Fewer casinos could mean better financial performance for the survivors. gambling market aren't expanding the overall pie but are slicing it into ever-smaller pieces. New casinos popping up in an already saturated Northeastern U.S. Atlantic City will end the year with eight casinos after beginning the year with 12. Since 2006, Atlantic City's casino revenue has fallen from $5.2 billion to $2.86 billion last year, and it will fall further this year. Yet many analysts and casino executives say the painful contraction now shrinking Atlantic City's casino market is exactly what the city needs to survive. Safety Amid slog of Ukraine war, NATO turns warier eye on Russia

'Everyone's in favor of a free market until it doesn't exactly work for them.' 'They just want to eliminate competition,' Ireland said. Caesars also teamed with Tropicana Entertainment to buy the Atlantic Club last December and close it in January. But the company says it is closing Showboat to help reduce the total number of casinos in Atlantic City. What makes it even tougher to swallow is that the Showboat - one of four Atlantic City casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment - is still turning a profit. Before dinnertime Sunday, neither will have a job. His wife works there, too, as a cocktail server.

'We never thought this would happen,' said Chris Ireland, who has been a bartender at the Showboat since it opened. To the thousands who will be left behind, it still seems unreal.

The Showboat is closing Sunday, followed by Revel on Monday and Tuesday. More than 5,000 workers will lose their jobs in an unprecedented weekend in the seaside gambling resort, leaving many feeling betrayed by a system that once promised stable, well-paying jobs. A time few could imagine during the not-too-distant glory days of casino gambling has arrived in Atlantic City, where two casinos will close this weekend and a third will shut down in two weeks.

Five major casinos close atlantic city