Atlantic Club Casino Hotel
The rise and fall of Atlantic City's most storied gambling palace — from Steve Wynn's crown jewel to urban decay
The Atlantic City boardwalk, where dreams of fortune were made and lost
The Building
The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel opened on December 12, 1980, at the corner of Boston and Pacific Avenues. It was the first casino in Atlantic City constructed entirely from raw earth rather than retrofitted from existing structures, a distinction that shaped everything about the property's early success and long-term trajectory.
Joel Bergman served as the architectural mind behind the property. Paul Steelman, speaking to GGB News years later, designated him "the originator of the modern-day casino." Bergman's partnership with Steve Wynn through Atlandia Design produced something genuinely new: a 22-story tower that rejected the gaudy maximalism of early Atlantic City gambling halls in favor of Victorian-inspired elegance. The structure incorporated ornate columns and finials, emphasizing luxury to differentiate it from existing properties.
Victorian-inspired elegance defined the Golden Nugget's architectural philosophy
The design philosophy embedded within the Golden Nugget's DNA needs to be understood in context. The property was on the smaller side, 506 rooms against competitors boasting twice that capacity. It couldn't operate as a volume grind joint. It had to focus on a high-end philosophy. Cat Country 107.3 called this not a limitation but an opportunity.
Forty years ago, there were no real computers to help do the kind of work Bergman, Henry Conversano, and Paul Steelman did in designing and building The Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. They utilized exceptional human talents to build what was then the most profitable casino in the history of the world—at least according to Cat Country 107.3, and the financial records from the era support it.
In an era before CAD software, before computational modeling, before algorithmic optimization of foot traffic patterns, these designers operated on pure intuition refined through decades of observing human behavior in gambling environments. The result was a space that channeled players toward high-margin table games while maintaining an atmosphere of exclusivity that justified premium pricing. Every sightline, every corridor width, every lighting decision emerged from accumulated knowledge about how gamblers move and where they stop.
These spaces foreshadow many of the spectacular features of future Wynn creations including The Mirage, Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas, as Atlanticcitytripping noted. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City functioned as a laboratory. Every design choice, every spatial arrangement, every lighting decision fed forward into the properties that would later transform the Las Vegas Strip. What worked in Atlantic City got refined and scaled up. What didn't work got abandoned before it could become expensive mistakes in Nevada.
Steve Wynn: The Man Who Built It
In 1971, Wynn bought a controlling interest in the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, one of the oldest casinos in the city. By 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. He was 31 years old and already betting everything on his ability to see what others couldn't.
The visionary who transformed casino design forever
The Atlantic City venture represented Wynn's first ground-up construction project and his first significant operation outside Nevada. Following success in Las Vegas with the Golden Nugget, Wynn in the late 1970s returned east to Atlantic City. His Golden Nugget Companies embarked on a $140 million casino resort—1970s money, when $140 million could buy a small city. It signaled Wynn's conviction that Atlantic City could sustain Las Vegas-caliber development, a bet that many industry observers considered reckless.
But there's a shadow narrative to Wynn's Atlantic City tenure, one that nearly derailed his empire.
The Organized Crime Allegations
A Scotland Yard report, written in 1983 when Mirage was exploring expansion in Britain, accused Wynn of being a front for the Genovese organized crime family. Earlier, Wynn was forced to fire the president of his Atlantic City casino after New Jersey investigators said the executive met twice with "Fat Tony" Salerno, the reputed boss of the Genovese family. The allegations were explosive, suggesting that one of the most prominent figures in legal gambling was actually a mob front.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement in 1986 raised questions about whether some Golden Nugget employees had links to organized crime figures and whether gangsters used the casino to launder money. Nine days of testimony followed. That's how serious the allegations were, and how thoroughly they were examined. The division renewed Wynn's casino license.
The exoneration was unambiguous. "Considering the entire record before us, there is simply no basis to afford any credence to the allegations in the purported New Scotland Yard report concerning a relationship between Wynn and organized crime," said Bradford Smith, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.
Yet the damage had metastasized beyond legal proceedings into Wynn's relationship with New Jersey regulators. Wynn, disgusted by the charges, opted to leave Atlantic City entirely. He sold the Golden Nugget Atlantic City to Bally's Entertainment Corporation for a reported profit of $260 million.
