Dave & Busters is opening inside Jay-Z’s old 40/40 Club in Atlantic City. Here’s what it’s like inside.

ATLANTIC CITY — In a city always craving new investment, especially on the interior Atlantic Avenue, walking into the new Dave & Buster’s in Atlantic City felt like a genuine jolt of optimism. And not just because of the “wow wall” that greets you with 40-foot TV screens and shiny new high tops (the table kind).

The place, nearly 22,000 square feet at 2120 Atlantic Ave., was buzzing during an employee-training session and sneak preview a week before its opening on Dec. 14. It felt alive and ready to go, like a sports arena filling for game time.

How could it not? Dave & Busters will be breathing life into Atlantic and Missouri Avenues, a long depressingly empty corner that has greeted motorists coming off the Atlantic City Expressway at the center of town.

It will take over the old 40/40 Club owned by Jay-Z, which shut its doors before Hurricane Sandy in 2013 and never reopened, and the adjacent former Melting Pot, at one end of the Tanger Outlets known as The Walk.

Here are four things to love, or at least feel hopeful, about the new game in town.

The high-profile intersection’s woes were only compounded by the 2014 closing of Trump Plaza and its 2021 partial implosion that left only an empty East Tower and a little-used parking garage graced by the outlines of a golden-haired icon (you know who). There are a Bass Pro Shops and a parking lot. It’s been ready for some love.

As Bruce Springsteen’s Atlantic City continues to foretell, maybe everything that dies one day comes back. So here it is, another decade, another grand opening, another possible game changer: A high-tech midway two blocks from the low-tech Boardwalk, a state-of-the-art sports bar without open sports gambling (available on your phone, of course).

“The location’s actually perfect. The way you come in on the expressway or have to leave Atlantic City is through the Outlets, having the bus station a few blocks down,” said Angel Acosta, a veteran Atlantic City worker (P.F. Chang’s, the old Taj Mahal), who is the Dave & Buster’s A.C. general manager.

Atlantic Avenue, in general, has been a perennial problem child for Atlantic City, with parts of it plagued by illegal drug activity and serving as a gathering spot for the unhoused and those suffering from addiction. But police, social service agencies, and politicians continue to work to improve the situation.

Meanwhile, businesses open, and restaurants thrive. A shiny new Dave & Buster’s can only help the once-grand downtown of Atlantic City reclaim its dignity.

“We’re in a good spot,” Acosta said. “Everybody that’s been knocking on our doors trying to get in has been like we’ve been waiting for you to be here.”

Despite its corporate colors of New York Mets/Knicks-evoking blue and orange, the new Dave & Busters in A.C. is very much branded for the Philly sports fan.

It has its signature midway of arcade games, many of them looking like slot machines — the whole effect is a kind of de-casinoed version of the sports betting rooms and slot machines of the nearby casinos.

Acosta hopes to attract industry workers with daily late-night happy hours and industry nights, sports fans, and families looking for another place to land in Atlantic City.

In the last year, Bart Blatstein has opened his long-awaited Island Waterpark adjacent to Showboat, which also features a Lucky Snake arcade that welcomes families with non-slot machine games. Places on the thriving Orange Loop entertainment district along Tennessee and New York Avenues have welcomed the casual tavern crowd (Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall, the new Kings Pub that replaced the Pic-a-Lilli Pub).

The sprawling and acclaimed Cardinal A.C. restaurant and bar welcomed families in its front play yard this summer. North Beach Mini Golf animated the inlet section of the Boardwalk.

Acosta thinks there’s room for all in the old, still beloved beach town, especially on rainy days.

“If you want to go to the waterpark, then absolutely go to the waterpark, enjoy yourself over there,” he said. “If you want to come here and watch a game on a TV, if you want to come play games on the midway with your kids and it’s rainy and you can’t go to the beach that day, come visit us.”

Dave & Buster brings 160 new jobs, most of them going to people in the Atlantic City area, says Acosta, who lives in nearby Smithville. He says 4,800 people applied during its week of job fairs. For many in this resort town, it’s a second job or an off-season fill-in job. For others, it’s a full-time gig.

Even though Dave & Buster’s is a chain, and in some sense bringing a corporate version of the organic attractions of the Boardwalk and the Steel Pier amusements, a chain version of, say, a regular old sports-oriented bar like the nearby Ducktown Tavern or Wingcraft Kitchen and Beer Bar, Acosta says the company is committed to the local community.

Plus, the Tanger Outlets and the nearby Convention Center could always use another place for people to eat. There’s also the relatively new Vegans R Us and the old original brewpub, the Tun Tavern, a few blocks away.

Dave & Buster’s offers its “hand-crafted chef menu,” featuring a signature bacon burger, voodoo pasta, and a particularly tasty-looking Big Daddy Chocolate Cake (1,980 calories).

Listen, Atlantic City is happy for any vote of confidence, and this is a big one.

Acosta is looking to appeal to families but also people interested in just hanging out and watching UFC fight nights and boxing matches.

Among the games offered are Zombieland VR: Headshot Fever, Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship, Wicked Tuna, and a life-size version of Minecraft Dungeons Arcade.

At the opening on the 14th, the first 100 people in line at 10:30 a.m. will get a $100 card to play the games. A similar promotion will be in effect the following night at 6.

Hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to midnight, Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to midnight.