{"id":13878,"date":"2014-06-20T11:09:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T19:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13878"},"modified":"2017-11-14T09:31:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T17:31:00","slug":"revel-bankrupt-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/revel-bankrupt-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Revel bankrupt … again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owned by former creditors, Revel Casino Hotel<\/strong>\u00a0is dropping a bankruptcy on newer creditors<\/a>. Hopefully this move will stave off the Aug. 18 closing (perhaps as late as Sept. 1<\/a>.) that was threatened in a letter to \"Kreeger\"<\/a>employees yesterday, although the company say it’s a WARN Act formality. According to Revel President Scott Kreeger<\/strong>, $125 million has been borrowed to nurse the resort through this latest Chapter 11<\/a>. (The Book of Revel has few chapters to date but many Chapters 11.) The property listed $1 billion in assets and another billion in debt. The bankers who extended Revel extra credit last November must feel like schmucks. It’s a classic case of good money flung after bad.<\/p>\n

State Sen. James Whelan<\/strong> was rather understating matters when he said, “It\u2019s not a good day for Atlantic City<\/strong>.\u00a0I feel very badly for everyone involved who [is] going to have to live with this hanging over their head.\u00a0It has not worked out the way all of us have hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"low_revel\"<\/a>Revel was jinxed from the outset, when three top execs were killed in a July 31, 2008 plane crash. “Revel was initially billed as a glitzy resort featuring upscale restaurants run by Iron chefs, a swank 5,000-seat theater and 1,900 high-end hotel rooms. By the end of 2013, it had rebranded under the slogan ‘Gamblers Wanted’ and was being promoted as an affordable casino that offered low-cost food options, such as a $9.99 steak-and-shrimp special<\/em>,” writes Reuben Krame<\/strong>r of its subsequent history.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the $261 million in tax givebacks that helped Revel make ends meet, that’s blown up in New Jersey<\/strong>‘s face. I doubt we’ll see a state do that again soon.<\/p>\n

Although gambling revenue<\/strong> in the Northeast is on an upward trajectory, not all states are seeing a bigger slice of the pie. Established jurisdictions like Atlantic City have seen young whippersnappers like \"HET<\/a>Maryland<\/strong> horn in on their action. Now, as gaming income tightens up, states are discovering that it’s not free money after all. Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong> was paying 20% of the city budget of Chester<\/strong>, but Harrah’s revenues have fallen 30% as competition has grown more intense. Similar problems have cost Delaware<\/strong> 538 public jobs. A 17% tax rate there is low to moderate by industry standards but, after losing $1 million in 1Q14, Dover Downs<\/strong> CEO Denis McGlynn<\/strong> is ranting about an “unworkable business model.”<\/p>\n

Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> CEO Scott “Woody” Butera<\/strong> nails it when he says there “is dramatic oversupply in the industry” at present. Connecticut<\/strong>, where Butera does business, is going to have to tighten its belt, what with its take of casino revenue falling 5% this year and expected to drop 20% next year. That’s cold. So it is in Rhode Island<\/strong>, where casino tax revenues are projected to decline $422 million over five years. As state budget officer\u00a0Thomas Mullaney<\/strong> confesses, “We did kind of continue to pursue that easy money.”<\/p>\n

Easy come, easy go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Owned by former creditors, Revel Casino Hotel\u00a0is dropping a bankruptcy on newer creditors. Hopefully this move will stave off the Aug. 18 closing (perhaps as late as Sept. 1.) that was threatened in a letter to employees yesterday, although the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,164,18,14,4,166,7,72,95,111,157,141,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13878"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20599,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878\/revisions\/20599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}