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the casino industry here is pretty robust
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This comment by Gonso is so true it is scary. In 2006 the TWELVE Atlantic City casinos did around $5.2 BILLION in gaming revenue. The FORTY ONE!! casinos on what is considered "the Las Vegas strip" did $6.0 BILLION (source: Center For Gaming Research, UNLV,
http://gaming.unlv.edu/abstract/index.html).
Clearly Atlantic City can tolerate a decrease as a result of competition. Couple that with the fact that AC is just now realizing what Vegas learned ten years ago in that people are willing to spend money on non gaming entertainment and it is easy to see there are plenty of growth opportunities.
OP still has not addressed my question as to why a wildly successful company like MGM/Mirage would announce plans to make a $5 billion investment in a dying market. Certainly they must be aware of the same figures that OP shares with 2+2 on a monthly basis.