Each month, they board a bus outside the Hickory Ridge Place apartments in west Columbia, senior citizens bound for El Dorado in the form of Atlantic City's Trump Plaza casino.
There, amid glittering chandeliers, they feed the slot machines and take their chances at the wheels or card tables -- all for the price of a $22 round-trip Eyre bus fare, which comes with a $3 food coupon and $18 in coins for wagering, courtesy of the casino.
"It's a cheap way to spend a day," says Dorothy Mobley, a 75-year-old Clarksville resident, who usually supplements the $18 stake with a few dollars of her own. "I don't smoke and I don't drink." The $22 price "is cheap. You spend that when you go out to dinner."
The informal group, organized by 67-year-old Ellicott City resident Marie Lee, is part of a daily flood of 30,000 casino visitors who stream into Atlantic City, according to the Southern Jersey Transportation Authority -- more than 350,000 bus loads each year.
They come from as far away as Massachusetts, Ohio and West Virginia. And, increasingly, the elderly among them make up a significant part of the gambling resort's clientele.
Paul Doocey, senior editor of International Gaming & Wagering Business magazine in New York, estimated that 38 percent of the population who stay overnight at the casinos in Atlantic City are 55 years old or older.
And for some casinos, the number of older patrons can be even higher.
"I would say seniors make up better than half of our business," said Kim Martin, public relations manager at Trump Plaza. "Slots are a draw for seniors because there are seats and bill changers -- it's very convenient."
Lee, the organizer of the Hickory Ridge group, is a five-year veteran of Atlantic City casino trips, having gone on others through the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks, which still offers such trips.
About a year ago, she began organizing group trips for herself and a few friends. That informal group now averages between 15 and 25 roving gamblers each month, most of them women.
"I do this for the ladies," said Lee. "Even if they don't win, they are excited. Some like to go to to the boardwalk, others like the bus ride, and some like to chat with the people and the bus driver."
On a recent Friday, a group of about 20 boarded the Eyre bus in Columbia about 10 a.m. and settled in for the three-hour ride to Atlantic City.
