Below is how the city fits together, which casinos still run poker rooms, where to bet on sports, and how to get there without driving. Each casino links to our full venue guide.
Best Atlantic City casinos by category
- Best for poker: Borgata — 52 tables, open 24 hours, the biggest poker room in Atlantic City.
- Best for sports betting: Caesars — the Caesars Sportsbook at Wild Wild West covers more than 15,000 square feet, with five private Fan Caves.
- Best for betting on horses: Borgata — the BetMGM Sportsbook and Racebook takes racing bets as well as sports.
- Best new hotel rooms: Tropicana — all 604 rooms and suites in the Solana Tower were renovated and reopened in early 2026.
- Best hotel views: Ocean — floor-to-ceiling windows in the tallest building in the city.
- Best on the Boardwalk: Hard Rock — the city’s second-biggest casino, with Etess Arena and the new Sitar restaurant.
- Best for nightlife: Harrah’s — its domed indoor pool turns into The Pool After Dark, a DJ club, on weekend nights.
- Best for celebrity-chef dining: Caesars — Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill and Nobu under one roof.
- Best for old Atlantic City: Resorts — the first legal casino in the US outside Nevada, open since May 26, 1978.
- Best for free parking: Golden Nugget — self-parking in the garage is free every day.
Atlantic City casino guides: the six biggest casinos in detail
Ranked by what each casino won from in-person gamblers in 2025.
Borgata Atlantic City: the Marina District giant
Borgata opened on July 2, 2003, the first new resort in Atlantic City in 13 years, and MGM Resorts has run it alone since buying out Boyd Gaming in 2016. It’s the city’s top earner by a distance, with $800.8 million won from in-person gamblers in 2025, up 8.5%.
The casino floor is the largest in town, at about 161,000 square feet with more than 2,500 slots, and the Asian gaming area that opened in May 2025 has 51 tables and five private salons. The 52-table poker room runs 24 hours and hosts the Borgata Poker Open. The BetMGM Sportsbook and Racebook, Atlantic City’s first sportsbook, takes horse racing bets too.
The 2,700-plus rooms are split between the Borgata Tower, in the middle of a $107 million renovation due to finish in 2027, and the MGM Tower. Borgata’s license is also home to MGM’s online brands in New Jersey.
Read our Borgata venue guide, plus our Borgata Casino and Borgata Poker reviews.
Hard Rock Atlantic City: the Boardwalk’s biggest earner
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City reopened the former Trump Taj Mahal in June 2018 and has been the city’s second-biggest casino ever since, winning $550.8 million from in-person gamblers in 2025. Hard Rock says it has put nearly $700 million into the building since 2018, plus another $50 million in 2026, much of it on the North Tower’s rooms, suites and penthouses.
The casino has more than 2,300 slots and an Asian table games area, but no poker room. The sportsbook has a sports bar with more than 40 TVs. Food is the recent story: Sitar, a modern Indian restaurant with Boardwalk views, opened in summer 2026, joining Council Oak Steaks & Seafood, Kuro and Il Mulino New York. Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena is the big room for concerts and comedy.
Online, Hard Rock Bet and bet365 run under its license.
Read our Hard Rock venue guide and our Hard Rock Bet Casino review.
Ocean Casino Resort: the tallest tower in town, now fully Ilitch-owned
Ocean is the glass tower at the north end of the Boardwalk and the tallest building in Atlantic City. It opened as Revel in 2012, closed in 2014 and reopened as Ocean in 2018. Detroit’s Ilitch family took full ownership on August 3, 2026. Its casino won $468.1 million from in-person gamblers in 2025, up 14.3% and third in the city.
The 1,860 rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows facing the ocean or the bay. The 135,000-square-foot casino has nearly 2,000 slots and 130 table games, plus The Loft, a high-limit table room on the 44th floor. Fanatics runs the sportsbook inside The Gallery, a 12,000-square-foot bar with 140 feet of LED walls. At night, HQ2 runs an indoor nightclub and, in summer, a 45,000-square-foot beach club.
Read our Ocean venue guide and our Ocean online casino review.
Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City: live poker and a pool party in the Marina
Harrah’s opened on November 22, 1980, as the first casino in the Marina District, and has grown to about 2,590 rooms across five towers, one of the largest hotels in New Jersey. Caesars Entertainment runs it. In 2025 it won $225 million from in-person gamblers, fourth in the city.
It’s the relaxed alternative to Borgata next door, and one of only three Atlantic City casinos with live poker. The room spreads mostly low-stakes no-limit hold’em and is home to the WSOP Circuit when it comes to town, most recently in August 2026 with a $1.5 million guarantee. The Caesars Sportsbook has two Fan Caves you can reserve. The Pool, under a glass dome and kept warm all year, becomes The Pool After Dark on weekend nights, and Gordon Ramsay Steak leads the restaurants.
Read our Harrah’s venue guide and our WSOP NJ review.
Tropicana Atlantic City: the Boardwalk’s last poker room
Tropicana fills the south end of the Boardwalk with more than 2,300 rooms in five towers. Caesars Entertainment runs it, and its casino floor won $216.8 million from in-person gamblers in 2025, fifth in the city.
The biggest recent change is the Solana Tower, the old West Tower, whose 604 rooms and suites were fully renovated and reopened in early 2026. Tropicana also runs the only live poker room left on the Boardwalk, a Caesars Sportsbook next to the football-themed Gridiron Pit, and The Quarter, a 200,000-square-foot indoor street of restaurants, bars and shops styled after old Havana. The Quarter also holds the city’s only IMAX theater, and Carmine’s and Cuba Libre are among its restaurants.
Online, Tropicana’s license carries Caesars Palace Online Casino and Tropicana Online Casino.
Read our Tropicana venue guide and our Tropicana online casino review.
Caesars Atlantic City: celebrity chefs in the middle of the Boardwalk
Caesars opened on June 26, 1979, as the Boardwalk Regency, Atlantic City’s second casino, and has carried the Caesars name since 1987. It sits mid-Boardwalk near the Convention Center and the rail terminal, with a little over 1,100 rooms in three towers. The Nobu Hotel takes up the top three floors of the Centurion Tower.
The draw is the food: Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, the first on the East Coast, plus Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill, Nobu and Morton’s. The rooftop pool and Qua Baths & Spa sit on the Ocean Tower, and Caesars Beach Club opened on the sand in summer 2026. The Caesars Sportsbook next door at Wild Wild West covers more than 15,000 square feet. The poker room closed in the pandemic and hasn’t reopened.
The casino floor has had a tougher run. Its in-person win fell 6.7% in 2025, to $203.9 million.
Read our Caesars venue guide and our Caesars Palace Online Casino review.
Atlantic City casino history: from the 1976 vote to the online era
New Jersey voters approved casino gambling in Atlantic City in a 1976 referendum, two years after a statewide proposal had failed. Resorts opened on May 26, 1978, the first legal casino in the US outside Nevada. Caesars and Bally’s followed in 1979, and by the mid-1980s the Boardwalk was lined with casino hotels. The Borgata arrived in 2003, and Hard Rock and Ocean both opened in 2018 in buildings that had previously closed.
Online gambling has since overtaken the casino floors. In 2025, New Jersey’s internet gaming revenue passed in-person casino win for the first time, though the Atlantic City casinos still won $2.89 billion from visitors.
All nine Atlantic City casinos: who runs them and where they are
| Casino | Area | Operator | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Borgata | Marina District | MGM Resorts | 2003 |
| Harrah’s | Marina District | Caesars Entertainment | 1980 |
| Golden Nugget | Marina District | Landry’s | 1985 (as Trump’s Castle) |
| Ocean | Boardwalk, north end | Ilitch Gaming | 2018 (former Revel) |
| Hard Rock | Boardwalk | Hard Rock International | 2018 |
| Resorts | Boardwalk | DGMB Casinos | 1978 |
| Caesars | Boardwalk | Caesars Entertainment | 1979 |
| Bally’s | Boardwalk | Bally’s Corporation | 1979 |
| Tropicana | Boardwalk, south end | Caesars Entertainment | 1981 |
Ownership may consolidate further. Fertitta Entertainment, which already owns Golden Nugget, agreed in 2026 to buy Caesars Entertainment. If New Jersey regulators approve the deal, one company would run Caesars, Harrah’s, Tropicana and Golden Nugget.
