The last time I visited Atlantic City, my experience was inconsistent. On one hand, the room I stayed in was wonderful; on the other, service was so bad it was almost funny. The piece was not received well in "Vegas by the sea." A New York Times Sunday Business lead story coincided with this past weekend's revisit. I was there to scope out the Chelsea Hotel once again. I am doing the Halloween decor and needed to take photos and measurements and such.

I'm buying two Greyhound tickets to Atlantic City to check out The Water Club at AC’s famous Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa. As we exit the city, the last billboard catches my eye: an advertisement for a nightclub at Caesar’s in AC called Dusk, with a headline that reads “DJ AM presents Dusk” Sort of a glum way to kick off a trip, though part of the motivation for the pilgrimage is to catch the Blink 182 reunion tour at the Borgata. As we all know, Travis Barker and DJ AM were the survivors of a plane crash in 2008. Point is ... might be time to update the billboard.

On August 29th, BlackBook hosted 25 incredibly fortunate individuals on an all-expense paid getaway to Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City to attend a VIP BlackBook Party staged at Harrah¹s hotspot, The Pool After Dark. After the jump, a peek into the debauchery and fun.

As I reported the other day, I was whisked down to Atlantic City to DJ on Sunday at C5, the fifth-floor poolside nightclub at the uber-trendy Chelsea Hotel. Alan Philips and Josh Shames were (I guess) desperate to produce a flyer promoting the event as "with rock n roll & 80's music all night long by Steve Lewis (of BlackBook magazine)". BlackBook is read in civilized cities throughout the U.S. and abroad, so I became skeptical of its (or my) relevance in A.C. The Chelsea Hotel is an attempt to bring downtown New York lifestyle to New Jersey's Vegas by the sea. For me, it was two days on a beach far away from my troubles and tribulations. It took a mere two hours in the car they generously sent for me. Atlantic City is really trying. Each time I go down, there are major improvements but with few exceptions the service is archaic and the crowds just awful. C5 was an exception.

The travel industry loves it a gimmick, and here comes 9/9/09, just in time for chronological-numerological huckstering. Granted, it's not quite as auspicious as 7/7/07 was, or not as magical as 8/8/08, but 9/9/09 is what we got this year, and there are deals to be had. The gaming industry loves a number trifecta: Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel is offering $99 room rates, $99 spa treatments, and a chance to win $999 in bonus slot dollars. Over in Vegas the Hilton is offering a $99 wedding special including ceremony and photo, plus a witness, gratis!

It's crowded at the top. Choosing the best DJ in the world would depend on quite a few probably impossible-to-quantify criteria. For some it would be a Junior Vasquez (yes, still); others Carl Cox or a Sasha or a Digweed. Some go goo goo over Jonathan Peters, while others rave about Steve Aoki or Mark Ronson or Armen Van Buren or Armen Van Helden. For me I gotta think of Funkmaster Flex, and I adore Paul Sevigny. And yes, tragically, the dude at the top might have been different just a week ago. It would be real hard to pick a numero uno ... a best. The worst is far easier: that would be me. Despite my limited skills, zero technical prowess, and a set that has three tracks post-1987, I keep getting hired. This Sunday, in an end-of-summer act of desperation, the Chelsea Hotel down in Atlantic City will whisk me down to bore its guests off the dance floor, forcing them to seek sanctuary at the bar. Maybe they're brilliant!

Eric Millstein developed Atlantic City's newest attraction, Dusk Nightclub at Caesars, with the Red Stripe Plane Group entertainment and lifestyle strategists and DJ AM. The nightlife guru, who spent years getting to know AC while creating MIXX and mur.mur for the Borgata, offers plenty of reasons to jump on the ACES train for a night out of New York.

Recently BlackBook scouts (the entire staff, coincidentally) were deployed on a mission of high importance: board the newly minted ACES train at Penn Station on a direct course to Atlantic City. Upon arrival, infiltrate Harrah’s Resort and Casino for a covert recon mission. Eat, drink, gamble, spend. Is this sprawling ode to hedonism worthy of BlackBook’s next blowout?

Courtesy of your pals at BlackBook and Harrah's Resort -- just get 5 of your friends to sign up for BBook.com, and Harrah's will give you a free hotel room in Atlantic City. Plus, you're automatically entered to win an all expense paid trip to Harrah’s Pool After Dark for an exclusive BlackBook Party. Various terms and conditions apply; go here to find out more.

I don’t like Vegas -- never have, never will. I think no matter how many towers of greed you put up there, no matter how much money you throw at, it’s still only about as classy as the hookers working the casino floor. For me, whatever happens in Vegas can thankfully stay there. Since I don’t engage hookers, gamble, or care about magic shows or Celine Dion, I never have anything to do. I go for business a couple times a year, and I generally use the time in between work to catch up on first-run movies. The restaurants are amazing, and so I do trip around and see what’s the latest and greatest, but I always feel afterward like I need a bath and a shower. For me, the alternative to dirty Vegas has always been Atlantic City. I’ve been going there since before Bally’s -- and yes, I remember how bad it was -- but even at its sleaziest there, was a certain majesty in the old buildings (now mostly gone) and the boardwalk. When I was younger, I had fun checking out the real streets and comparing them to their monopoly counterparts. I risked my teeth on saltwater taffy, visited the remnants of the steel pier, and swam in the Atlantic. That version of Atlantic City can be seen as it morphs into the future, our present, in Louis Malle’s beautiful film Atlantic City, with Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon.