Robert Shapiro gazed in awe at a gold outfit worn by the late David Bowie on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. “Now I have a reason to come here,” said Shapiro, a consultant from New York who has been collecting rock ’n roll memorabilia since he was a teenager. Shapiro has made two trips to the resort since the casino opened late last month, and neither has been for gambling purposes. “I can’t believe how much stuff they have.
Imagining the sheer volume of it all was enough to make me get in the car and come down here. I had to see it in person,” he said. Unlike its neighboring casinos, the music memorabilia Hard Rock is known for making its property desirable to folks who simply would not have been interested in spending an evening in a casino otherwise.