ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - At least five new resort-casinos are planned here - monstrous, Las Vegas-style themed palaces that will be far more elaborate than anything Atlantic City has ever seen.
They'll feature Broadway-type productions, with dazzling special effects, that will cost as much as $40 million to stage.
They'll have attractions like thrill rides and giant aquariums and glitzy Hollywood premieres.
They'll be filled with unusual cafes and restaurants, and hip specialty stores that'll make the mall seem dull.
With so much going on, gambling will seem almost secondary.
And that's just the point.
Transforming Atlantic City?
What the new casinos hope to do is transform Atlantic City from a gambler's day trip into a full-scale "destination resort," a place where even non-betting tourists will stay for days at a time.
It's worked in Las Vegas - a crop of new resort-casinos along the Strip has drawn hordes of tourists who come mostly for the shows, the shopping, the restaurants and the amusements.
And now, the same formula is coming to Atlantic City.
Three sprawling resort-casinos are planned for the Marina section next to Harrah's: Steve Wynn's new casino, to be called Jardin, and two imports from Las Vegas - the Stardust and Circus Circus.
Two others are expected on the Boardwalk - MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood. Still another entry into the tourist market will emerge from Resorts, Atlantic City's first gambling hall. It's got a new owner, who plans to remake it into a resort-casino called Atlantis, with marine displays nearly twice the size of the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Everywhere you turn these days, Atlantic City is getting ready for the tourists. Many of the current casinos are expanding, and more hotel rooms are being built. A new convention center is about to open, and the airport has been expanded.
It could all come together by the end of 1999, when the new resort-casinos hope to be open.
None of the casinos have been built yet - in fact, most are in the early planning stages - and success for Atlantic City's second wave is far from guaranteed.
Neighborhood residents, complaining they're being squeezed out, are battling several of the new casinos.
Atlantic City must prove it can attract tourists even during harsh East Coast winters. And there is another, less tangible obstacle that must be overcome - the city's image as a flawed fantasyland where limousines glide past desperate poverty.
