{"id":14612,"date":"2014-09-22T11:01:57","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T19:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14612"},"modified":"2014-09-22T11:09:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T19:09:01","slug":"atlantic-city-the-good-the-bad-and-the-very-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-the-good-the-bad-and-the-very-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City: The good, the bad and the very ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jimmurren_t652\"<\/a>Taking a glass-half-full view of Atlantic City<\/strong>, CEO of MGM Resorts International<\/strong> Jim Murren<\/strong> wanted back in. Why not, when it means having half of by far the dominant joint in town, Borgata<\/strong>? Now that MGM has been vetted and cleared for a return to the Boardwalk, it will be taking a more active managerial role at Borgata, leveraging its relationship with AEG<\/strong> to improve the entertainment on offer<\/a>. Since both MGM and Boyd Gaming<\/strong> are partners with Bwin<\/strong>, that simplifies the Internet<\/strong>-gambling picture considerably, too.<\/p>\n

However, it’s the safest of bets that MGM is glad it pulled the $5 billion plug on MGM Grand Atlantic City<\/strong> and nothing of that ilk is going to be built, ever. (The company might as well buy and renovate Revel<\/strong>, if another megaresort is what it wants — and that’s highly improbable.) MGM still owns a couple of sizeable parcels of real estate, but it will probably find more cost-conscious uses for them, buyers having proven elusive. Besides, MGM has a lot of other irons in the fire, from Massachusetts<\/strong> to Japan<\/strong>. Methinks Borgata and its enviable cash flow are going to be lagniappe, not a core asset.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/a>Then there’s all-hat, no-cowboy Donald Trump<\/strong>, who is enjoying masquerading as Atlantic City’s rescuer, expressing himself in the most appropriate form of Trumpian communication: the Tweet. In one of several self-congratulatory epistles, he thumbed, \u201cDid anyone notice that Atlantic City lot its magic after I left years ago?\u201d And, sounding like a schoolgirl, he raged,\u00a0\u201cFor losers and haters, I NEVER went bankrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed by The Associated Press<\/strong>, Trump said most of his interest was in rescuing Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong>, while Trump Plaza<\/strong>‘s fate was more ambiguous. By one account<\/a>, the latter is pretty much an abandoned dump. Besides, its heyday was 13 years ago, so it’s a little late in the day to try and reinvent it. (Although Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> is managing the trick<\/a>, so who knows?)<\/p>\n

Politicians were divided in their sentiments vis-a-vis Trump’s sudden interest in the Boardwalk.\u00a0\u201cListen, anything Donald wants to save, I\u2019m for. If Donald wants to come back and save something, good. I don\u2019t think Atlantic City needs \u2018saving,\u2019 but if Donald wants to come and help, we invite everybody,\u201d said Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R). Nobody apparently asked whether Atlantic City, having dramatically ‘rightsized’ needed more casinos at this point.<\/p>\n

State senator and former Atlantic City mayor James Whelan<\/strong> was more skeptical.\u00a0\u201cDonald is a guy who likes to see his name in the paper …\u00a0The question is whether this is more publicity for Donald or whether he is serious about coming back to Atlantic City in a real way. We\u2019ll see down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Straub\"<\/a>Then there’s Glenn Straub<\/strong>, the only one of 62 Revel bidders to offer serious cash on the barrelhead for the defunct megaresort. His motive? “I need something to do. I need a hobby.” He followed that<\/em> confidence-inspiring pronouncement with this prediction of what he might do with a combined Revel-Showboat<\/strong> purchase:\u00a0“We’re going to be doing six, seven more things there.\u00a0If it makes money, that’s good. Pat us on the back. If it doesn’t make money, then we close her down just like Miami Arena<\/strong> and we blow it up.”<\/p>\n

Loose talk about imploding Revel is hardly what Atlantic City needs to hear at this point. However, a live one like Straub is rarely hooked, so if Carl Icahn<\/strong> can somehow take control of Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza through bankruptcy, he ought to palm\u00a0them off on Straub, who seems to be keen on buying anything that’s not nailed down, regardless of value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking a glass-half-full view of Atlantic City, CEO of MGM Resorts International Jim Murren wanted back in. Why not, when it means having half of by far the dominant joint in town, Borgata? Now that MGM has been vetted and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,60,82,42,185,7,37,171,112,167,157,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14612"}],"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=14612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14616,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14612\/revisions\/14616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}