[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by Dr.

Jane Bokunewicz who's a faculty director of The Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at our higher ed partner at Stockton University.

Doctor, good to have you with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- We'll put up the website for Stockton and also for the institute for people to find out more.

Hey, what's going on in AC with our casinos, and how has it been impacted by legalized sports gambling?

- Well, Atlantic City casinos have seen tremendous growth in internet gaming and sports betting, but the brick and mortar revenue has been relatively flat over the last couple of years.

Even though sports betting is so popular and everybody sees the high growth rate, it still represents a fairly small percentage of the overall industry.

It's around 8% of the total gaming revenue.

So Atlantic City casinos are still very focused on increasing that brick and mortar gaming.

- New York City about to have casinos, correct?

- Correct.

- Connecticut has casinos, Pennsylvania has casinos.

What the heck do our casinos in AC need to do to be more competitive, doctor?

- Well, Atlantic City has been a regional destination that people come to for a lot more than just the casinos.

In the summer, we can see the increases in revenue because of the attractiveness of the beach and the boardwalk and all the summer activities.

But also Atlantic City is heavily focused on entertainment in the showrooms, food and beverage, you know, upscale food and beverage operations, beautiful hotel rooms.

So Atlantic City is more of a getaway type destination that people visit for many reasons outside of the casinos.

- Let me ask you this, I'm curious about the gambling issue on a lot of levels, but the NBA, the National Basketball Association gambling scandal, there's actually something going on in Major League Baseball as we speak.

We're talking in mid-November.

What the heck do you believe, professor, the connection is, or the impact of these scandals in sports, what do you think the potential impact will be on sports gambling?

Because a lot of these have to do with the prop bets, not just who wins a game and how much they win it by, but all the prop bets, meaning the bets inside the game, which people apparently can play games with illegally distorting the outcome.

It's a long-winded way of getting to how the heck can we trust legalized gambling in sports moving forward?

- Well, the good news when gambling is legalized, as it is now with the online sports betting and sports betting in general, is that they can track the unusual betting patterns, and that's why these recent scandals were discovered.

Whereas, gambling has existed on sports for many, many years illegally, and in the illegal market, it's very difficult to track that type of behavior.

So it is, you know, there's always gonna be a chance of scams and scandals, but the best thing that operators can do is to put the protections in place to try to identify those scandals and to prevent them.

- Let me ask you, Stockton University, as I said, one of our long time higher ed partners, what is the interest, and let people understand the geography of Stockton.

Where are you as it relates to Atlantic City?

- Well, the main campus is in Galloway Township.

It's about six or seven miles outside of Atlantic City, but we now have a campus right in Atlantic City, and it's a really great benefit for Stockton students because we have a rich hospitality program and many of our students end up working in the casinos, both for internships, for summer jobs, for their full-time career.

So Stockton and the industry has a very good partnership where we can benefit each other.

The LIGHT Institute is, Levinson Institute is a great example of that.

We provide research for, that benefits the industry, and we have all of the industry leaders both in the gaming industry and outside of gaming on our advisory board, and they help to shape the research that we do that is relevant to the industry.

- Talk about economic development, meaning, I'm actually have to go down as we speak right now in a couple weeks for a seminar I'm leading in Atlantic City, and I often think to myself, there's, you're on the boardwalk, it's great to be there.

Atlantic Ocean right there.

Casinos are great.

A few blocks away, people know this, it's been conversation forever.

It's like two different worlds.

The economic impact of the casinos on the rest of the city, where are we, professor?

- Well, the tax revenue generated by the casinos, I guess that's on a statewide basis though, has been increasing tremendously in recent years because of the growth of sports betting and internet gaming, which are taxed at a higher rate.

So that tax revenue is very important overall to the state of New Jersey.

Atlantic City is trying to solve the problem that you just described and the way that, the best way that that can happen is to improve the housing market in Atlantic City.

As more people live in the city, then, those areas will become more developed and more appealing, so it will benefit the city as a whole.

And the one opportunity that Atlantic City has in its favor is a lot of land available for development.

Most shore towns are fully developed at this point, but Atlantic City has a great opportunity to redevelop some of those empty spaces with housing and with other amenities that can make it a more attractive place to live and to work.

- Last question.

In the casinos, the jobs, which are incredibly important to not just those who are working there, but their families, right, supporting their families, what is your sense and what is your understanding, professor, as to what percentage of the jobs in Atlantic City and the casinos go to Atlantic City residents?

- It is a smaller percent.

There is more, more of the jobs go to residents in Atlantic County overall.

There's about 23,000 jobs right now that are created by the casino industry, and I believe it's about 8,000 of those that are Atlantic City residents.

- Real quick on this, before I let you go, your interest in Atlantic City comes from where?

- I had a wonderful career in Atlantic City.

I moved down here right after I graduated from college, and I got a job at Playboy Casino, and then I rose up through the ranks and I moved to Tropicana and I was a vice president there for 12 years before I entered the academic world.

My husband was a casino dealer, so our family really benefited from the industry, and I can't say enough about all of the great opportunities it provides.

So you know, for me personally, I love the industry.

- Doctor, thank you so much for joining us and breaking down the situation in AC.

- Thank you.

- Okay, thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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