Throughout the late 20th century, Atlantic City went through a land based casino craze, with many groups trying to renovate, build or expand a new casino and hotel. Ultimately this lead to the thriving Atlantic city of today, resplendent with its many different casino establishments, however along the way there were also several casinos and projects that never made it to today and for some of these the story is quite interesting. This tale revolves around the land based casino the Sands Atlantic City, what it was, what it became and how, amidst all the casino chaos, it ultimately closed its doors for the last time.
History of the Sands Atlantic City Casino
Originally the land that later would become this prestigious hotel and casino was a Brighton hotel, the first in fact, constructed in 1876 as the Brighton Cottage. In 1959 this hotel was demolished to make way for the Brighton Hotel and Casino, which was opened in 1980. This was the fourth establishment to open after the legalization of casinos in Atlantic City in 1977, it was also the first to built from the ground up. During the months that followed this hotel tried to market its smaller size to the more high roller players around and after some initial reaction the hotel required bail out in 1981, this came from a group that owned the Sands Hotel in Vegas and quickly renamed this casino Sands Atlantic City.
The years went by and several expansions were made to the casino as well as several transfers of ownership and despite many best efforts the size and overall location of Sands Atlantic City, relative to the other, larger casinos, was just not adequate enough to sustain it. By the time of its closing in November of 2006 it was the smallest of the 12 Atlantic City casinos. In 2007 the building got demolished, the first of its kind to do so along the east coast. The land was bought by Pinnacle Entertainment, who initially had plans to build another casino on the property. However this fell through and in 2013 the land was sold again. Currently it still lies empty.
Facilities and Casino Gaming that was Available
Despite the fact that it’s almost a decade since the Sands Atlantic City was closed, the place still had some interesting facilities and a rather extensive casino setup that is worth quickly running through. These are taken from the peak of this establishment in 1999. The total amount of floor space that this hotel and casino had to play with came to about 58000 metres squared, which ultimately wasn’t that big compared to the other resorts in the area.
The Casino took up about a tenth of this space with around 100 table games within and over 2000 slot machines. This meant a goodly variety of gaming as both the slots and table games can offer a wide selection of possible gaming. The Sands Atlantic City casino also had a top Race book. There was also in excess of 500 luxury rooms available to those players staying for a longer term. All of these meant that the establishment had a lot to offer, however despite this the difficulties and competitive nature of the industry leader it to fail.