Atlantic City's Most Expensive Casino Ever Built To Close Next Month After Horrendous Two-Year FailureRevel Casino Hotel Hasn't Found Buyer In Bankruptcy Court |
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On Monday, Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City was posting photos of sushi and drinks on the beach to its Facebook page with captions like “Starting the week out right!” On Tuesday, the casino announced that it would close its doors next month.
Revel, the most expensive casino ever built in Atlantic City, failed to find a buyer in bankruptcy court, the company said, according to the Associated Press.
A total of $2.4 billion was spent to build the high-end casino that ended up never turning a profit in the roughly two years it was open. Revel ran into trouble before even opening, taking six years to complete and requiring an additional $1.1 billion investment in 2011, along with state help.
“Despite the effort to improve the financial performance of Revel, it has not proven to be enough to put the property on a stable financial footing,” the company wrote.
Revel won’t be open and operating like normal the day before the doors shut. The company said that “an orderly wind-down of the business” will be implemented.
The Atlantic Club casino closed in January, and with Revel and two other casinos set to close in the coming weeks, Atlantic City will soon have just eight casinos.
The Showboat will shutter its doors Aug. 31, while Trump Plaza will do so Sept. 16.
Online gambling was legalized last year in New Jersey to prevent casinos from closing, lawmakers argued then. If the number of casinos standing is how you can gauge the success of Internet gambling in the Garden State, it, like Revel, has been a complete failure.
The job loss from Revel alone is going to be more than 3,100. As of April, the unemployment rate in Atlantic City was a staggering 14.9 percent, more than double the rate for the rest of New Jersey.
Why has Atlantic City suffered so much since 2006? Casino capital has moved to markets in other states, most notably Pennsylvania. The games moved closer to home for gamblers.
In 2012, U.S. commercial casinos won $37.34 billion from gamblers, which was close to the record of $37.5 billion set in 2007. The gaming industry has recovered well since the financial crisis, a.k.a. the Great Recession, but Atlantic City has been a casualty.
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