It’s happening at Atlantic City Hotels and Casinos

If you love good music, smooth phrasing and out of this world jazz, don’t miss the opportunity to see Tony Bennett live at Harrah’s in Atlantic City. Bennett’s been called everything from “the last of the greats” to “the best singer in the business.” Frank Sinatra, by the way, made that last remark about Tony.

The tickets are selling out fast and for good reason. Bennett doesn’t do that many concerts and the opportunity may not be available in the area for a very long time, if ever again. You may have seen Tony’s recent appearance on American Idol. Many people that never heard his warm, husky voice before got a small sampling as he helped mentor the contestants. His warm friendly manner made him popular with not only the contestants but also all of America.

This icon of music has been popular since the 1950’s. His jazzy style and phrasing brings new life to old songs and a comfortable familiarity to new ones. Most people that hear Bennett sing once are hooked on his mellow tones and upbeat vocalizations. While you immediately identify Tony Bennett with his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” but will immediately recognize Bennett’s other hits as he makes each song spring to life on the stage.

“Because of You ” was Bennett’s first record and it made its way to the top of the charts September 1951. He followed the hit another chart topper “Cold, Cold Heart.” Other great hits included “Rags to Riches, ” Strangers in Paradise,” “In the Middle of an Island,” “I Wanna Be Around,” “The Good Life, ” “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), ” “If I Ruled the World” and “The Beat of My Heart.”

If you’ve never heard Tony Bennett, you might be living on an island with no television or radio, but you wouldn’t be reading this would you? Take a minute to go to Tony Bennett’s website and listen to some fantastic music. It won’t take long before you understand why the tickets are so hot and difficult to get. The man’s not only a musical genius, his voice just makes you smile. It weaves a hypnotic spell you can’t resist, because you don’t want to resist it. For those few minutes, there are no barking dogs, not overdue bills, no problems with family, just you and Tony and the music.

From the inception of the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal performance in 1992 until 2007, Tony Bennett won 10 out of the 16 years. The music industry recognizes that his type of unique talent doesn’t have to follow the trend for the industry. It’s pure, genuine and comes from the heart. There’s no copycat style for the favorite musical flavor of the day, Bennett is Bennett and no one else. Of course, there’s no one out there that can offer the audience the same mellow flavor of tone like Tony Bennett either.

Don’t miss this opportunity to see an American music icon. If you wait to long, you’ll miss the chance of a lifetime to see a concert you’ll talk about for years to come. It doesn’t matter what age you are; Bennett has a sound everyone loves. But you had better hurry because tickets are selling out for his Harrah’s Atlantic City performances Friday and Saturday, November 6th and 7th.

Image Courtesy : http://www.roomp3.com/mp3-580-Tony_Bennett-Have_I_Told_You_Lately.html

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Atlantic City residents and visitors are very happy to hear about AirTrans Airways plans to offer nonstop flights to  Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. To celebrate the inaugural flight, AirTran hosted a big event at the airport with entertainment provided by the legendary, six Grammy winning, Earth, Wind and Fire. Their hit “Let’s Groove” was received with great pleasure by the audience.

John Kirby, the senior director of strategic planning for the airliner said they the company was extremely pleased to add the world class destination of Atlanta to their network of routes. He stated that AirTran’s high quality and low priced service will increase tourism and bring folks to the sandy beaches of Atlantic City and to the casinos and resorts. Also he was pleased to be able to offer South Jersey residents entry into the expansive network of routes with flights to over 40 destinations through Atlanta, Georgia while they enjoyed Satellite radio and Gogo internet service on board the airliners.

Atlantic City International Airport’s executive director, Bart Mueller said that it is a great day for the residents of Atlantic City and its visitors to have AirTran Airways come to their airport with its outstanding service and great low fares.

AirTran offers four non-stop flights between Atlanta and Atlantic City daily. Flight 962 departs from Atlanta at 10:30 a.m. and arrives in Atlantic City at 12:18 p.m. The second offering from Atlanta is flight 964 that departs at 4:55 p.m. and arrives in Atlantic City at 6:43 p.m. Flight 963 leaves Atlantic City at 12:53 p.m. and arrives in Atlanta at 2:48 p.m. The last flight between the two cities is flight 965 that departs Atlantic City at 7:22 p.m. and lands in Atlanta at 9:15 p.m.

