With all the publicity of the Planet Hollywood Casino finally having its Grand Opening – the question is asked: Whats next?

Well, it seems that Robert Earl, the co-founder of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, and owner of the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas is looking to open it’s second casino in Atlantic City. If you recall, years ago Planet Hollywood was originally supposed to have a casino next to Caesar’s in Atlantic City, but that deal fell through once the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain fell on hard times (a victim of growing too big too fast).

Details have been sparse, especially since information about this new venture has only been around for a few weeks, but the question remains – where will the casino be built? There is not much land left in Atlantic City – except for the Bader Field site, which is probably already spoken for by MGM or Wynn or a combination of both – but one idea which was brought up in the Courier Post article is a purchase of the Trump Casinos. It’s been no secret for the past few months that the Trump Casinos in Atlantic City are for sale, in fact one potential purchaser dropped out because the numbers just didn’t work out correctly, but a purchase of one of the Trump properties (or all, and then flip the other two) and convert it into a Planet Hollywood would be right up Earl’s alley – its the same thing he did with the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

Another idea is he could possibly join up with the Curtis Brashaw development group who is planning on building a new boutique casino near the Hilton in the southern part of Atlantic City – questionable because the “action” is further north up the boardwalk, limiting its visibility and visitor pull but it would provide additional backing for Earl whose ability to finance such a large project by himself is unknown.

One other idea is the site directly next to the Trump Marina, I cant recall who owns the site – I think it might be Trump (please correct me if I’m wrong) - and even though it is a small site, it has the potential for an expansion of the Trump Marina after it’s rebranded as the Planet Hollywood..

So with this new addition, there is a potential for another 5 casinos to be built in Atlantic City (possibly 3 on Bader Field, 1 more in Renaissance Point south of Borgata, and the Planet Hollywood) in addition to the 4 which have been recently announced yet not built yet (Revel, MGM Grand, Pinnacle, and the Hilton project). With the bar being raised since the construction of the Borgata, Atlantic City is looking more and more like Las Vegas every day!

andrew@alconic-inc.com