Golden Nugget’s “Underdog” Status in New Jersey
Overshadowed by its prominent neighbors Harrah’s and the Borgata, the newly rebranded Golden Nugget has struggled to find its footing in Atlantic City’s ultra-competitive marina space. Formerly known as the Trump Marina, the least profitable of Trump Entertainment’s triumvirate of Atlantic City casinos was sold to Landry’s in 2011 for the meager price of $28 million. Landry’s would dump nearly $150 million into an extensive renovation process; an effort that up until this point has fallen flat, as the Nugget continues to underperform compared to the marina’s two other high-profile casino resorts.
Yet, despite its recent failings the casino’s management team seems confident in the Golden Nugget’s ability to offer a favorable online gaming experience under its own brand – unjustifiably so.
Golden Nugget’s approach to online gambling
The Golden Nugget’s approach towards New Jersey’s wide open iGaming market is safe, and as a result, underwhelming. It will offer an online casino and poker site under its own brand, GoldenNuggetCasino.com and GoldenNuggetPoker.com, the latter of which already offers free-play poker tournaments. Winners receive incentives to visit Golden Nugget properties such as free hotel accommodations, free casino play and other perks.
Bally Technologies, a publicly traded casino technology company and slot manufacturer, will be providing the software for the Golden Nugget’s online casino and poker platforms.
The Golden Nugget was the second Atlantic City casino to receive a gaming permit, approximately one week after the Borgata and hours ahead of Trump Entertainment’s two properties: Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal. While receiving a permit early isn’t necessarily synonymous with succeeding in New Jersey’s iGaming market, it does suggest that the Golden Nugget will be among the first casinos to accept wagers from gamblers who reside within the Garden State.
Golden Nugget’s live poker room
The Golden Nugget’s live poker room closed on October 10, 2013. The last tournament held was a Tournament of Champions freeroll. Since then, all links to the poker room were removed from the casino’s website.
Two plus two forum users cite management’s inability to deal with customers and a lack of poker knowledge as the primary reasons behind the room’s demise. Whether or not the Golden Nugget’s online poker site will renew interest in a brick & mortar poker venue is yet to be seen.
Golden Nugget’s role in the Atlantic City Market
Unless it does something to attract a larger player base, the Golden Nugget’s online casino and poker site seems doomed to go largely unnoticed by the majority of NJ’s online gambling population. The Nugget’s revenues margins are second lowest among Atlantic City’s twelve casinos, its poker room was recently shut down and its recent renovations and rebranding efforts did little to establish appeal – not exactly a recipe of success.
To compound matters, the Nugget’s online poker site will be offered under its own failing brand name. Compare this with other struggling casinos like Resorts, which have partnered with online poker providers with a reputation for breathing new life into beaten down casinos and barren poker rooms.
Cross promotional marketing campaigns, like the ones that will inevitably be run between the Borgata and PartyPoker, have proven widely successful at bringing online players to brick & mortar locations for tournament events and promotions. The Nugget too, would benefit from such campaigns, but in order for that to happen, its online poker site would have to generate enough hype for the casino to consider reopening the live poker room. Maybe then the Golden Nugget could become a legitimate player in the gambling arena.
Otherwise, beyond the prospect of launching its software on the November 26, 2013 go-live date, the Nugget has little reason to get excited about its growth potential in the NJ Internet gaming market.
