Hurricane Irene: Atlantic City casinos to reopen Monday

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Atlantic City’s 11 casinos will reopen at noon Monday after surviving Hurricane Irene without major damage, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement said.

The casinos, 10 of which shut down on Friday, with the 11th closing at noon Saturday, will have to undergo a series of state checks before they reopen, such as following procedures for returning money to cash cages and testing their computer systems, but those are expected to be routine.

The casinos reported only minor cosmetic damage from the storm.

Atlantic City’s casinos had not been shut down since 1985, when Hurricane Gloria veered close to the New Jersey coast, though it ultimately did not make landfall in the state.

Officials did not immediately have an estimate of how much revenue the casinos lost during the shutdown.

Atlantic City’s famed boardwalk appeared to have escaped the storm without major damage, though the beachfront suffered significant erosion in some places. Emergency management officials reported no storm-related fatalities in Atlantic County.

RELATED:

Hurricane Irene: No one ‘dodged a bullet’

Residents rescue a dolphin beached by Irene

Irene’s wrath gives way to sun in North Carolina

-- David Meeks in Atlantic City