ATLANTIC CITY Coach operators who have written off Atlantic City as a destination for their gaming customers may want to reconsider at least for one night later this month.

On Oct. 18, the old Sands Casino Hotel will come crashing down in what the local newspaper says will be a "spectacular implosion that will light up the nighttime sky and give the Boardwalk some Las Vegas-style pyrotechnical pizazz."

There will be a six-minute fireworks display - designed to "build excitement" -- before a series of controlled explosions rip through the 21-story hotel tower at 9:30 p.m., bringing it down in a cloud of dust and debris.

The Sands operated for 26 years but the demolition will reduce it to rubble in a matter of seconds. The old casino, which closed in November, is being razed to make way for a $1.5 billion mega-resort by Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc.

To bring down the Sands, Pinnacle is adopting a fairly common style and method used in Las Vegas splashy, fireworks-laden implosions to create a spectacular sendoff, as well as draw large crowds to the beach and Boardwalk.

"There's something about implosions that people are just fascinated with, even if you're not into construction or demolition. It's fascinating to watch a building come down," said Kim Townsend, CEO of Pinnacle's Atlantic City operations.

This will be the first casino implosion in Atlantic City. The city has not had an implosion since a handful of old Boardwalk hotels were cleared out in the 1970s to make room for the new generation of casinos - among them, the Sands.

The Sands opened in 1980, as the Brighton Hotel & Casino, adopting the Sands name of Las Vegas fame the following year after a change in ownership. The hotel was popular in the 1980s and early '90s, catering to high rollers and bringing big-name entertainers, such as Frank Sinatra, to its Copa Room.

However, over time it was outpaced by the competition.

The new casino being developed by Pinnacle is tentatively scheduled to open in 2011 or 2012. The complex is expected to include about 2,000 hotel rooms and 500,000 square feet of space for retail stores and restaurants in a mall-like setting. There will be another 250,000 to 400,000 square feet of space for the casino, conventions, entertainment arena, ballroom and spa.

The implosion is being staged on a Thursday night to try to minimize disruptions. After the building is imploded, crews will use the overnight hours to begin cleaning up debris in hopes of getting the city back to normal by morning rush hour.

The company handling the implosion previously imploded the Stardust, Aladdin, Dunes and Sands casinos in Las Vegas.

Fireworks by Grucci, billed as "America's first family of fireworks," will stage the pyrotechnics preceding the Sands implosion.