{"id":335371,"date":"2026-09-01T23:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/335371\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T23:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T23:30:11","slug":"atlantic-city-looks-beyond-casinos-as-jobs-face-risks-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/335371\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City looks beyond casinos as jobs face risks \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlantic City<\/a> is facing some of its strongest economic headwinds in years as New York City’s casino industry expands, adding urgency to efforts to diversify the Jersey Shore destination’s economy beyond gaming.<\/p>\n

A new report from the Atlantic County Economic Alliance notes that Atlantic City’s casino-hotel employment level is at a nine-year low. Under a baseline scenario, the study puts more than 5,100 jobs at risk by 2035 because of growing competition and other factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAtlantic City needs to diversify away from just the casino industry,\u201d Brian Zoubek of Zoubek Properties said.<\/p>\n

Developers and local officials are looking to redevelopment and more year-round residents as part of that effort.<\/p>\n

During a recent visit to Atlantic City by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, Zoubek said he would like to see a federal Opportunity Zone program that has helped attract investors to the city provide more incentives for new home sales, rather than focusing only on rental development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to incentivize homeowners and people who are going to be part of the local community to come in so that we can sustain and diversify from just casinos,\u201d Zoubek said.<\/p>\n

Booker said he heard additional ideas from investors during the visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I heard now from the investors here is some other ideas. They really scratched at some things I’m going to think about,\u201d Booker said.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty is also affecting Atlantic City’s casino workforce. The city’s largest casino union successfully negotiated contract extensions with all nine gaming halls, but the agreements are for only one year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made sense for both parties. Having a labor dispute at this time would be very detrimental to Atlantic City,\u201d UNITE HERE Local 54 President Donna DeCaprio said.<\/p>\n

DeCaprio said redevelopment and attracting more year-round residents are vital to building a stronger economy for the resort.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Wilkinson, who operates Side Pony Printshop in Atlantic City’s Orange Loop neighborhood, said redevelopment around her business has helped it grow since she found a home there a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is those environments that we’re creating that people want and need,\u201d Wilkinson said.<\/p>\n

Wilkinson’s business is among those contributing to a neighborhood that is building confidence in Atlantic City’s economic future beyond casinos.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlantic City is facing some of its strongest economic headwinds in years as New York City’s casino industry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9253,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-335371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-atlantic-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}