Place Your Bets: Atlantic City Ups Its Hotel Stakes

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From Harrah's, Borgata glimmers gold, like a tall stack of bullion bars. I walked toward the light.

The distance between the hotels is short, but the difference in style is vast. At Harrah's Waterfront Tower, guests must undergo the assault of the casino en route to the lobby; Borgata's Water Club has a private entrance and valet, far removed from the gaming din. The Waterfront Tower's rooms are spacious yet aesthetically safe; the Water Club's are intimate, enviable showcases of cosmopolitan design. (For example, above my toilet, a lamp fixture illuminated a tiny nude sculpture in a frame, transforming my water closet into an art gallery.)

"If you're like my wife and you don't like casinos . . . ," a middle-aged guest explained to me at the check-in counter when I asked him why he chose the Water Club over Borgata's main hotel. "Plus, there's the snob appeal."

Oh, dahling, how right you are. The hotel poured $400 million into the 43-story, 800-room property and scoured the world's forests, quarries and design ateliers for accouterments: padded leather walls, zebrawood floors, Asian bamboo stalks, L'Occitane toiletries. In fact, the decor has become an attraction itself: Guests have asked the management about conducting tours of the hotel, and, of course, the mattresses, linens, towels and tumblers are all for sale, online and in the on-site shop, Cameo.

For the most part, though, the main activities are eating, sleeping, swimming and spa-ing. I also added furniture hopping.

I started on a languid leather sofa in the Sunroom, the lobby lounge with a fireplace, water-trickling rock wall, and food and beverage service. Then I moved outdoors to a poolside chaise covered in white terrycloth and adorned with a single stalk of yellow flowers. As the sun started to dip, I had to fight the urge to go to bed, a decadent confection of chocolate- and caramel-colored linens and Egyptian cotton sheets.

"The finish, the sheets, the bedding, the carpet -- everything is uniquely luxurious," said Randal Mrasik, general manager of Izakaya, the Japanese restaurant that opened last month in the Borgata. "That hasn't been done here before."

To be sure, the Water Club has kicked up the level of grandeur in Atlantic City and is attracting those who live by infinity pools and high thread counts.

Last week, for example, the stars of Bravo's "Real Housewives of Orange County" were staying at the hotel. I saw the camera crew but never the wives. Eventually, I asked if they were coming down and was told that they were holed up in their suite. Seems they too were powerless against the rich leather pillows, Italian marble showers and silky sheets.