Atlantic City

The Rouse Co. of Columbia yesterday tentatively landed the right to redevelop a five-block strip of Atlantic City that connects New Jersey's casino district to the blighted city's planned convention center.The plan, if fully completed, would represent up to $520 million of development that officials hope will broaden Atlantic City's appeal to nongamblers.The announcement helps Gov. James J. Florio of New Jersey portray himself as moving aggressively to broaden Atlantic City's economic base on the eve of an election in which he holds a narrow lead.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Personally, Stephanie Jacobs does not care much for gambling or for casinos. As an addictions nurse, she is sensitive to the downside of casinos and stays away. But ring the doorbell to her new home here, and with a smile she can show you something of what the casinos have done for Atlantic City. In January, she purchased the home, one of eight designed from original Frank Lloyd Wright blueprints and built using $2 million in reinvestment tax dollars from the Trump Taj Mahal.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- In Bally's Casino yesterday there was plenty of bling but no ring, zero ding. Lights were flashing like a carnival midway: Joker Poker signs were blinking - claiming to be just about definitely prepared to pay some lucky sap $4,125.39 - and the Slingo machines shined with their usual unfulfilled promises of riches. But the ca-chings were absent, the bloop-bloop-bloops of the slot machines mute, no silent prayers were answered with the crashing sound of shiny new quarters on shiny tin trays.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The drive along Pacific Avenue, in the shadows of the giant hotel casinos here, invites comparisons to Park Heights Avenue, on the edges of Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Both are shabby eyesores on the periphery of substantial gambling money. Both invite the inevitable question: Where does the money go after it leaves people's pockets? Atlantic City famously started opening its casinos about a quarter-century ago. The way gambling interests pitched them to a suspicious public invokes comparisons to today's slot machine pitch in Annapolis: The new gambling money will pay for better schools, we are told.

In poker, as with most things, there's no free lunch. Whatever a player hopes to gain from the game, there's a price to be paid - in study, time and often, cash. But occasionally, you really might get lunch paid for, or dinner, or more. At some Atlantic City casinos, poker rooms have developed loyalty programs - roughly patterned after airline frequent flier clubs - to reward customers. Many casino-goers are already familiar with the player cards that are used by slot machine patrons.

After losing two months ago for the first time in his career, Seth Mitchell is set for a rematch against Johnathon Banks on Feb. 16 in Atlantic City, N.J., a fight that's a virtual must-win for the boxer from Brandywine in Prince George's County if he is to continue his pursuit of the unified heavyweight championship of the world. Banks-Mitchell II will take place at Boardwalk Hall, the site of their bout Nov.17, in which Banks knocked down his heavily favored opponent three times.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino doles out $20 to gamblers arriving by New York bus even before they plunk their first dollar into a slot machine.Such cash handouts to small-time gamblers at most of the city's 12 casinos helped push up the cost of giveaways to the highest level in at least six years, casino executives said. Promotions and marketing expenses jumped 21 percent to $862.9 million in the first nine months of 1996 from the year-earlier period, according to the state's Casino Control Commission.

David Cordish recalls that critics jeered when his Baltimore development firm announced plans to redevelop the Power Plant downtown.At the time, there was good reason to be at least skeptical. After all, Six Flags Corp. -- a publicly traded entertainment giant much larger than Cordish -- had given up on an adult theme park there after years of trying."People said, `Don't do it. What do you know that they don't?' " Cordish, chairman of the Cordish Co., said yesterday. "My own father said not to do it. What we did differently was in our approach.

EGG HARBOR CITY, N.J. -- John and Esther Fricano needed 5 acres, a spot where their dreams could take root and grow. They selected a tract dotted with pines and oaks in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., not far from where U.S. 40 and U.S. 322 come together.In 1954, they began building - a tiny schoolhouse, a man-size concrete goose, a bright-yellow hut where three bears lived - and Storybook Land became one of the few businesses on the narrow blacktop stretching between Atlantic City and the spot where, decades later, developers would build Hamilton Mall.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Typically, the spirited 12-round draw that middleweight champion James Toney fought with Mike McCallum on Friday night created arguments from supporters of both boxers as to who really won the fight.Toney, who retained his International Boxing Federation title by virtue of the stalemate, continued the battle during the post-fight interview when he took exception to negative remarks made by McCallum's attorney, Milton Chwasky, and had to be restrained by security guards.