Marina District casinos
Borgata is the city’s biggest earner and the reason many people come at all. It led all Atlantic City casinos in 2025 with $800.8 million won from gamblers, and it runs the largest poker room in town. Harrah’s next door is the more relaxed option, with its own poker room and a pool that turns into a club at night. Golden Nugget faces the marina and is the quietest of the three.
Boardwalk casinos
Ocean, at the north end, is the tallest building in the city and was fully taken over by Ilitch Gaming in 2026. Hard Rock, on the former Trump Taj Mahal site, has been putting money into new restaurants, including Sitar, an Indian restaurant with Boardwalk views. Resorts is the original, and the place to go if you want the old Atlantic City feel. Caesars and Bally’s sit in the middle of the Boardwalk near the Convention Center, and Tropicana, at the south end, has the Quarter, an indoor dining and shopping street.
Atlantic City poker rooms: the three still dealing
Live poker has shrunk to three rooms:
- Borgata: the biggest room in the city and home of the Borgata Poker Open series.
- Harrah’s: a smaller room in the Marina District that hosts WSOP Circuit events.
- Tropicana: the only poker room left on the Boardwalk.
Caesars and Ocean have both closed their rooms. If you play online, BetMGM Poker and Borgata Poker share a player pool with the Borgata brand, and WSOP.com NJ runs online qualifiers for live events.
Atlantic City sportsbooks: where NJ sports betting started
Borgata opened Atlantic City’s first sportsbook on June 14, 2018, days after sports betting became legal; it now operates as the BetMGM race and sportsbook. Most casinos followed that summer, and Resorts became the first to take online sports bets, through DraftKings, in August 2018. Bally’s runs Bally Bet. Almost every Atlantic City casino also backs at least one online sportsbook, so the app on your phone often traces back to a property on the Boardwalk.
Can you smoke in Atlantic City casinos? Where the exemption stands
Yes, in designated areas. New Jersey’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act exempts casinos. Casino workers have challenged the exemption in court, and an appeals court sent the case back to the trial court in January 2026, but smoking remains allowed on part of each casino floor for now.
Getting to Atlantic City casinos: train, car and plane
- By train: NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Rail Line runs daily from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, with stops including Cherry Hill, Lindenwold (for PATCO) and Hammonton. The terminal is next to the Convention Center, and a free jitney meets arriving trains.
- By car: the Atlantic City Expressway runs from the Philadelphia area to the city. The Atlantic City–Brigantine Connector goes straight to the Marina District casinos.
- By air: Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) is about 15 minutes from the casinos, with nonstop flights on Allegiant and Breeze. Philadelphia International is about 60 miles away.
- Getting around: the Atlantic City Jitney runs along Pacific Avenue around the clock on its main routes, linking the Boardwalk, the Marina District and the rail terminal.
NJ racetracks: Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands
Atlantic City isn’t the only place to gamble in person. Monmouth Park in Oceanport runs thoroughbreds from May to September and hosts the Haskell Stakes. The Meadowlands in East Rutherford is the country’s leading harness track and home of the Meadowlands Pace; the Hambletonian, run there since 1981, moves to Indiana from 2027. Freehold Raceway closed at the end of 2024. See our horse racing hub for apps and fixed-odds betting.
Atlantic City casinos FAQ
How many casinos are in Atlantic City?
Nine: Borgata, Harrah’s and Golden Nugget in the Marina District, and Ocean, Hard Rock, Resorts, Caesars, Bally’s and Tropicana on the Boardwalk.
Which Atlantic City casino is the biggest?
By gambling revenue, Borgata. It won $800.8 million from players in 2025, the most of any casino in the city.
Which Atlantic City casinos have poker rooms?
Borgata, Harrah’s and Tropicana.
What is the gambling age in Atlantic City?
21 for casino gaming and sports betting.
Can I get to Atlantic City without a car?
Yes. NJ Transit runs a daily train from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, and buses connect from New York and North Jersey.