Glenn Straub still doesn’t have a new name for Revel but that’s not stopping him from reopening the casino — and on schedule, too. He expects to have 40% of the casino floor operational within a week. Straub will reopen Revel as a slot house on June 15. In a cart-before-horse move, Straub is going to be freelancing as a casino operator until he can get an experienced one in place. After shopping Revel around the industry, it appears that Straub will go with one of the Boardwalk’s existing operators. (Let the guessing game begin.) As compensation, aforesaid operator will get a percentage of Revel equity. In his rush to relaunch Revel, Straub has attempted to leapfrog many obstacles but may not succeed.
Former Resorts International executive Steven Norton said “there is no way he can get a casino up and running by then. A casino company has to be hired to manage, hire their own staff, and there are a lot of licensing issues there.” Added Stockton University Associate Professor of Hospitality & Tourism Management Donna Albano, “My sources have indicated for months how poor the talent pool is locally. A lot of people have moved to other gaming properties near and far.” She continued, “A marketing team should technically be in place now, and the reservations phone lines should be open along with OTA visibility. I had the good fortune to spend the summer prior to the opening of Borgata as a hospitality consultant — and that team was on board and working a full year prior to opening. The planning and development team was there two years prior.” Straub, however, seems to think he can conjure players and room occupants out of thin air.
Revel’s restaurants lack permission to reopen. Its rope-climbing course hasn’t been certified for safety. There’s no room-reservation system in place and whether Straub has a 
certificate of occupancy is under dispute. And finally, Atlantic City has not given the go-ahead to reopen either the casino or 500 of its hotel rooms. For Straub’s damn-the-torpedoes plan to succeed, a lot of things have to happen in five business days. As for the question of Straub operating the casino in lieu of having an operator in place, that’s simply been begged. (The Division of Gaming Enforcement is still investigating Straub’s Polo North.) A city building official was impressed with Revel’s excellent state of preservation, saying, “It looks like they just shut the lights out and left like they were coming back tomorrow.”
Despite a period of rocky relationships with Polo North, Revel’s extant restaurant operators are keen to work with Straub. Said Frank Shull, who ran Mussel Bar & Grille, “We had a great meeting with Mr. Straub. We are excited to open. We just want to know, ‘What is the plan?’” A component of it is for tenants to receive a 20% discount on their utility costs, now that Straub owns Revel’s power and water plants.
Straub’s found one constructive use for the failed megaresort: a circuit for his daily bicycle rides. As for the interior, he says, “It took us a long time to figure out how not to get lost in this place.” Has he found the right path yet?
* Mediation talks having crashed and burned, Caesars Entertainment‘s bankruptcy 
reorganization is headed for another delay. Creditors balked at cover-your-ass lawsuit protections that Caesars and its private equity owners wanted built into the reboot of the company. Labor union Unite-Here, which represents a large tranche of Caesars’ workforce, had its own objections. “Our analysis of Caesars’ bankruptcy plan is that it doesn’t fix the underlying structural problems and may wind up with another trip to the bankruptcy court,” said a union representative. Caesars, in the meantime, is going back to the drawing board with its reorganization plan, with further revisions to be presented on June 15. Nothing in this process having gone smoothly, we’d be very surprised if all sides are pleased with the next iteration of the Chapter 11 blueprint.
* All good things have to end and, in the case of Jersey Boys, that is its eight-year run on the Las Vegas Strip. After racking up a mind-boggling performances, the musical will close on September 18. Although it was somewhat awkwardly shoehorned into the Paris-Las Vegas showroom (a problematic space) after a long run at the Venetian, the tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons continued to work its magic, long after Rick Faugno‘s exceptionally sympathetic Valli left the show. Jersey Boys‘ record-setting success proves definitively that there’s a home for Broadway on the Las Vegas Strip and its legacy will be nearly a decade of positive memories.
* M Life isn’t just a loyalty card anymore. Today, MGM Resorts International rolled out an accompanying MasterCard. Users can rack up MGM reward points even faster. The company is debuting it at 15 properties, with MGM National Harbor to come. (There is no mention of Borgata, probably because its own loyalty program is on the way out but M Life hasn’t displaced it yet.) Among the promised goodies are double points at supermarkets and gas stations, along with priority check-in and — the Holy Grail — complimentary self-parking in Las Vegas. Just don’t try applying for the card at Circus Circus, OK?
