Earlier this week, UNITE HERE Local 54, Atlantic City’s primary union, finalized a new labor agreement with Bally’s Atlantic City. This deal wraps up the latest round of negotiations across all nine casino properties in the city. Each of these agreements is set for a duration of one year.
The brevity of these contracts reflects a broader uncertainty impacting the market, particularly as it faces increasing competition from New York City’s emerging casino industry and New Jersey’s growing online gaming sector. Typically, labor agreements for casinos span three years or more, with the previous set of negotiations occurring in 2022.
Local 54 President Donna DeCaprio expressed pride in the negotiating committee, members, and staff, highlighting their efforts to uphold and enhance the pay, benefits, and employment standards that characterize their union jobs.
In light of the situation in New York, a one-year pause in negotiations could allow for better clarity regarding future competition. Currently, Resorts World NYC stands as the only casino in operation within that market, generating an average of approximately $30 million in gross gaming revenue weekly since its recent opening. By extrapolating, that figure could yield around $1.5 billion in annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) from just this one establishment. In comparison, Atlantic City’s casinos collectively brought in $2.8 billion in GGR in 2025, with $1.5 billion reported in the first half of this year.
While Resorts World NYC presents a challenge for Atlantic City, the timeline for other planned casinos, Metropolitan Park and Bally's Bronx, may be further off than anticipated. Both are expected to open in phases by 2030, yet Metropolitan Park is reportedly lagging behind schedule, and Bally's faces financial hurdles with its $4 billion project. Projections regarding these developments could shift in the upcoming year.
Accompanying the new labor agreements was the release of a concerning economic report by the Atlantic County Economic Alliance. This report, titled the Greater Atlantic City Casino-Hotel Employment Exposure Assessment, suggested that over 8,000 jobs may vanish due to competition from New York City by 2035 under a worst-case “Stress” scenario. This figure represents more than a third of Atlantic City’s current casino workforce of about 21,100.
In less dire scenarios, the report predicts a loss of about 5,100 jobs under a “Central” scenario and around 1,500 jobs in the most favorable “Blue Sky” scenario. According to researchers, the present employment figures are at their lowest levels in nearly a decade, with current numbers below even the lows observed after the Covid pandemic.
The report's analysis considered five factors, although only four were included in its modeling:
1. The competitive landscape presented by the three casinos in New York;
2. The possibility of an economic recession in the United States;
3. Potential in-state expansion from new casinos at the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park, which have faced voter rejection in the past and will not be presented again until 2026;
4. Future growth at the existing in-state tracks that could incorporate convention and hotel complexes (though this factors in but is not modeled); and
5. Competition from online gambling within New Jersey itself.
Dr. Max Slusher, who authored the report, clarified that this analysis serves as an exposure assessment rather than a prediction. He stated, “It does not say that a specific number of jobs will disappear on a specific date. It asks a planning question: how much of Atlantic City’s 2025 bricks-and-mortar casino-floor revenue base is exposed if several pressures land on the region at the same time?”
The potential threat from New York City’s competition is compounded by the internal growth of iGaming in New Jersey. While Atlantic City’s casino revenue is keeping pace with online revenue, consistent double-digit growth rates in iGaming have raised concerns regarding revenue cannibalization over the years.
In 2025, online revenue in New Jersey reached $2.9 billion, marking the first year in which iGaming revenue surpassed that of retail casinos. As of July, online revenue totaled $1.8 billion, a 14.5% increase compared to the previous year, which itself had set a record.
Critics of revenue cannibalization maintain that iGaming acts as a growth driver for the entire industry, as New Jersey’s overall gaming revenue continues to reach new heights. Nevertheless, Atlantic City casinos still face challenges; for instance, operating profits dropped 15% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, despite an increase in revenue.
James Plousis, chair of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, remarked that the casino hotels faced the highest second-quarter costs and expenses in nine years, significantly constraining their reported gross operating profits.
