NJ’s largest arcade opening in Showboat AC next month

A 100,000-square-foot arcade and sports bar is coming to Atlantic City May 15, developer Bart Blatstein announced on April 22.

Titled “The Lucky Snake,” the arcade will be based out of the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, situated along the boardwalk and currently the city’s largest non-gaming casino.

It will be the biggest arcade in the state according to Blatstein, chief executive officer for Philadelphia-based Tower Investments.

“Atlantic City was always America’s playground,” Blatstein said at a Thursday press conference at the Showboat. “What better way to kick off the family-friendly resort, the Showboat, than to open up the largest arcade and sports bar in New Jersey?”

It will feature a 25,000-square-foot sports bar, performance stages, convention and meeting spaces, and a speak-easy. Blatstein said the arcade will employ 100 people, and that it will complement Showboat’s $100 million 103,000-square-foot indoor water park currently underway.

A beer garden and an 8,000-seat concert venue at Showboat – which will be situated outdoors with a retractable dome – are planned for the near future.

“We’re going to be the first true year-round family resort in Atlantic City,” Blatstein added. “It makes sense to bring all these things together in one spot so that people have a place to go if they’re not just interested in gambling.”

The Atlantic City region, which boasts nine casinos, has been hammered over the past year by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Casinos had to remain closed for three months during the first wave of COVID-19 last year, and could only open at 25% capacity over the July Fourth weekend. They’ve been hounded by reduced capacity at both the casinos, as well as restrictions on indoor dining, gyms and entertainment venues.

Although online gambling wins for the state’s nine casinos soared in the past 13 months, brick and mortar winnings tanked by 80% in 2020.

Unemployment in Atlantic City rose to the highest in the state, prompting state officials to consider extending the state takeover of the struggling resort town until the middle of the decade. Local officials have been gauging how to expand the city’s economy beyond just gambling.

“When we talk about families and diversifying the economy, this is it,” Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Jr. said at the press conference, adding that Showboat’s emphasis on family entertainment is “surely a game-changer for Atlantic City.”