$140 million invested, $440 million received, less than seven years later. That's a return that would make any investor ecstatic, but Wynn wasn't primarily motivated by the money. Bally's gladly paid Wynn a premium to keep Trump from buying them. In those days, one entity could not own more than three casinos, and the acquisition dynamics created leverage that Wynn exploited masterfully.
The Final Chapter
Wynn never came back. Not really. He'd said he wouldn't, and for over thirty years he kept his word. Then 2018 happened—the sexual misconduct allegations, the resignation from Wynn Resorts, the $10 million fine from the Nevada Gaming Commission. Largest fine they'd ever issued.
Strange to think about. The guy who built modern Las Vegas, forced out of his own industry. And that property on Boston and Pacific, the one that started everything for him? It outlasted his career by a decade.
Frank Sinatra and the Business of Celebrity
Before Wynn and Sinatra, casinos booked entertainers the way concert venues did, as attractions to fill seats. After their partnership, the industry understood that celebrities could be deployed as strategic assets with value far beyond ticket sales.
The stage where legends performed — transforming entertainment into strategic marketing
Frank Sinatra loved everything about his three-year contract, according to Shore Local Newsmagazine. He would not only perform at the Nugget in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, but he would be an informal spokesperson for the company via involvement in various promotional activities and filming television commercials on the Nugget's behalf. Sinatra was not merely booked to perform; he was deployed as a strategic asset to attract high-net-worth gamblers. With Frank Sinatra on hand as "spokesperson," the high-rollers lined up to gamble at the Golden Nugget.
A whale might choose between a dozen Atlantic City properties on any given weekend. The games were essentially identical. The odds were regulated. The rooms were comparable. But only one casino could offer the possibility of seeing Frank Sinatra in the lounge, of maybe catching his eye, of being in the same room as a living legend. That intangible drew people who might otherwise have gambled elsewhere, and those people brought money measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars per visit.
The 23rd Floor Suite
Wynn had a large apartment constructed on the 23rd floor to entice Sinatra to perform at the Golden Nugget exclusively. As part of the deal, Wynn "basically gave Sinatra a blank check" to furnish the apartment, and Sinatra decorated the space with lavish items from around the world, The Inquirer reported.
Opulent interiors befitting a legend
Where music met unparalleled luxury
The contents of this suite, later auctioned after Sinatra's death, reveal the scale of investment and the taste of the man who lived there: Ferdinand Berthoud clocks valued at $50,000, Yamaha baby grand pianos, monumental Romanesque obelisks in black marble with malachite inlay. Black marble with malachite. For a hotel suite. These were not hotel amenities selected by a decorator; they were relationship capital converted into physical form. Wynn understood that to get Sinatra's genuine enthusiasm, not just contractual compliance but real engagement, he needed to make Sinatra feel like a king. The 23rd floor suite accomplished that.
The 1983 Incident
On December 1, 1983, the partnership nearly imploded. Entertainers Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin ordered a Golden Nugget dealer to ignore card-handling rules. In the ensuing flap, Casino Control Commissioner Joel Jacobson called Sinatra a "bully" and Sinatra vowed never to play Atlantic City again.
Sinatra's value derived precisely from his willingness to transgress social norms—the same quality that made him magnetic to audiences made him combustible in regulated environments. He was Frank Sinatra. He didn't follow rules; rules followed him. That attitude had served him well for four decades. In a casino regulated by state gaming authorities, it created a crisis.
In the end, Frank Sinatra stayed away for a little less than a year. He returned to the Golden Nugget in 1985 and played seven shows in October of that year. He would stay at the Nugget through the change in ownership from Steve Wynn to the Bally organization until 1990.
The Talent Pipeline
The Sinatra relationship didn't happen by accident. It happened because of Frankie Randall.
Shore Local Newsmagazine described Frankie Randall as a force of nature. He was a singer, pianist, composer, conductor, recording artist and a talent buyer who helped put the Boardwalk's Golden Nugget hotel/casino in Atlantic City, and the Nugget in Las Vegas, on the map as the place to be booked. Because he was trusted and held in such high regard by his fellow entertainers, he was able to lure performers like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin away from Resorts International in the early days of legalized gambling in Atlantic City, and away from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
This poaching strategy represented a significant competitive advantage. Randall knew everyone, and everyone trusted him. When he told a performer that the Golden Nugget would treat them right, they believed him. The 500-seat Opera House ultimately featured Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Dolly Parton, Lou Rawls and Don Rickles. That roster didn't assemble itself.
