Revel calls it quits

Enough bids were received for Revel to postpone a bankruptcy auction until Thursday. But yesterday the resort’s board met and decided to cease operations. Whoever wins the auction will inherit Revel’s carcass — not its 3,187 employees, who find themselves abruptly out on the street, effective Sept. 10. “Despite the effort to improve the financial performance of Revel, it has not proven to be enough to put the property on a stable financial footing,” Revel announced, blaming a “considerable non-controllable expense structure” that made “an orderly wind-down of the business at this time” unavoidable. New Jersey regulators say they can’t force it to stay open.

“We hope that Revel can be a successful and vital component of Atlantic City under a proper ownership and reorganized expense structure. We will continue to endeavor toward a placement with such an owner, but there can be no assurance as to the outcome of the pending bankruptcy process,” read the formal statement, with its unwitting implication that the casino was under improper ownership. (Lesson: Creditors can’t run a casino.)

It appears that Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman has called off his dubious pursuit of the megaresort. Bidding “suggests that even at a de minimis price, people are finding it hard to imagine they can make money operating the Revel,” he told investors yesterday.

Supposedly, none of the bids on the property were “qualified,” but Revel ownership will continue to sort through them. Of course, now the new owner would have to go through the process of bringing a defunct casino back up to speed and replacing the entire workforce. Besides, there will be the stigma attached to a property that went through bankruptcy twice and closed once. It still has a little money left in the kitty, listing assets of $487 million against liabilities of $476 million. We’ll see how much farther Revel can limp on that.

In the end, with its de-emphasis of the casino, eschewal of day-trippers and total no-smoking facility, Revel’s fault was in itself, not in the stars. It’s a how-not-to manual for every Atlantic City casino going forward.