CasinosAugust action
Organisers are targeting 90% participation in a mass August sick-out during peak season.
newjerseymonitor.com
Issue 01 · Thursday, 6 August 2026
What is actually happening in Atlantic City this month
Short reviews, local recommendations and brief news on the events, hotels, restaurants, spas and casinos of one small barrier island. Everything here links back to where we read it.
9
casinos operating in the city, and executives who openly discuss that number shrinking.
$585.6M
total New Jersey gaming revenue in June, of which online now takes the larger half.
36
items we read, checked against a primary source and summarised for this issue.
Featured categories
Five things people ask about
Every item is read, checked against a primary source where one exists, and summarised. Where we could not confirm something, we say so in the item.
- 01 Events Concerts, festivals, races and the free Boardwalk series. 7 items
- 02 Hotels Room refreshes, new towers and what is under construction. 7 items
- 03 Restaurants Openings, closings and the institutions that outlast them. 7 items
- 04 Spas Thermal circuits, day passes and where to book on a weekday. 7 items
- 05 Casinos Revenue, floor renovations, sportsbooks and smoking rules. 8 items
Latest reviews
All 36 items
Recommendations, with the caveats attached
HotelsOpened Feb 2
598 redesigned rooms in a coastal palette. Book the tower by name, not just “Tropicana.”
newsroom.caesars.com
SpasYear-round
$99 same-day bathhouse pass for hotel guests, $120 for non-guests, capacity permitting.
theoceanac.com
RestaurantsUpdated July 28
Dock's Oyster House (1897), Knife & Fork Inn (1912) and Chef Vola's (1921). Vola's is cash only.
njmonthly.com
EventsThrough Sept 2
Sixteen shows at Kennedy Plaza, no ticket, and parking under Boardwalk Hall runs about $10.
wpgtalkradio.com
SpasYear-round
Three Roman baths at different temperatures, herbal steam, cedarwood sauna, arctic ice room.
caesars.com
Latest news
Browse by category
Openings, closings and numbers
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Hotels · Announced Feb 9700+ rooms, 60 suites and eight penthouses gutted, with completion targeted for end of 2026.
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Restaurants · Opened July 172,600 sq ft with Boardwalk views, from a Mumbai-born chef trained in Michelin-starred French kitchens.
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Casinos · June figures$271.0M online against $257.3M won on the floors, and $60.4M in tax against roughly $18.9M.
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Events · Oct 2–4A three-night run launches the band's 2026 fall tour, with the general on-sale on Aug 14.
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Casinos · Reported May 25$104.7M gross operating profit on flat revenue. Bally's and Golden Nugget ran at a loss.
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Spas · Closed since 2023Immersion Spa's 32nd-floor footprint became event space in Borgata's MGM Tower remodel.
CasinosAugust action
The smoking fight reached the state Supreme Court, and now a sick-out
Casinos may currently permit smoking on up to 25% of the floor. Two competing bills sit before lawmakers: S212 for a full indoor ban, and S698 permitting smoking only in separately ventilated enclosures with a 15-foot buffer from live tables. After a Jan 28, 2026 Appellate Division ruling vacated the dismissal and remanded the workers' constitutional challenge, CEASE and UAW Region 9 petitioned the New Jersey Supreme Court in February. Organisers have now called a mass sick-out for a Tuesday in August, targeting 90% participation — the first credible operational threat in a 20-year campaign.
HotelsOpened Feb 2
Tropicana's Solana Tower is the newest room block in the city
Tropicana's west wing reopened on Feb 2, 2026 as the Solana Tower with 598 redesigned rooms and suites in a coastal palette, spa-style bathrooms and far more charging outlets than the wing it replaced. It is the most visible piece of Caesars' multi-year Atlantic City reinvestment and, right now, the newest large room block in the market. The practical point: ask for Solana specifically at booking, because “Tropicana” also covers older inventory.
SpasYear-round
Exhale has the only clearly published day pass in the market
The 40,000-square-foot lobby-level spa at Ocean sells a same-day bathhouse pass at $99 for hotel guests and $120 for non-guests, subject to capacity — which makes it the only property in town with a rate you can check before you arrive. The bathhouse is the reason to go: jetted pool, jacuzzi, Himalayan salt grotto, saunas, steam rooms and zen lounges, strictly 18+ with photo ID. Booking any treatment includes an hour of bathhouse access, so if you wanted a massage anyway, that is cheaper than the pass. Open Mon–Fri 8 a.m.–9 p.m., Sat–Sun 8 a.m.–8 p.m.