Six Names: A History of Decline
You can trace the property's decline through its names. Six of them in forty-four years.
- Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino 1980 – 1987
- Bally's Grand Hotel and Casino 1987 – 1996
- Atlantic City Hilton 1996 – 2011
- ACH Casino Resort 2011
- Atlantic Club Casino Hotel 2012 – 2014
- Abandoned 2014 – Present
It started as the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, 1980 to 1987, the Wynn years. This was the peak. The most profitable casino in Atlantic City, possibly in the world. The name meant something back then.
Then Bally's bought it. They slapped their brand on it—Bally's Grand Hotel and Casino—because that's what corporations do. They wanted consistency across their portfolio. Besides, the Golden Nugget name belonged to Wynn anyway, and he was taking it with him.
The Hilton era lasted fifteen years, 1996 to 2011, which sounds stable until you realize the property changed corporate parents three times while keeping the same name on the marquee. Hilton Hotels, then Park Place Entertainment, then Colony Capital. Same sign, different owners, declining fortunes.
In 2011, Colony Capital let the Hilton licensing agreement lapse. For a few strange months, the place was called ACH Casino Resort. Three letters. That's what they came up with. Nobody knew what to call it. The locals just said "the old Hilton."
The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel came next, 2012 to 2014. A desperate rebrand. A failed repositioning attempt that lasted barely two years.
Since 2014, it hasn't needed a name. It's just the abandoned building at Boston and Pacific.
The PokerStars Catastrophe
The 2012-2013 PokerStars negotiations represent the property's last genuine opportunity for revival.
PokerStars, the world's largest poker room, put the property under contract for $15 million in December 2012. It also paid $750,000 a month to keep the doors open while the deal worked through regulatory approval, Casino Rankings reported. The contract called for PokerStars to close the deal by April 30, 2013, and it was unable to receive a gaming license by that date.
The licensing failure stemmed from PokerStars' corporate history. The company's founder faced federal indictment for illegal online gambling operations, creating regulatory contamination that New Jersey authorities could not overlook.
What happened next was a catastrophic miscalculation. Atlantic Club decided to call off the sale, but the agreement allowed the property to keep the deposit paid by PokerStars. Atlantic Club thought its value would skyrocket thanks to recently legalized online gaming in New Jersey.
It was wrong.
Online gambling accelerated the decline of marginal brick-and-mortar properties by providing convenient alternatives to the physical casino experience. The very development that Atlantic Club's owners expected to save them actually hastened their demise. Players who might have driven to Atlantic City for a few hours of gambling could now gamble from their couches.
The Closure: January 13, 2014
Once Atlantic City's top-earning casino, where then-owner Steve Wynn clowned with Frank Sinatra in commercials, bringing the legendary singer an armful of fresh towels, the Atlantic Club went out with a whimper.
The final hours — silence where fortune once changed hands
CBS News described the final hours: In the hours before the 12:01 a.m. closing, its restaurants and bars had all shut down, and many gamblers and employees had already left. The few die-hards that stayed on the casino floor until the end counted down its final five seconds as dealers who were suddenly unemployed burst into tears and hugged each other.
— Kathy Buonasorte, cocktail server for 28 years
Kathy Buonasorte, a cocktail server for 28 of the casino's 33 years, told CBS News: "Where was our support? They all left us. No politician helped us. No one came to save us."
The closure resulted in over 1,650 employees being made redundant. About 300 of those employees lived in Atlantic City itself, in a local economy already suffering unemployment rates of 15.1 percent. I don't know what happened to Kathy Buonasorte. The article didn't follow up.
The Bankruptcy Sale
The Atlantic Club filed for bankruptcy in November and was sold for a combined $23.4 million just before Christmas to Tropicana Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment. Tropicana bought the customer lists in addition to the table games and slot machines while Caesars bought the 801-room hotel.
Colony Capital had purchased the property for over $500 million in 2005. That's a loss of over 95%.
Caesars Entertainment reportedly was seeking a deed restriction prohibiting the Atlantic Club from ever being used as a casino again. This defensive maneuver made strategic sense for Caesars—they didn't want to pay $13.5 million for a hotel only to have a competitor buy it and reopen the casino next door. But it also ensured that the property could never be restored to its highest-value use.
2014: The Year Atlantic City Collapsed
The Atlantic Club's closure inaugurated a catastrophic year for Atlantic City. Looking back, it's clear that the property was the canary in the coal mine.
