Two of the city’s largest casino hotels, the Atlantic Club and Showboat, announced plans to shut down recently, with a third, the gleaming 70-story Revel Casino Hotel, is on the block and could shutter if a buyer is not found.
The shocking images of tourists being beaten or violently manhandled comes at an inopportune time for Atlantic City, a former gambling mecca that has suffered a sharp decline in business in recent years, according to Mayor Don Guardian. But in a written statement Harrah's said, 'Our security personnel are trained to use the least amount of force required to manage any particular incident while ensuring they are taking necessary steps to protect guests, employees and themselves.' The casino and its corporate parent company Caesars Entertainment would not provide anyone for an on-camera interview for this report and declined to comment on specific cases or the videos. “No sane person can explain the conduct that we see in those videos,” said Paul D’Amato, one of the New Jersey attorneys handling the cases against Harrah’s. All three altercations were captured on hotel surveillance cameras. In recent lawsuits, the Binns and two young men allege that Harrah's security guards used excessive physical force to subdue them in separate incidents.
