Showboat casino closes in A.C. after 27 years

An icon of the Atlantic City boardwalk is no longer. The Showboat casino closed its doors at 4 p.m. Sunday, the latest sign of distress for Atlantic City’s gambling palaces.

Denise Miller of New Jersey was one of many people who came down to to watch the closed sign be put up on the boardwalk entrance. Though she’s been gone for several years, she said she worked at Showboat back when it opened in 1987.

“I’m upset. I’m angry, because Showboat never went bankrupt,” she said. “It was a good casino, a good place to work and the people enjoyed it because it was a big emphasis on customer service, a people place.”

The small crowd on the boardwalk also included Toya Morton, who says she’s a professional poker player partial to this casino.

“I had to be a part of this [moment]. I spent a lot of time at Showboat, lost a lot of money, won a lot of money too so I’m very attached to the employees, very sad to see it go,” Morton said.

This Labor Day weekend will also be the final one for the boardwalk’s newest addition: The Revel Casino Hotel, which was built for more than $2 billion.

Trump Plaza is also set to shut down later this month.

Their closures have been blamed on increased competition from neighboring states like Pennsylvania and New York. Altogether, the closures will mean the loss of 6,000 jobs. The economic impact is expected to ripple throughout South Jersey.