$100M year-round water park gives families more to do in Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — It was awful weather for the first full day of summer Thursday: rainy, cold and windy.

But it was perfect for what Bart Blatstein is selling.

The Philadelphia developer is about to open Island Waterpark, a $100 million indoor aquatic recreation facility designed to appeal to family tourism and give visitors something else to do besides gambling as Atlantic City seeks to become less dependent on the spin of the slot machine reels, the roll of the dice or the flip of the cards.

It is an effort that Las Vegas has used with great success in recent decades as that city emphasized resort amenities, entertainment and most recently, professional sports, in addition to gambling.