Remember, you read it here first. Glenn Straub intends to sublicense the casino portion of Revel to an outside operator. It will have to be a company with a high tolerance for risk, as Straub is 
insisting on a 30-year lease. The tycoon feels that, with the energy-plant issues finally resolved, it will be easier to find a casino operator. “It’s not going to be the old Revel. But now we can talk to casino operators and tell them we’re interested in a 30-year lease,” Straub said. Any takers?
In the meantime, Straub is trying to evict Revel’s remaining tenants, a seemingly perverse fixation which seems born out of his appetite for litigation. He’s also not sworn off his pursuit of the Showboat. Presuming that disaster to be behind it (but not if Straub has his way), Stockton University is building a campus elsewhere in Atlantic City. The city itself is truly on its uppers, with Mayor Don Guardian (R) saying it could be insolvent by the end of March, unless Gov. Chris Christie (R) releases his stranglehold on a financial-rescue package crafted by the legislature. Straub thinks big: Maybe Guardian can sell the city to him.
* In what is less than a complete surprise, Boston Mayor Martin “McCheese” Walsh lost his lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Walsh was trying to have Beantown declared a “host 
community” so that he could get the megaresort tossed in favor of his homies at Suffolk Downs. “The site plan for Wynn’s proposed casino is
before the Court and it cannot be disputed that its boundaries fall entirely within the city of Everett,” wrote Judge Janet Sanders in her smackdown of McCheese, adding, “[T]he count that seeks to disqualify all commissioners contains only legal conclusions and broad generalities, and is not supported by factual allegations sufficient to ‘raise a right to relief above the speculative level.’ ” Wynn Everett isn’t out of the woods just yet, the spiteful Walsh is “weighing options to appeal.”
Speaking of The Steve, Wynn Macau — long synonymous with VIP play — is switching to a mass-market focus, adapting to adversity in the Macao market. It’s a smart move. “Looking ahead, future looks gloomy for VIP gaming in Macau. A few years back, VIP gaming 
accounted for 70% of the overall revenues in Macau,” write Forbes analysts, “while it contributed only 53% in Q3 2015.” The central government keeps pushing the message of economic diversification and seems to be forcing it by tightening the allotment of table games. If there’s less opportunity to gamble, the argument might run, customers will feel compelled to spend their ‘mad money’ in other ways in Macao. I doubt that you can command economic change in that manner but it seems to be what Beijing has in mind. Studio City having laid an egg in its opening month, casino operators are definitely going to have to make their nut from places beyond the gaming floor.
