c. 2005 Religion News Service
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. _ There was midriff everywhere at Nikki Beach the other night.
Women dancing on tables. Waitresses in tank tops that would’ve been tight fits for them in junior high. And a belly dancer who jiggled and balanced a sword on various body parts.
The preview party at Resorts Atlantic City’s new beach bar signaled the unofficial start of a summer that promises more sex appeal than ever.
The billboards greeting gamblers say it all: buxom vixens, brunettes in string bikinis and close-ups of women’s backsides. Donald Trump has Pamela Anderson advertising a Quarter Million Dollar Giveaway. And a seemingly topless blonde holding an apple next to the words “Forbidden Fruit” is the pitchwoman for Caesars’ Bacchanal restaurant.
Yes, after more than a quarter-century of gambling, Atlantic City is frantically changing its image.
The 12 casinos no longer want families, or even the busloads of blue-haired ladies. Instead, they’re desperately seeking baby boomers, or better yet, their offspring. And taking a cue from Las Vegas, Atlantic City has finally realized that sex sells.
It seems every gambling parlor has a new lounge or beach bar with its version of sultry waitresses wearing tight, low-cut tops and skirts that show leg, and lots of it. Bikini competitions, lingerie contests, fashion shows and model searches are all the rage.
So are private rooms in public spaces. For $150 by day, $200 at night, you can relax in a hot tub in your own cabana at Caesars’ SandBox beach bar. Tropicana’s Red Square has curtain-enclosed dining booths and an “Aphrodisiac Menu” for $69. And Borgata’s Mixx dance club offers private rooms on an upper level where patrons can watch the dance floor below … or close the curtains for, well, for privacy.
“We’re definitely about pushing the line to the limit,” said Mark Brown, who oversees Atlantic City operations for Trump Entertainment Resorts. “It’s going to be nothing like this town has ever seen. And all this was approved by our female legal department head.”
For the young gambler, it’s long overdue. In fact, Dwight St. Louis, a 33-year-old who slipped into the Nikki Beach party, thinks Atlantic City still isn’t doing enough.
“The city needs to let it all come out,” St. Louis said. “Everyone wants to put their freak on.”
Well, not everyone.
No matter what the billboards make you believe, women older than 55 remain one of the largest demographics gambling here. Even the casinos concede not every gambler is ready for risque.
“The challenge for all of us is to figure out how to attract the new customer without alienating the old one,” said Jenny Holaday, vice president of marketing for Harrah’s and Showboat.
Holaday would know. She was the brains behind a billboard for Harrah’s Xhibition bar, which showed a short-skirted woman leaning over a bar. Way over.
Still, Holaday insists, “You see a lot more butt cheek in an underwear ad for Kohl’s.”
But some thought the billboard went too far. Now, Harrah’s plans to unveil a version of the ad with the controversial part concealed by a paper bag.
Atlantic City has had a long history of taking off its clothes and covering back up. The Miss America pageant was born from the promise that bare legs would attract tourists. Later, the contest attempted to promote a more wholesome image, where brains mattered (almost) as much as beauty.
Likewise, the founding fathers of gambling were adamant that casinos be tasteful family entertainment. No showgirls. No topless dancers. Unlike Vegas, Atlantic City would gamble with class.
Regulators were so concerned that sleazy casino bosses would come up with a way to show bare breasts that it sparked what some refer to as “the great nipple debate” during an otherwise tedious Casino Control Commission meeting in 1977. The resulting rule was explicit: No depiction of sex or private parts. Period.
Sure, there were cocktail waitresses in bustiers and hotel rooms with mirrored ceilings. But it paled compared with Vegas.
It wasn’t until the late 1990s that Atlantic City’s standards started to change. In 1997, Trump Marina was the first to put a seductive woman on a billboard that made people take notice. The bikini-clad, guitar-toting supermodel Ingrid Seynhaeve invited gamblers to “Follow me to the wild side.” She was later replaced by the model Melania Knauss, now Mrs. Donald Trump.
Weekly bikini contests soon followed. At the Trump Taj Mahal, the Casbah nightclub featured women dancing in cages. It was all “girls, girls, girls,” said Trump Resorts’ Brown.
The Tropicana wasn’t as successful. In 1997, it unveiled a billboard for its poker room showing a woman in a thong lying on her stomach with a Tropicana logo tattooed on her rump. The ad contained one word: “Poker.”
Regulators were not amused. Former Commission Chairman Bradford Smith scolded Trop President Pam Popeliarski, calling the ad “extremely offensive.”
“And I hope we do not see more of that in Atlantic City,” Smith said, according to a report in the Atlantic City Press.
But there would be more.
In July 2003, the Borgata casino opened, unabashed about sensuality. The casino didn’t have cocktail waitresses _ they were “Borgata babes,” with their own calendar. Doorknob privacy signs read “Tied up.” And bed pillows in the hotel say “Tonight” and “Not tonight.”
Suddenly sex was no longer trashy. Casinos started calling it “sophisticated.” And everyone got in on it.
The Sands brought back its Copa Girls. Caesars introduced Gladiator Girl. Bally’s trotted out bikini babes at its Bikini’s beach bar. And the Taj recently held a contest, with a bathing suit and evening gown competition, where gamblers helped select its Lady Luck spokesmodel.
Even the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority changed its tune. In an attempt to replicate the success of Las Vegas’ slogan, “What happens here, stays here,” it finally dropped its family-friendly “America’s Favorite Playground” slogan in October 2003 for “Always Turned On.”
Could things go too far?
They did in Las Vegas, some argue. Three years ago, the Hard Rock Hotel, which pioneered the “sex sells” attitude in Sin City, was fined $100,000 to settle complaints that its guards ignored public sex acts at one of its nightclubs.
But there doesn’t seem to be any movement to reverse course.
“In this day and age, if any casino tried to market itself as a family destination, no one would come,” said Anthony Curtis, president of LasVegasAdvisor.com.
Nonetheless, Casino Control Commission Chairwoman Linda Kassekert said there are no plans to revoke the rule prohibiting topless dancing in Atlantic City casinos.
At least not any time soon.
MO/PH/RB END DeHAVEN
(Judy DeHaven is a staff writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.)
Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for two photos, of a belly dancer balancing a sword on her hip and of waitresses Kim Allen and Danielle Cadiou.
