By Lisa Fleisher

Tourists in Atlantic City placed their last few bets Sunday morning before gaming was shut down and casinos evacuated in advance of Hurricane Sandy.

Gov. Chris Christie had ordered the casinos to cease gambling by 3 p.m. Sunday and evacuate by 4 p.m., but several casinos closed tables earlier than that. Slots at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel & Casino were lit up but the seats were empty, and gaming stopped at noon, workers said.

Downtown Atlantic City was soaked by the afternoon. Retail stores had taped or boarded up their windows and placed sandbags against their doors.

Helene Gallo, 78 years old, came from Akron, Ohio, with her daughter and son-in-law on one of her regular trips to Atlantic City.

“We were dumb enough to play this morning,” Gallo said as her daughter laughed. “Today, I donated all morning, because I felt sorry for them. They didn’t have very many people playing.”

The family was supposed to leave at 9 p.m. Sunday. “It is what it is,” her son-in-law Barry Stover said. “Mother Nature takes over. We have no choice.”

John and Chrissie McColl brought their two young children from nearby Galloway Township to see the waves from the boardwalk.

“We’ve seen bigger storms so far,” Chrissie McColl said. “We know it isn’t here yet, but whenever there’s a big storm we like to come and take some pictures.”

Some hospital and casino workers said they were staying in the hotels through the storm.

Tolls were free on the Atlantic City Expressway heading out of town, and traffic was steady but moderate.

Last year, New Jersey officials had problems enforcing mandatory evacuation orders in Atlantic City during Irene, when some seniors didn’t want to leave their high-rises.