The Latest Sign That Revel/TEN In Atlantic City Is Actually Sold By Dustin Gouker Updated on January 3, 2018. So despite the latest movement. Experts Debate Atlantic City’s Casino Revenue Outlook in 2018. Latest NJ Online Gambling News. A group involving the former head of the Nevada-based Greenspun Corp., owner of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, said it has a deal to acquire the shuttered Revel casino in Atlantic City from developer Glenn Straub, according to records filed with the Atlantic County clerk's office.
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FILE - In this July 23, 2014, file photo, people stand on a high deck at Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – The most spectacular and costly failure in Atlantic City's 36-year history of casino gambling began to play out Monday when the $2.4 billion Revel Casino Hotel emptied its hotel.
Its casino will close early Tuesday morning.
Revel is shutting down a little over two years after opening with high hopes of revitalizing Atlantic City's struggling gambling market. But mired in its second bankruptcy in two years, Revel has been unable to find anyone willing to buy the property and keep it open as a casino. It has never turned a profit.
'It's kind of sad,' said Andrew Tannenbaum of Edison, who has stayed at Revel a dozen times in the past year. 'Compared to other casinos, this was a lot nicer. There wasn't the riff-raff here. But I think they overspent, went overboard and got in over their heads. When the Borgata opened, that should have been the last of the high-end casinos for Atlantic City.'
Revel will be the second of three Atlantic City casinos to close in a two-week span. The Showboat Casino Hotel closed its doors Sunday, and Trump Plaza is closing Sept. 16.
So what killed Revel?
Is The Revel Casino Open
Analysts and competitors say it was hampered by bad business decisions and a fundamental misunderstanding of the Atlantic City casino customer.
'The timing of it could not have been worse,' said Mark Juliano, president of Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania and the former CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City. 'The financial climate while Revel was developing and when it opened were completely different.'
Revel officials declined to comment.
The casino broke ground just before the Great Recession. It ran out of money halfway through construction and had to drop its plans for a second hotel tower while scrambling for the remaining $1 billion or so it needed to finish the project. When it opened in April 2012, it was so laden with debt that it couldn't bring in enough revenue to cover it.
The idea behind Revel was to open a totally different resort, a seaside pleasure palace that just happened to have a casino as one of its features. That included Atlantic City's only total smoking ban, which alienated many gamblers; the lack of a buffet and daily bus trips to and from the casino; and the absence of a players' club. By the time those decisions were reversed, it was already too late. High room and restaurant prices hurt, too.
'If there had been a range of new attractions and potential customers with enough discretionary income, I think that Atlantic City could have absorbed the new capacity,' said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. 'That's certainly what happened with Borgata more than 10 years ago. But the market that Revel foresaw for its property just didn't materialize, partially because of the growing perception that the city wasn't ready for that kind of customer. At the same time, Revel didn't have a plan to successfully market to the traditional Atlantic City customer.'
It also started at a huge disadvantage by not having a pre-existing database of gamblers to solicit, in the way that casinos owned by nationwide companies like Caesars Entertainment or Tropicana Entertainment can.
Customers found Revel's design off-putting as well, said Joe Lupo, senior vice president of the Borgata, whose upscale market Revel appeared to target. Entering from the Boardwalk, they had to take a vertiginous escalator up four flights to reach the casino floor. Once there, the property wound around a circular pattern instead of the linear layout of most other casinos.
'Revel struggled with the execution of plans to develop their market, as well as with their design and just a basic understanding of the Atlantic City visitor,' he said.
Revel still hopes to find a buyer for the property after it has ceased to operate as a casino.
The casino will offer more things for kids and families to do and gamblers of all levels will be welcomed, according to owner Bruce Deifik.
Bruce Deifik gets it.
He has carefully studied what went wrong at Atlantic City's former Revel casino and is fixing it before he reopens the star-crossed property as the Ocean Resort Casino.
When it opens this summer (a date has not yet been set), guests will be able to smoke, eat at a buffet, take bus trips to the resort and find their way around the place much easier.
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The vertiginous 'escalator to heaven' at the main entrance will now have glass safety panels on either side; a two-night stay will no longer be required; a wall blocking the casino off from easy Boardwalk access is being replaced by stairs welcoming foot traffic; the casino will offer more things for kids and families to do; and gamblers of all levels will be welcomed.
All those things were considered problems during the short existence of Revel, the $2.4 billion casino that shut down in 2014 after little more than two years of operation in the most spectacular casino failure in Atlantic City history. Deifik, a Colorado developer, bought it in January for $200 million.
Deifik, who has been living at the Tropicana casino for the past nine months as he readied Ocean Resort, detailed his plans for the property to The Associated Press.
'The first thing we did is pay very close attention to what people said about this place, positive and negative,' he said. 'We will listen; that's a difference-maker. Treat people with respect. Be glad they're here, and treat them as family members. The main difference is a completely different attitude concerning service to our customer. I think there was a huge disconnect there.'
Some Revel patrons said they felt unwelcome there, from not being able to smoke, to a general feeling that higher-end guests were more valued. It took Revel management 14 months (and the first of two bankruptcies) to offer a 'Gamblers Wanted' promotion, and by then, the die was cast for the money-losing casino.
Former Revel executives either declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment. The changes Deifik is making closely mirror those that former Revel customers told the AP in January they wanted to see instituted at the new property, and Revel changed some of its policies before shutting down in an attempt to reverse its decline.
'I'm a non-smoker, but there are groups of people out there that are smokers and you have to be respectful to those people when they come,' Deifik said.
The casino floor is being reconfigured to make it easier to get from place to place. A confusing pedestrian flow through Revel was a common complaint among patrons. New signs are being put up, and employees will greet customers on arrival to direct them.
The popular HQ outdoor pool and dance club will return, and Topgolf will offer virtual golf and other sports.
Actor and musician Mark Wahlberg will have a large presence at Ocean Resort, opening his Wahlburgers burger restaurant, and also will open a bar called 'Entourage,' Deifik said.
Kids will enjoy a large candy store, as well as 'Cereal Town' an eatery 'where you can go and have cereal for dinner, every kind of cereal from around the globe,' Deifik said.
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Deifik also guaranteed Ocean Resort will reach a contract agreement with the city's main casino union, an assessment with which the union agreed; labor relations between the union and Revel were contentious.
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He promises Ocean Resort will not open until it is truly ready.
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'She doesn't have that luxury of being able to make a mistake without people saying, 'Aha!' Deifik said of the property. 'I think everybody is looking to find fault; I'm going to make sure that's not going to be the case.'