Casinos in Atlantic City have seen a big dent in their profits as casinos in neighboring states like New York continue to pop up, but a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released Monday shows Garden State residents are loyal to Atlantic City.

New Jersey Casinos
New Jersey casinos (Williams Thomas Cain, Getty Images)
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"The good news for Atlantic City is that only 12 percent of New Jerseyans say they would rather go to casinos in New York. Fifty-seven percent say that they'd rather stick with casinos in Atlantic City," said Dan Cassino, a political scientist at FDU and an analyst for the poll. "Atlantic City casinos have to be happy they're not facing wholesale defection from New Jersey, but even the loss of 12 percent of their customers on top of what they've already lost could be devastating."

Going to casinos is one of the most popular forms of recreation in New Jersey, second only to visiting farms for agriculture tourism according to Cassino.

"Forty-one percent of New Jersey voters say that they or someone in their household has been to a casino in the previous year, and 77 percent of those people who've been to a casino say they went to one in Atlantic City," Cassino said.

Atlantic City is facing stiff competition from Native American casinos in New York. There are five such casinos in Upstate New York, and there are also racetracks with slot machines including one in Ozone Park, Queens. Casinos in Pennsylvania have also hurt Atlantic City's revenues.

The first casino in Atlantic City opened in 1978.  At the time, it was the only legal casino on the Atlantic seaboard.

 

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