Atlantic City's Most Expensive Casino Ever To Re-Open This Summer, Owner SaysGambling At Property Expected, But License Hasn't Been Awarded Yet |
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A $2.4 billion casino in Atlantic City that has been closed since the fall of 2014 is going to re-open in June, its owner said this week.
Florida businessman Glenn Straub, who bought the casino last year for four cents on the dollar, told the Associated Press that part of the property will again be open for business this summer. He said that dining and hotel rooms will be available, adding that he plans to have a gaming floor, though his license from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement is still pending.
The words from Straub are reassuring for Atlantic City, which has been flirting with bankruptcy and/or a state takeover of its finances. Revel was one of four casinos there to close in 2014.
It’s been a roller coaster for the most expensive casino in the city’s history since Straub acquired it. He has been fined numerous times over the fire suppression systems in the shuttered casino, battled in court with the company that supplied power to the facility and even considered just flipping the casino to get away from its troubles. Other ideas once considered for Revel were to convert it into a university and later to use it as temporary housing for Syrian refugees.
Damage done to Revel by seagulls crashing into the windows cost Straub $36,000 as well.
When the property re-opens this summer, in whatever capacity, it won’t be called Revel, Straub reiterated this week. A new name hasn’t been decided upon yet.
Straub’s plans come as New Jersey lawmakers are preparing to OK a November referendum on casinos in north Jersey, which analysts say would cause further harm to Atlantic City’s gambling market. Atlantic City casino win in 2015 was $2.56 billion, down 6.5 percent from $2.74 billion in 2014. The market has been contracting ever since 2006’s record of more than $5 billion.
Revel opened in 2012 and never turned a profit in its less than three years in business.
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