WHYY documented how 2014 unfolded:
In the past 18 months, four casinos had closed their doors, costing 8,000 workers their jobs.
The Abandoned Structure: 2014-Present
The building still stands. It has been empty for over a decade.
A decade of abandonment has left its mark on the once-grand structure
Physical Deterioration
A source who visited in 2019, cited by Breaking AC, described what they found: "I had come to town in 2019, and when I first saw the Atlantic Club, well, there was severe water damage. The systems were broken. Frozen pipes were broken. It was uninhabitable and unfixable."
Years of neglect and water intrusion caused the potential redevelopment to balloon from an interiors renovation into a complete curtain wall replacement. Bricks were falling onto the street.
Failed Redevelopment Attempts
In 2015, Pennsylvania-based Endeavor Property Group proposed converting the property into a non-gaming resort featuring indoor water parks. The project received Casino Reinvestment Development Authority approval. It never materialized.
Stockton University tried in 2018. They wanted the parking garage, planned to demolish the rest. TJM Properties said no.
Starting in 2019, Colosseo Development Group purchased the former Atlantic Club Casino for $25 million. Colosseo planned to transform the site into a "condo-tel," featuring a 330-room hotel under the Hyatt or Hilton brand and 108 luxury residences.
President Rocco Sebastiani told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the permitting for the work with the city of Atlantic City was difficult to navigate, and the process dragged on for four years. Four years of permits. For a building everyone agrees needs to be fixed. Atlantic City bureaucracy at its finest.
By mid-June 2025, the property, listed for $55 million, has seen its ambitious redevelopment plans hit significant roadblocks. The building is back on the market.
The Deed Restriction
The Atlantic Club is not going to be the 10th Atlantic City casino floor. It's one of several former AC casinos with a deed restriction that prevents the property from offering slots and table games.
Any future developer must pursue non-gaming applications in a market where gaming remains the primary economic driver. The building was purpose-built as a casino. Every square foot was optimized for gambling. Converting it to anything else means fighting against the architecture itself.
The Design Legacy
The Golden Nugget Atlantic City didn't just make money. It changed how casinos were designed and built.
The design principles pioneered here echo through every major casino built since
Joel Bergman's Impact
Paul Steelman described Bergman's influence to GGB News: "He is what we consider the originator of the modern-day casino. There's approximately 30 casino sites on the Strip and Joel designed more than one-third of them."
His portfolio includes Paris Las Vegas, the Signature towers at MGM, Trump International, and much of the additions to Caesars Palace over the years. When you walk through a modern Las Vegas casino and feel that sense of controlled excitement—the lighting that makes you lose track of time, the layout that leads you past table games even when you're trying to find the restaurant—you're experiencing design principles that Bergman pioneered.
In 1978, Bergman went to work exclusively for Steve Wynn through the firm Atlandia Design. Wynn had a chair adjacent to his drafting table and together they played an important role in transforming the Las Vegas strip from a low rise strip to the modern theme-oriented casino with high rise buildings.
Paul Steelman's Continuation
Cat Country 107.3 described Paul Steelman as one of the most prolific and respected casino designers in the world. He learned his craft working alongside Bergman on the Golden Nugget, and he carried those lessons into decades of subsequent projects.
The Charlie's Steakhouse Blueprints
In 1982, to welcome back the legendary Casino Host Charlie Meyerson, Steve Wynn, Joel Bergman, and Paul Steelman reimagined a restaurant space and created the best and most opulent steakhouse in Atlantic City, WPG Talk Radio reported. The original blueprints reveal incredible attention to detail and opulent Victorian-themed motifs. A seven-figure investment—in a steakhouse. Not the casino floor. Not the hotel rooms. A restaurant.
Operational Specifications
The property's gaming floor, at its peak, covered 75,374 square feet. It housed approximately 1,850 slot machines and 86 table games at full capacity. By 2012, after years of declining business, that had shrunk to around 1,500 machines and 50 tables.
Competitive Differentiation
The Golden Nugget didn't try to compete on volume. It competed on value.
Players could lay 5x Odds on 'pass line' and 'come' bets. You won't find that anywhere else in New Jersey, World Casino Directory reported. That meant something to anyone who knew their way around a craps table.
The casino also offered "Double Deck Pitch Blackjack," played with just two decks instead of the usual eight. Fewer decks mean better odds for skilled players.
