By David Madden

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) — The people behind an effort to put a Hard Rock Café casino in Atlantic City have pulled the plug on the project.

AC Gateway LLC had high hopes for putting in the first small, so-called “boutique” casino-hotel (see previous story).  But with the economy and regional competition, the decision was made not to post the required $1-million deposit with the State of New Jersey (see related story).

Israel Posner, a gambling industry and hospitality expert at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, suggests that Atlantic City is morphing into more of a resort town than a casino town.

“There’s so many moving pieces that I think it’s very difficult to make a decision that doesn’t take into account the very rapidly changing industry,” he tells KYW Newsradio.

In fact, Posner expects most of the changes in the next few years to center on the non-gaming side of the business ledger, where there has been significant growth lately.