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Atlantic City Officials Optimistic of Fast Recovery

"I don't think it's a huge long-term issue. Overall, it's something that will blow over pretty quickly and things will be back to normal in a few weeks," a casino analyst, Cory H. Morowitz, of Morowitz Gaming Advisors LLC said of the issue of getting back tourists to Atlantic City after the unfortunate shutdown on casinos.

According to casino and tourism officials, although the unexpected 3-day shutdown of Atlantic City casinos may have turned some off, the visitors who frequent the gaming halls of Atlantic City are far from abandoning it.

Atlantic city casinos were forced to cease operations Wednesday morning because of the budget impasse that shut down nonessential government services including state appointed gaming inspectors. Friday saw the legislators and Gov. Corzine agreeing on a budget that signaled the end of the government shutdown.

"My gut feeling is, it's going to get really busy quickly. I don't see this as being a giant issue," Morowitz said. "They'll go into their database and invite people down, and they'll come. It's still the summer. It's not the middle of winter."

"We will go with the same marketing program," Mark Juliano, chief operating officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. said. "I don't think we have to make up with customers. I think everyone pretty much understands that we aren't to blame for this."

However, Jeffery S. Vasser, executive director of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority acknowledges that they have much to make up for. "We certainly have a lot of fences to mend with our customers," he said.

"We have to make sure that we didn't do any permanent damage and that the people who stopped at one of the other destinations don't forget us. We have to get them back together with us. I'm confident we can get back on track pretty quickly," he added.