Restaurant Portfolio
Fine dining that rivaled any establishment in the city
Simon Prime — contemporary steakhouse excellence
For fine dining, Casino Center described Peregrine as "this superb gourmet restaurant, arguably the best in Atlantic City, features perpetually changing degustation and à la carte menus." Simon Prime was a contemporary steakhouse with fresh seafood. Patsy's Trattoria was a branch of the New York Italian restaurant that was a favorite of Frank Sinatra.
For casual dining, The Coffee Shop served as a New York-style Jewish deli with high-quality corned beef and pastrami. There was also the Cornucopia Buffet. I never ate there. Nobody I've talked to remembers whether it was any good.
Hospitality Facilities
The property featured a 13,000 square foot Health Spa including indoor pool, workout facilities with exercise machines and weight training equipment, men's and women's saunas, hot tubs and steam rooms. For a 506-room property, that's a substantial spa investment.
Financial Trajectory
The Wynn Era (1980-1987)
Construction cost in 1980 was $140 million. By 1983, the property had become the top-earning casino in Atlantic City. The 1987 sale to Bally's brought $440 million. That's a return on investment of 214% in seven years, excluding operating profits.
The Decline (2005-2014)
Colony Capital acquired the property in 2005 for over $500 million. They were buying at what turned out to be the peak of Atlantic City's market, before Pennsylvania legalized casinos, before online gambling, before the financial crisis. Bad timing. Or bad judgment. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.
By late 2013, quarterly net revenue in Q3 2013 was $88.6 million.
The combined sale to Caesars and Tropicana brought $23.4 million.
Post-Closure
Caesars sold the property to TJM Properties in 2014 for $13.5 million. Colosseo acquired it in 2019 for $25 million. The current listing price in 2025 is $55 million.
Those numbers might suggest the property is appreciating. They don't. They represent different buyers with different plans, each willing to pay a premium based on redevelopment potential that never materializes.
Why the Property Failed
The Atlantic Club was more dependent than the others on convenience gamblers looking to play for a few hours, then drive or ride the bus back home. It struggled further as many of its best customers forsook it for gambling halls closer to their houses.
The property's southern boardwalk location, once an asset for its beach proximity and distance from the casino cluster's congestion, became a liability as regional competition intensified. Pennsylvania's casino legalization in 2004 created alternatives within driving distance of the Atlantic Club's core customer base.
On February 7, 2012, the casino became a locals casino and re-branded as The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel. The new slogan went into effect: "A casino for the rest of us."
This positioning explicitly abandoned the high-end strategy that had generated the property's historic profitability. The "locals casino" model required volume that the property's 506-room capacity and southern location could not support.
Colony Capital's hedge fund ownership model prioritized cash extraction over capital investment. The licensing agreement termination with Hilton in 2011 eliminated brand equity without providing resources for independent marketing.
Historical Significance
The property was the first casino in Atlantic City built entirely from the ground up rather than through renovation of an existing structure. Ground-up construction permitted optimization of gaming floor layouts, back-of-house operations, and hospitality integration impossible in retrofitted properties.
The Golden Nugget Atlantic City functioned as proof-of-concept for Wynn's subsequent developments. The Mirage (1989), Treasure Island (1993), and Bellagio (1998) all incorporated lessons from the Atlantic City project. The property's success validated Wynn's conviction that casino design could transcend functional requirements to create destination experiences.
The Sinatra relationship established a template for celebrity partnerships that remains industry standard. Before Wynn and Sinatra, casinos paid entertainers to perform. After them, casinos understood that entertainers could be brand ambassadors, customer magnets, and marketing vehicles all at once.
The Abandoned Building as Urban Phenomenon
The Atlantic Club has sat empty for eleven years now, and nobody can figure out what to do with it.
It cannot be demolished economically due to its structural scale.
It cannot be repurposed easily due to its gaming-optimized layout.
It cannot be redeveloped as a casino due to deed restrictions.
It cannot attract investment due to its deteriorated condition.
The boardwalk endures — but the Golden Nugget's legacy remains frozen in time
Cat Country 107.3 warned: "This property is NOT abandoned. Security is on site. If you break in with plans on posting the next great urban explorer video on YouTube, you will be arrested."
The security presence confirms that the property retains sufficient value to warrant protection, even as that value proves insufficient to justify redevelopment. Someone is paying guards to watch over a building that nobody can figure out how to use.