But that's changed, thanks to a $60 million investment by Bally's parent, Harrah's Entertainment. Part of that investment went to demolishing a retail strip that blocked the hotel from the boardwalk, and replacing it with a grassy courtyard.

"It was the right thing to do, to bring the center boardwalk together [with the hotel]," says a Bally's spokesman, in a statement. "It says a lot about the company in terms of the investment [Harrah's] was willing to make, back into our product in the Atlantic City market."

Much of that $60 million, in fact, was spent taking the half-acre site occupied by the retail strip back into the Bally's fold. Altogether, more than $38 million was spent to buy the property, occupied by souvenir shops, a buffet, a fortuneteller and the like, from the locally based Schiff family, and to demolish the retail building. The remainder was spent on restoring the Dennis French chateau-style façade and renovate its guest rooms, according to Bally's officials.