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Welcome to Atlantic City!

The famous sign on the Atlantic City Expressway has been revamped to match one of the largest on-going city remodeling projects on the east coast. More than just remodeling, Atlantic City, New Jersey, has seen more new construction in the last five to ten years than any city on the eastern seaboard save the Big Apple itself, New York.

Long gone is the dingy Atlantic City of the 1980's and 1990's. Today's Atlantic City is a great mix of new and nostalgic. Returning to its first half of the century roots as one of the county's premiere seaside resorts in the country, and the redesigning of almost every single casino in town, Atlantic City, New Jersey, is seeing a renaissance like never before. While the classic Boardwalk Hall is still alive and well, the new, state of the art, Atlantic City Convention Center is garnering rave reviews. So impressive is the new convention center, conventions historically held in Philadelphia, New York, and even as far as Baltimore and Washington D.C. are moving to Atlantic City. With the new, gorgeous, Sheraton hotel built directly across the street, conventioning in Atlantic City becomes easier than any larger city. Guests can literally walk 50 feet from their hotel to the convention center. All of this for only a fraction of what convention space, and hotel rooms, cost in New York or Philadelphia.

Another of one of the many great new improvements to Atlantic City has been the Walk. The Walk is an area the size of several city blocks dedicated to dinning and shopping. Perfectly located between the new convention center and the boardwalk, just passing through the Walk to get to the beach, boardwalk, or casinos is quite a pleasure. Not only are the sidewalks kept meticulously clean, but they feature landscaped greenery and trees, and even a photographic history of all the Miss America winners through-out the years. And then there's the shopping! The Walk features more than 80 outlets offering something for everyone. From Nike and Timberland, to Brooke Brothers and Liz Claiborne, to book stores and gift stores, the Walk is a shopper's paradise. And don't forget the food. From a 50's style diner, to Ruth Chris, the selection of places to eat in the Walk is almost as numerous as the shopping.

The casinos in Atlantic City, now numbering a dozen, have also undergone massive remodeling and expansion projects in the last few years. Harrah's and The Borgata have both opened new hotel towers in the Spring of 2008, more than doubling their hotel rooms. The Borgata, as only the Borgata does, opened its new expansion, the Water Club, with amenities never before seen in Atlantic City. Indoor pools high above the city below, spas, steam-rooms, massages and more all make the new Water Club the most luxurious place to stay in Atlantic City. The Tropicana has also opened a superb expansion it calls The Quarter. A large sprawling indoor complex designed to look like the French Quarter in New Orleans; The Quarter offers great food and fun. Mario's the Italian restaurant, Cuba Libre the Cuban restaurant and dance hall, Red Square Russian restaurant and vodka bar, Ri-Ra's Irish pub with live music, numerous clubs, sports bars, and even an always hip karaoke bar with zebra pattern couches. The Quarter gets the ultimate seal of approval for not just vacationers and business travelers play there, but even with the locals The Quarter is considered a great place to meet up and have fun.

The new Atlantic City is easy to go on and on about. The dining options have vastly expanded, and so has the entertainment. The new pier mall on the boardwalk with its shopping, restaurants and 3 story water fountain extravaganza complete with music and light show makes even window shopping applaudingly fun. Of course there's the world famous boardwalk, and beach, which is looking sharper than ever before. And all of this is just the opening number in the new Atlantic City, New Jersey, with whole host of new projects planned from the Hard Rock Casino, Four Seasons seaside spa and resort, the Pinnacle luxury casino, and MGM's new mega-resort which will be the largest on the east coast.

Yes, Atlantic City is new and improved and unlike anything else you've seen. With the entertainment, shopping, eating, casinos, beach and boardwalk, all painstakingly revamped, Atlantic City is quickly becoming one of the hottest and most relaxing vacation spots in the entire country.

In the new Atlantic City, no longer is it sufficient to have merely a yen to roll some dice, eat some good grub and watch a name singer warble a dozen tunes. If Caesars vice president of marketing Erin Hansen has her way, visitors to Atlantic City will have a "lifestyle," too.
"Tony Bennett has played here a long time and he will continue to come, which is wonderful," said Hansen. "But we want to attract people who never came to Atlantic City, people who never thought to come to Caesars before. We're looking for new things all the time."

So Caesars created its Lifestyle Series, entertainment with a twist, especially during the warmer months. It begins on Sunday with a visit from Mario Batali, one of four TV chef types who will come to Caesars Circus Maximus Theater through October.

Batali will be in the refurbished 1,600-seat theater at 1 p.m. on Sunday, basically doing his TV gig. He will prepare several dishes on stage for the better part of an hour, taking questions from the audience, both about the food and his own nonfood life, as he rambles around the kitchen set.

"These people aren't just chefs any more," said Hansen. "They are celebrities, and people seem to be interested in what they have to say. They are good at telling stories, and whether it is about cooking techniques or their personal lives, it is something people want now."

While the Batali stage show is $25, there is also what Hansen called a "VIP Opportunity" to eat what Batali cooks. Caesars is closing its Mia restaurant at 4 p.m. for Batali to prepare and cook a four-course meal - or, more precisely, to cook a bit in the center of the restaurant while the Mia staff prepares the meal for about 100 ticket buyers. He will sign books and chat one-on-one during the dinner, which will cost $150 for one and $250 for a couple.

Caesars will have three other celebrity chefs doing similar shows and dinners over the next several months: Paula Deen on July 27, Tom Colicchio on Sept. 7 and Anthony Bourdain on Oct. 12. Buy tickets for the whole series and you'll get a discount - $80 for all four chefs.

In between all this food, the Lifestyle Series will also have somewhat homey chats with Carol Burnett and author Jackie Collins.

Burnett's "Laughter and Reflection" (9 p.m., June 21) will not be a traditional stand-up comedy show, said Hansen, "but an up close and personal." Burnett will show clips from her old TV shows and chat about them, answering audience questions as she goes, but mostly looking back on her career and the friends she has met along the way.

"Dine and Dish," the Collins show (noon, June 14), will be a lunch with Collins, as she talks to about 200 people in a Caesars ballroom about the writing process. Collins will stop and chat with every table, autographing books and giving writing tips.

"With the success of the shops at the Piers and restaurants like Mia, the profile of the Caesars customer has broadened," said Hansen. "We're looking to provide them different things to keep them coming." *

Caesars Atlantic City, 2100 Pacific Ave., "Up Close and Personal Caesars Chef Series," $25 (all four, $80), VIP Interactive Experience, $150 a person, $250 a couple, 1-800-736-1420 or ticketmaster.com, for groups of 10 or more, call 609-340-2802, www.harrahs.com.



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For the uninitiated traveler, this time of year at gaming resort towns there's a buzz in the air that can mean only one thing: WSOP. In otherwords, The World Series of Poker.

The WSOP this year is the 39th annual poker tournament of all poker tournaments, and all levels of players are having their daydreams of winning 'the big one'. How big? Well in 2006 the winner, Jamie Gold, out-lasted 8773 other players to win a $12 million prize. Not bad for playing poker.

Every year in May, and this year's no exception, the big push gets underway for hopeful players to make it onto the final table. This year's big day for the WSOP is a little different than in years past. This year the WSOP of poker is actually taking a four month break right before the final table play, which will be held on November 9th and 10th. From May to July there are a whole host of different poker games players can join, and if they make it to a certain level, land a seat in the main event which runs from July 3rd to July 14th.

For the full schedule of events check here.

Also different this year is a very large charity poker event to benefit the Darfur region in Sudan, Africa. While charity poker games have long since been a way to raise big money for worthy events, this year's event, Ante Up For Africa, is looking to be the biggest poker charity event of all time.

For more information on Ante Up For Africa check here.
 

So if you ever had the daydream of being the big winner of the largest poker tournament of the planet, or just like to play some slot machines and watch high-rollers bet tens of thousands of dollars a hand at poker, May through July is the time to hit such gambling meccas as Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

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MGM Mirage Inc. plans to build a mega-casino resort worth up to $5 billion that will dwarf anything Atlantic City has seen before, the company said Wednesday.

The move is part of an ongoing gamble by casino operators to polish Atlantic City's image and attract upscale customers who want to do more than just bet money.

The project, which will be called MGM Grand Atlantic City, will cost between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, not including the land value and associated expenses, the company said in a statement.

It will be built on a 72-acre site at Renaissance Pointe that MGM owns, next to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which the company co-owns with Boyd Gaming Corp.

"We ... hope to re-energize the city's resort offerings and attract a new market of affluent East Coast customers," said Terry Lanni, MGM's chairman and CEO of the casino operator. "We believe the success at Borgata demonstrates the eagerness for further evolution of the nation's second-largest gaming market."

The project will consist of three hotel towers with more than 3,000 rooms and suites.

It will feature the largest casino floor in Atlantic City, with 5,000 slot machines, 200 table games and a large poker room, a 1,500-seat theater, as well as restaurants, nightclubs, a spa, 500,000 square feet of retail space, and a convention center.

The city's 11 casinos have invested billions of dollars to attract more upscale visitors who are drawn by entertainment, dining and shopping options, as opposed to day-trip gamblers who ride a bus into the city, play for a few hours, then go home.

"It's a very exciting project that is another step in Atlantic City's evolution to a full-scale destination resort, which is critical given the competition we currently face," said Joe Corbo, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey.

Atlantic City's casinos are being hurt this year by slots parlors in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York which are siphoning off gamblers that were once Atlantic City's exclusive customers.

Atlantic City's gambling revenue fell 4 percent from the start of the year through August, compared with the same period last year. It may mark the first annual revenue decline in the city's 29-year history of gambling.

MGM plans to build on about 60 acres of the site, setting 12 aside for future development, which may include a residential component. That is the same model the Borgata used when it opened in 2003. It is currently building a second hotel tower called The Water Club, which is expected to open before next summer.

Ground breaking is expected next year, with an anticipated opening in 2012.

MGM's stock dipped 68 cents to $99.07 in early trading, but the drop follows a recent run-up in the shares from $84 at the beginning of September.

Analysts were pleased with the news.

"It is a bet on what Atlantic City can become, not on what it is right now," said Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Robert LaFleur. "We are long-term believers that the market can transition from a predominantly day tripper market to more of a Las Vegas overnight destination."

Several analysts speculated MGM Mirage might take on a joint venture partner such as Dubai World, which recently announced it would take a 4.9 percent stake in the company and invest billions in joint ventures in MGM Mirage projects on the Las Vegas Strip.

Associated Press Writers Ryan Nakashima in Las Vegas and Michelle Chapman in New York contributed to this report.




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