, yes there is enough local people for them to do fine even with the meadowlands. Know who owns Xanadu now, Colony Capital, they genius operators that own Resorts and Hilton. Ooooo we're scared, they such saavy operators. The PA operators can buy it in bankruptcy. Probably most of AC too if it makes any sense at any price.

• markynj (1) posts 2:32 am

  One thing everyone seems to forget, is Atlantic City was way overbuilt with the expansion of 11 casinos. NJ had an east coast monopoly on gaming back then. Then the economy was good and everyone could earn disposable cash. For investors, The Game is OVER. Parking fees, increased tolls, high casino food and entertainment prices and tighter slots are all signs of a casino industry in serious trouble. The answer is not to invest more money into Atlantic City, that would be throwing good money after bad. The answer is to expand casinos throughout the state. There are beautiful places in NJ, Better locations for casinos in NJ should be considered by investors and the state.

• chillydog (151) posts 9:10 am

  CRDA collects the parking fee's... CRDA has more money than Donald...but wont do a thing about Pacific Ave... Make it the Strip, ( Bars and Grand enterances to Casinos), make Atlantic Ave the shopping Street continued from the walk....Im asking too much, you would have to think, to have anything done in AC.......(head hangging low, walking away.......my bad)

• icantstandit (18) posts 5:08 pm

  Parking should be free in AC, period. What a great way to drive away even more business--Bang them with high tolls and absurd parking fees. What kind of morons are running New Jersey anyway?? They hamstring the casinos with ridiculous "regulations", blackmail them into more taxes with threats of slots in racetracks, and then whine when the customers stay away and revenue goes down. Times have changed, folks. NJ no longer has a lock on the gambling biz in this area. Loosen up those slots and your brain cells and DO SOMETHING!

• pookiesfindings (1) posts 4:35 pm

  I RECENTLY STAYED AT THE SHOWBOAT WITH MY DAUGHTER.WE HAD A COMP ROOM, BUT WE COULD'T GET OVER THAT WE HAD TO PAY $10.00 FOR PARKING,WHEN WE LEFT. ALSO THE MACHINES ARE SO TIGHT. WE LOST MORE THEN YOU CAN IMAGINE!!!!!! THEN THEY WONDER WHY WE DON'T WANT TO GO BACK...... IT USED TO BE FUN DOWN THERE A CAN REMEMBER PLAYING FOR HOURS. AND WINNING. YOU DON'T EVEN HEAR THOSE BELLS RINGING ANYMORE..........

• Reality (1) posts 4:09 pm

  Atlantic City needs to ban these drug addicted smokers once and for all. This will improve the win percentage. The quality of the casino customer will improve once you rid the casino floor of these cigarette junkies. These druggies are the bottom dwellers of society, banned from nearly every business in this state but the casino floor. These junkies are not wanted anywhere in this state. They are a menace to society. Who wants to be next to one of these lowlifes at a table game or a slot machine? These people are ignorant, and stink. Their breath, clothes, and hair wreak of tobacco. The casino will have happier, healthier customers and workers once these druggies are banned. These drug addicts will still come to gamble, they are animals, and animals adapt to their surroundings. It's time for these drug addicts to go where they belong, to smoke with their other fellow druggies. You junkies think you are being treated like second-class citizens? Wrong, you addicts have NO class, so being treated like second-class is a step up for you losers! This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home. Do us a favor piggies- stay home!

• B4real (247) posts 3:35 pm

  What a tough sell for the casino and convention PR people. AC is for the most part, an eyesore. You can't see the ocean from the Boardwalk anymore, other than the casinos most of AC is a desolate wasteland and the main weakness is all the lowlife scumbags that inhabit the city. I don't know of any beach resort that is as unattractive and unappealing as AC. On top of that you have baboons (no offense to baboons) running things and you know how that goes.

• Jamesy (65) posts 2:21 pm

  pppssssstttt....please come back to Atlantic $hi##y and our new bankrupt Chump Casino's?

• PennsylvaniaSucks (91) posts 12:20 pm

  Nikynewark, Sands Bethlehem has been open for a month, of course everything is new and fresh there. But the same exact thing is going to happen to them that has happened to A.C. The business plan for the Sands Casino was built relying on traffic coming from Manhattan and Northern NJ. Like A.C., they didnt expect the possibility of competition taking away from this market. But talk has already begun in Trenton about whats likely going to happen after the 2011 contract between AC casinos and the racetracks expires... EXTENDED GAMBLING! And that means casinos at the Meadowlands, a location that is just next door to Manhattan and the wealthy northern NJ communities. A casino at the Meadowlands will cut hugely into the business that Sands Bethlehem relies on. That being said, is there even enough people in the Lehigh Valley to support both the Sands Bethlehem Casino and Mount Airy casino? Probably not. One is going to canabolize the other.

• Nikynewark (65) posts 10:33 am

  Wow! Talk about hitting rock bottom! Trolling for former customers in PENNSYLVANIA??? Years ago there was a billboard visible from an AC casino buffet advertising Foxwoods and I remember all the negative comments. My, how things change when you're at the bottom of the barrel looking up. The difference bettween the Sands, PA and the Sands AC is the hole in the ground in AC lacks a casino above it. Oh, unlike other AC casinos the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Sands is clean, mostly smoke free, skank free, drunk and hooker free. It also plays a lot better than anything in AC. Almost no tolls from north Jersey and free parking. Duh, what Jersey idiot came up with charging for casino parking? Try some of those billboards in Yonkers. Ten minutes from Manhattan or north Jersey, 5,300 machines, clean and smoke free. Oh, they also offer free parking. Or, Monticelo NY. 1 hour and no tolls away with the loosest, smoke free slots and free parking.

• viola1 (8) posts 9:04 am

  What, no offers to gamblers in Northern NJ. I have said good-bye to Atlantic City. No more comps, pay for parking, high food prices, tight slots, parkway tolls. Bethlehem is one hour away, free parking, one 75 cent toll, smoking in half the casino, friendly staff, comps, free parking, reasonable food prices. New Jersey has only one casino location, Atlantic City. Wake up - New York is has one casino close to Northern NJ and another on the way. Put casinos in Norther NJ, Atlantic City is dead.

• MikeElbedewy (21) posts 8:48 am

  This is TOO funny. Pay To Park-check Tolls-check Surly employees-check Threats from BW beggars who "aks" for money-check Lousy paying slots and VP-check Lousy 6/5 BJ-check $25 mediocre buffets-check The world's skankiest hookers-check The only thing AC has over PA and DE is a steak and cheese at the White House

• PennsylvaniaSucks (91) posts 12:15 am

  Its about time! This will due until 2011, when the state, racetracks & AC casinos reach a compromise, allow casinos to open at the Meadowlands, and steal Sands business from NY/NNJ= with glee we will laugh as Bethlehem goes back to being the ghetto that Billy Joel sang about in his song "Allentown"

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