Atlantic City's Revel Casino Hotel said that it will shut down next month after failing to find a buyer in bankruptcy court, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The company said that it will close its doors on Sept. 10. The move comes two years after the $2.4 billion casino opened, and the company never turned a profit. The casino was due to be sold at a bankruptcy court auction last week, but that was postponed until Thursday to allow casino officials to study bids that were received. But after Revel's board met on Monday, the decision was made to shutter the iconic glass-covered casino at the north end of the Boardwalk.
In related news, the shuttering next month of Revel, the $2.6 billion hotel and casino that was meant to usher in a new era of opulence in Atlantic City when it opened in 2012, is set to quicken the seaside community’s downward spiral, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Five years after the longest recession since the 1930s, hotel rooms sit vacant and revenue keeps falling in what was once the second-largest U.S. casino market. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s turnaround plan for the municipality, begun in 2011 and hinged on Revel’s success, hasn’t delivered, prompting Moody’s Investors Service to cut the city’s $245 million of general-obligation debt to junk last month. Moody’s pins the city’s struggle mostly on its dependence on one industry. About 70 percent of taxes come from casinos, whose revenue has slid for seven straight years as competition from neighboring states intensifies. While Las Vegas has rebounded, drawing tourists with conventions and restaurants, Atlantic City remains largely a place for gambling day-trippers. Read more.