A Revel by any other name …; Christie abandons Atlantic City

Whatever it’s called when Glenn Straub reopens it, that $2.4 billion turkey along the Boardwalk won’t be named Revel. The new moniker is the least of several uncertainties surrounding the property. For one, Straub hasn’t even finished his gaming-license application yet, so it’s ‘wait ’til next year’ for a reopening of Revel’s casino. And when it does come back, it will be half the size it once was. No operator has been announced (it definitely won’t be Straub’s Polo North) but the marketing focus will be on Asian players.

However, the casino is low on Straub’s to-do list for Revel. He wants to get construction of his planned water park underway this spring. While that’s in progress, he hopes to get Revel back into the hotel market, preferably in June. One thing Straub definitely isn’t doing is trying to board the Showboat, whose sale to Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein closed last week. The latter definitely plans to operate as a hotel and may even try to regain the gaming entitlement that Caesars Entertainment stripped off the property. (If Trump Taj Mahal protests, we’ll know that their objections to Stockton University at the Showboat were self-serving B.S.) But … does Atlantic City really need two more casinos at this point? Straub’s order of priorities looks rather prudent.

Heck, will Atlantic City still be open for business by the time Straub gets those hotel rooms online? The Boardwalk’s been the victim of a disgraceful and craven abandonment by Gov. Chris Christie (R). After the Legislature satisfied the requirements set out in his veto of the PILOT Program, Christie let the bill die on his desk, no action taken. That means Atlantic City faces a $33.5 million budget shortfall, empty coffers and the prospect of an imminent state takeover. Perhaps Christie intends to strike some kind of ‘strongman’ posture, to restore his flagging presidential aspirations. Who knows? His (in)actions  with regard to New Jersey‘s casino metropolis have defied reason of late.

So it’s back to Square One. And Christie offered cryptic non-explanations while doing the really important things for the Garden State … like stumping in Iowa. He and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) appear to be in collusion with Sweeney’s naked ambition to make Atlantic City a puppet of Trenton, where Christie’s behavior was met with raspberries. “For 16 months, we’ve debated and discussed this legislation and never once has the governor given his input to one of the biggest issues facing our state,” said Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo (D, right), accusing Christie of “abandoned leadership.”

“New Jersey has joined Alice in Wonderland … The legislature concurred with [Christie’s] version of the bills, and now he is bizarrely vetoing them,” said a puzzled state Sen. James Whelan (D). Added a stunned Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian (R), “We’re not the Confederacy or Japan or Germany. We didn’t lose a war. We’re just a municipality in the state of New Jersey that’s always recognized the authority of the state … So the concept of a state takeover, it kinds of befuddles me.”

Emergency manager Kevin Lavin isn’t on board yet with the Sweeney plan — although Unite-Here Local 54 President Robert McDevitt is — but he does have his own belt-tightening regimen for the Boardwalk. (Lavin’s report, however, comes at no small expense to taxpayers.) Already, Christie has ignored Lavin’s support of PILOT … and Lavin is no apologist for a city that, in his view, “will remain adrift from one fiscal and cash crisis to the next.” Lavin calls for privatizing Boardwalk Hall and the fire department, but to hang onto Bader Field until it can get a better price for the former airport. Atlantic City’s casino market has stabilized but a depressed tax base and conflicting political agendas have left it a political disaster area.

* Poker has long since jumped the shark in America but it’s only coming into its own in Macao, where play continues to ramp up while baccarat is wheezing.