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03/29/2024 04:41:46 am

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Atlantic City's US$2.4 Billion Revel Casino Shuts Down

Revel Casino Shuts Down

Employees of the Revel Casino Hotel remove signage from its wall along the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey September 1, 2014. REUTERS/Tom Mihalek

Revel Casino, Atlantic City's newest and costliest casino, is shutting down on Tuesday morning, a little more than two years after opening.

The shutdown Tuesday morning came a day after the closure of Revel's hotel and will be followed by four other Atlantic City casinos this month.

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The US$2.4 billion Revel Casino closure, however, will be the costliest failure of all the Atlantic City casinos that have bid farewell.

It started construction just before the Great Recession hit, and had to take on so much debt it never could turn a profit.

Revel was constructed with high hopes of turning around Atlantic City's struggling casino market, but to no avail.

Bloomberg reported that Revel Casino Hotel searched for a buyer for the past 10 months but failed to get interest.

Analysts said Revel fell prey to poor timing, bad design and a misreading of the local market.  One source said Revel's 11th floor check-in desk, which can only be reached by escalator, was something that investors who understand the hotel business will not fully appreciate.

With the failure of a sale, Revel will likely now be owned by Wells Fargo & Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co, which provided US$125 million in court-approved funding.

Atlantic City started 2014 with 12 casinos to bolster the market but no amount of marketing and promotions have helped revived the industry.

By mid-September, only eight casinos will be up and running while 8,000 workers will have lost their jobs due to the shutdown of the four gaming facilities.

Donald Trump, whose brand once topped three Atlantic City casinos but sued to get his name removed, saw what was wrong in Atlantic City.

"I see what's happening in Atlantic City; it's just too much competition," Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Trish Regan.

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