Bally's Atlantic City moving forward with renovations, seeks to return to competitive business

Bally's Corporation, which owns 14 casinos, with acquisitions in Las Vegas and Pennsylvania awaiting approval by regulators, is moving forward with plans to revamp and bring Bally's Atlantic City back to competitive business, after its acquisition from Caesars Entertainment.

In November, the company promised New Jersey gambling regulators it would invest at least $90 million into the casino-hotel over the next five years.

“Things were in bad shape,” Phil Juliano, the company’s Executive Vice President of Casino Operations and Chief Marketing Officer, told the Associated Press. “We have a mission to bring this place up to the standard we have set for ourselves wherever we operate. We are extremely confident we will bring this property back to a respectable place.”

Jane Bokunewicz, coordinator of a gambling and tourism institute at Stockton University, told AP that Bally’s has an opportunity to reintroduce itself to a market that has known it since 1979. “Like any newly opened property, Bally’s will benefit from public curiosity about what is new and different,” she said. “Customers will be eager to see what has changed under the new ownership.”

As for challenges, Bokunewicz said, Bally’s “will need to get up to speed quickly regarding online casino and sports betting offerings if they want to keep up with their neighbors.”

A renovation of the casino floor, new slot machines and table games are among early priorities. On Monday, electricians were working on long strands of wiring, handymen removing outdated signs from walls, and old slot machine stools sitting in a soon-to-be discarded pile, the Associated Press reports.

Bally's is adding restaurants, including an Italian eatery that opened a few weeks ago. And its complete inventory of more than 1,200 hotel rooms will be redone as well. A FanDuel-branded sports book opened last March.

Juliano anticipated that entertainment will return in a bigger way to Bally’s, including a July 3 Motown review in its 1,200-seat ballroom, as well as live music on the sand at its popular beach bar.