AirTran will have a special introductory fare of just $69. In order to receive this special offer, travelers must book by the last day of June for travel through July 31st. AirTran offers some of the lowest fares in the United States as is ranked at number one for being the lowest cost carrier in the Airline Quality Rating study for the past two years. AirTran’s low fares are greatly appreciated by today’s regular travelers who are trying to spend as little money as possible in these dire economic times.

The casino and resort owners in Atlantic City are very happy to hear of the new non-stop flights offered to and from Atlanta. The Governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine said that this new service connects Atlantic City with fifty cities nationwide and he says he is quite confident that the city’s casinos and resorts will benefit. The crippling recession has taken a toll on these establishments as gamblers are much more reluctant to part with their money. There are eleven casinos in Atlantic City that are in bankruptcy.

Image Courtesy Of http://www.lasplash.com/

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The resurrection of Atlantic City by the inception of casino gambling twenty years ago was a slow process, and with increasing competition, there is growing uncertainty as to whether the city’s future will be one of continued growth, stagnation, or a return to the decay and decline that made Atlantic City turn to gaming in the first place. Recent casino and urban development has pumped billions of dollars into New Jersey’s economy, generating in new tax revenue and creating more jobs than the city had residents. However, the casino industry has not restored Atlantic City to its former position as playground of the world or the major hospitality center of the United States as was anticipated in the Casino Control Act. Let’s go through some of the reasons and the facts that might help us understand this trend and whether it is a short-term glitch or a long-term phenomenon.

The more typical experience is that of Atlantic City which has not reaped great benefits from its casinos, despite their contributing nearly seventy percent of the tax levy. The Atlantic City casinos collectively employ more than forty thousand people, wages are relatively low; study found that a third of the hotel jobs in the city paid very less.

Atlantic City Hotels and Casinos have provided the needed resources for the redevelopment of the city. They have created thousands of moderate income jobs in a year round environment, catering to millions of tourists per year. Of course, the state of New Jersey has received substantial tax benefits as a result of casino revenues. The revenue from entertainment and gambling related taxes at Atlantic City is second only to Las Vegas in the United States. With such a seemingly positive cashflow, how can the economy not do well?

There are several reasons that we think could be causing this. Political errors and the overall economic slowdown are perhaps the biggest ones. Because of disputes between Atlantic City, Atlantic County, and the state of New Jersey, the failing infrastructure and the social degeneration of the community continued up until five years ago. Under the New Jersey Casino control act, two percent of the gross revenue from casino operations was to be provided to the state of New Jersey for redevelopment projects within Atlantic City. Under the act, these funds were earmarked for urban redevelopment. The state believed that it did not need to use these funds in Atlantic City, assuming that the total investment in Atlantic City by hotels and entertainment facilities would be sufficient to stimulate growth within the community. The infrastructure and the need for city housing would be accelerated by the development of the casino industry itself. This assumption, combined with the overall nation-wide economic slowdown may have been one of the primary reasons for the current slowdown at Atlantic City.

It is interesting that, in sharp contract, other states and local governments have not hesitated to spend millions in efforts to attract new jobs into their economies. The state of New York authorized sic new tribal casinos and slot machine gaming at eight race tracks. This was motivated in no small measure by the need to close the gap against large impending state deficits, relating both to the economic slowdown and to the anticipated economic consequences of the terrorist actions and the subsequent war on terrorism. This sort of further reinforces that casino development can still be a very favorable thing for the State and its economy if done well.

More than 500 casino employees have been laid off in the past three months alone in Atlantic City and other leading gaming jurisdictions. The peripheral businesses for the casinos – hotels, atlantic city shows, Etc. are slowing down the fastest and even gaming revenues are showing signs of decline. Will Atlantic City survive this scare and come out ahead in the long run or is this the beginning of a new troubling era for it? Time will tell.

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