$200K Casino Contest Gamblers Will Really Dig

Dig this! An Atlantic City casino will bury vouchers worth a total of $200,000 in the sand behind it in September for gamblers to dig up and win.

The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort will hold its “$200 Grand In The Sand” promotion on Sept. 1.

Since casino gambling began here in 1978, casinos have wanted to keep their patrons inside the dark casino walls; the beach was someplace to go after the gambling was done. But the Trump promotion will bring the winning outdoors.

“We wanted to bring to Atlantic City something different, something new and exciting, something that ties together the fun of casino play with our region's greatest natural resource,” said Kathleen McSweeney, senior vice president of marketing for Trump Entertainment Resorts. The promotion, she said, “brings the concept of a buried treasure to an unprecedented level in Atlantic City.”

The casino will bury burlap sacks with a dollar sign on each one in the sand, in marked-off quadrants measuring about 30 square feet. Twenty customers who have their Trump player's club card inserted in a machine at 2 p.m. that day will be selected at random by casino staff to come to the Boardwalk, where they will choose a numbered shovel, Trump spokesman Brian Cahill said.

“Say you choose shovel number 17,” he said. “You'd then be led to quadrant number 17 and you'd dig there, and however much is in the bag, you win.”

Prizes range from $1,000 to one bag worth $100,000. The casino is not burying actual cash in the sand; each bag will contain a voucher with a dollar amount on it that winners will bring inside the casino to the cashier window in order to be paid.

If contestants can't find the bag in their designated area, casino staff will help them, Cahill said.

Previous Trump promotions have included giving away plastic surgery, Botox and a ride in a hot air balloon.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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