Following a brutal 2014 where several Atlantic City casinos closed leaving thousands unemployed, the eight remaining casinos appear to be doing better.
Atlantic City's casino revenue fell by 4.4 percent in October compared with a year ago, but when casinos that have recently shut down are excluded, the surviving casinos saw their revenue increase by more than 19 percent.
There's almost $1 billion this year in non-gaming revenue being generated in Atlantic City, a fact that's being lost in the gaming glut happening nationwide, according to Liza Cartmell, president of the Atlantic City Alliance.
The odds were even longer than usual inside one Atlantic City casino Wednesday morning. But that didn't deter more than 1,300 hopefuls from lining up before the sun rose and standing in a queue that wrapped around the inside of the building.