RestaurantsUpdated July 28
Three rooms older than the casinos still hold the best-of lists
New Jersey Monthly's Atlantic City guide, last updated July 28, 2026, keeps all three historic rooms among its picks alongside the newer casino restaurants. Dock's Oyster House has run four generations of the Dougherty family and reopened after a major renovation in 2016; the Knife & Fork Inn began as a private club and became a dining room in 1927; Chef Vola's still operates as a cash-only basement room you reach by a side door. Order the rotating dozen at Dock's, lobster thermidor at Knife & Fork, and the bone-in veal Parmesan at Vola's — which needs a phone reservation and actual cash.
EventsThrough Sept 2
The free Boardwalk concert series is still the best deal in town
The city's free summer series runs Wednesdays and Mondays at Kennedy Plaza, right in front of Boardwalk Hall, with a 7 p.m. start and no ticket required. August closes with Ivan Neville & Dumpstaphunk (Aug 12), Booker T. Jones (Aug 19), Dead Zep with Hayley Jane (Aug 26) and a Teddy Pendergrass tribute on Sept 2, plus “Lundi Gras” Mondays including Dana Fuchs, an Allman Brothers Fillmore East celebration and Flow Tribe. Parking beneath Boardwalk Hall is roughly $10, which is most of what a night out here has to cost.
SpasYear-round
Qua at Caesars is the city's real thermal circuit
Qua Baths & Spa is built around a Roman baths circuit of three pools at different temperatures and sizes, paired with a herbal steam room, a cedarwood sauna and an arctic ice room for the cold phase — the closest thing Atlantic City has to a proper thermal sequence. Bath and amenity access is 18+, while massages, facials and body treatments are available from 16+ with a guardian. Day passes are sold through ResortPass rather than Caesars directly, and rates move by date; the Caesars site publishes no flat access fee.
HotelsAnnounced Feb 9
Hard Rock puts $50M into every North Tower room
Hard Rock began a $50 million capital programme in early 2026 that rebuilds more than 700 standard rooms, 60-plus suites and eight North Tower penthouses, plus corridors, walkways and new casino-floor carpeting. President George Goldhoff tied it to more than $700M invested in the property since it opened in 2018. Two dining additions land alongside it — Sitar and Federal Donuts & Chicken. If you book here this year, ask for a completed North Tower room or expect to hear the work.
RestaurantsOpened July 17
Sitar brings upscale Indian to the Hard Rock Boardwalk
Sitar opened on July 17, 2026 near the Sound Waves venue at Hard Rock, a 2,600-square-foot room with Boardwalk views that launched with live music and dancers. The menu comes from executive chef Christopher Corda, a Mumbai native who trained in French Michelin-starred kitchens. Go for the coal-fired butter chicken, the pastooni lobster masala, or the dosa en croûte if you want the one dish that explains the kitchen.
CasinosJune figures
Online gaming has outearned all nine casinos for ten straight months
June internet gaming win came in at $271,041,019, up 17.5% year over year, against $257,282,919 won on Atlantic City floors — the tenth consecutive month online has beaten the land-based market. Online produced $60.4M in gaming tax versus roughly $18.9M from the nine casinos. Slots on the floor rose 1.7% to $186.0M while table games fell 6.4% to $71.3M, leaving brick-and-mortar win down 0.7%. Year to date, casino win is $1.41B (+2.3%) against iGaming's $1.59B (+15.0%). The tax engine has moved off the Boardwalk, which reshapes every policy argument in the city.
EventsOct 2–4
Phish opens its fall tour with three nights at Boardwalk Hall
Phish will play three consecutive nights at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall to open their 2026 fall tour before moving on to Richmond, Jacksonville and Huntsville. Band presale tickets run through noon ET on Aug 10, general on-sale opens Friday Aug 14 at 10 a.m. ET, and hotel-plus-ticket packages went live Aug 5. A three-night jam-band residency fills rooms across a shoulder-season weekend, so book early if you want to walk to the venue.
CasinosReported May 25
Q1 profits fell 22.9% on the highest costs in nine years
Gross operating profit across the nine casinos was $104.7M in Q1 2026, down 22.9%, on essentially flat net revenue of $725.6M. Borgata led at $39.7M (down 18%), Hard Rock at $19.7M (down 25%) and Ocean at $18.7M (down 17%), while Bally's and Golden Nugget operated at a loss. Occupancy improved to 64.6% from 62.9% and ADR to $161.03 from $159.13. The story is margin compression rather than falling revenue: labour and goods costs are eating a flat top line.
SpasClosed since 2023
Do not book the Water Club spa. It no longer exists
Borgata's $55M tower remodel rebranded The Water Club as MGM Tower and converted the 32nd-floor Immersion Spa footprint into roughly 9,000 square feet of event space. Yelp and Tripadvisor now list the spa as closed, and Borgata redirects spa traffic to Spa Toccare in the main tower. Aggregator pages still recommend Immersion, so this is the single most common bad recommendation in Atlantic City wellness coverage — the correct booking is Spa Toccare.
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