Why Is Golden Nugget Atlantic City Changing Its Casino Floor Layout?

When talking about Golden Nugget Atlantic City, there is no news regarding hotel room upgrades, a pool deck update or new restaurant announcements.

At least not yet.

While the Marina District property might not be making headlines like Caesars Atlantic City or Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, the Golden Nugget team is quietly wrapping up a fresh layout of its casino floor. The project is centered around the slot product and electronic table game offerings.

Play NJ caught up with Judd Boyer, the Golden Nugget’s executive director of slot operations, to discuss what’s new and why the changes were needed.

Why Golden Nugget AC casino floor layout needed a change

For background purposes, Boyer is still fairly new to the Golden Nugget Atlantic City casino team, coming aboard in July 2021.

However, before coming aboard, Boyer walked the casino floor and saw the potential. He was excited about the opportunity to redesign the slot floor layout.

“So the one thing we’ve done is we’ve gone through and zone by zone, making it more attractive for the customers, more comfortable,” Boyer said. “We wanted the customers to notice an immediate difference and open the slot floor up so they can see across the zones to see where their favorite games are.”

More details regarding the Atlantic City casino floor remodel

The Golden Nugget casino floor project, which started back in March, is ongoing.  Boyer said work continued through half the summer before temporarily stopping. Work resumed right after Labor Day. So including this week, Boyer said there are three weeks left. When all said and done, it will be eight to nine weeks worth of work.

Boyer did not get into specifics in terms of how much capital Golden Nugget is reinvesting on the casino floor. He did say they “upped [the capital] a bit this year,” using it to replace almost 10% of the space.  This includes adding close to 95 games with more on the way. Improving the player experience is a big part of the plans.

“We bought brand new bases to bring the player height of the game to a more comfortable level. And then the layout itself is drastically changed,” Boyer said.

Some of the carpeting has been replaced as well.

In terms of the slots count, Boyer said when everything is said and one, Golden Nugget will have roughly 1,125 slots. This will be a slight reduction from the 1,250 machines that were there when he arrived. Basically, they’re just getting rid of unpopular games.

What new slot titles will Golden Nugget players find?

Like other Atlantic City casinos, Golden Nugget is adding games that customers enjoy playing. This is why adding Cash Express Luxury Line makes sense.

“That’s just a home run everywhere,” Boyer said. “The guests seems to love that everywhere they go.”

Then in the smoking section, there is the new Buffalo Link. It’s hard to miss as Golden Nugget is making section pop with some big signage.

Another area of focus was giving some more volatility to the high limit play area. The new games include:

• Lightning Cash 
• Buffalo Cash 
• Dragon Cash 

Boyer said the customer feedback has been great. He did get some pushback after removing some really, really old games that had to be removed due to parts availability. Boyer is addressing this by helping those players find a machine that offers a similar play mechanic.

Can’t ignore electronic table games

Golden Nugget did not make any changes to its table games section, at least not yet. However, the Golden Nugget casino floor now includes a new and improved electronic table games section.  Craps, roulette, blackjack and baccarat options are available. Gamblers even have the option of playing multiple games at the same time.

Boyer decided to go with the Interblock product line with comfy bench-style seating.

“Personally, I think some of the other vendors just haven’t come up to the level of attractiveness as Interblock,” Boyer said.

Boyer said the section has been open for a little more than a week, and the “craps units were an instant hit.”

He added one adjustment Golden Nugget may make is move the games back a little bit as the space is a little tight when the benches get pushed out.

The Golden Nugget online casino connection

Golden Nugget online casino also happens to be one of the more popular NJ online gambling brands. Plus, the land-based property includes a live dealer studio.

The upside to having a strong NJ online casino product is those playing at home could convert into land-based players and vise versa. Plus, the Golden Nugget AC casino cage is one of the banking options available to mobile players.

Boyer said the online and land-based options bolster each other very well.

“When somebody wants to cash out big, they come to our cage and then they cash out their online stuff and then hopefully sit down at our slot machine, our table game, and play here,” Boyer said.

Regarding future plans for the land-based casino, Boyer is already planning ahead. This includes replacing another 7 to 10% of the floor with more modern machines.