{"id":18892,"date":"2016-09-21T12:01:48","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18892"},"modified":"2016-09-21T12:01:48","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:01:48","slug":"revel-becomes-ten-bluhm-enters-atlantic-city-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/revel-becomes-ten-bluhm-enters-atlantic-city-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Revel becomes Ten; Bluhm enters Atlantic City market"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we enter the waning months of 2016, Glenn Straub<\/strong> has decided to wait until next year to reopen Revel<\/strong>. He also announced its long-awaited new name: Ten<\/strong> (actually it’s \"Revel_0947\"“TEN” but we don’t go for that all-caps tomfoolery at S&G<\/em>). Ten was chosen as preferable to “Zen.” \u201cTen joined with our infinity logo represents our mission to provide the highest-rated amenities and our daily endeavor to offer an infinitely perfect escape for our guests, families and businesses,\u201d said property\u00a0CEO\u00a0Robert A. Landino<\/strong>. There will be one holdover from the old Revel team in the form of CFO Alan Greenstein<\/strong>, who presumably knows where all the bodies are buried. Ten is pinning its hopes on refugee gamblers<\/a> from the casinos that have closed — or, in the case of Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> — soon will. But those are low-rollers, which leads one to question the strategy.<\/p>\n

Nobody could blame Straub if he wanted to wait until the spring of 2017 to reopen — he can certainly afford it. But he’s shooting for the first quarter, deliberately reentering the market during a slow period. (A new casino operator remains unspecified, possibly unchosen too.) Revel’s new name was rolled out \"Straub\"during a contentious\u00a0Casino Reinvestment Development Authority<\/strong> hearing during which Straub’s changes to the property were approved<\/a>, but not before some acrimonious sentiments were aired. The peppery Straub took issue with Special Improvement District<\/strong> fees (eventually rescinded), saying the CRDA was “blackmailing” him and threatening to litigation for as many three years.\u00a0\u201cYou either believe us or you don\u2019t.\u00a0I will make the place a success and you will be proud of it,\u201d he added. His Polo North<\/strong> still has to submit traffic and landscaping plans — and possibly mollify Bella Condominiums<\/strong> neighbors, who continue to complain about noise from the Revel\/Ten physical plant.<\/p>\n

However, Straub had some powerful voices in his corner.\u00a0\u201cThe gentleman that is here is what we need,\u201d remarked Unite-Here Local 54<\/strong>‘s Valerie McMorris<\/strong>. Mayor Don Guardian<\/strong> (R) also weighed in, saying,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m in strong support of this project.\u00a0We need to do everything that we can do to get Ten opened.\u201d Straub voiced belief\u00a0that Atlantic City<\/strong> could be turned around in the same fashion as Miami<\/strong> and Palm Beach<\/strong>, adding, “Do not try to threaten me. It won’t work … a hundred thousand means nothing to me. We lose that much in a week keeping it closed.” Once Ten is in hand, Straub has bigger plans — he has eyes for Bader Field<\/strong>, Boardwalk Hall<\/strong> and the convention center. At a time when the Boardwalk needs a vote of confidence, Straub just gave it a big one.<\/p>\n

* Here’s a turnaround for you. Neil Bluhm<\/strong>‘s SugarHouse<\/strong> casino is opening an Atlantic City-based gambling Web site<\/a>, piggybacking onto the Golden Nugget<\/strong>. Don’t think this means SugarHouse has given up poaching customers from New Jersey<\/strong>. Said Rush Street \"NeilGaming CEO Greg Carlin<\/strong>,\u00a0“We think that there’s an opportunity to get even more customers from New Jersey.” Still, Carlin says he’s heard good things about Internet<\/strong> play from his Boardwalk confreres, to the effect that “online has actually complemented their bricks-and-mortar business and helped them grow that business, not detract from it, because a lot of the players online are players that don’t currently go to those \u00a0casinos.”<\/p>\n

To some extent, Bluhm’s move is in reaction to Pennsylvania<\/strong>‘s failure to enact Internet gambling this year. Bluhm’s people will be back lobbying next year but they’re not going to stay on the sidelines in the meantime either. PlaySugarHouse.com<\/em> will eschew online poker<\/a> — not surprising, since the real money is in casino games. Rush Street Interactive<\/strong> President Richard Schwartz<\/strong> promises,\u00a0\u201cWe keep our slot minimums low and offer extremely low-stakes table games, so you can play longer and make your entertainment budget go further.<\/p>\n

* Undeterred by strongman Rodrigo Duterte<\/strong>‘s anti-gambling rhetoric, Bloombery Resorts Corp<\/strong>. Chairman Enrique Razon<\/strong> is putting a $418 million wager<\/a> on the Philippines<\/strong>. He plans to build a casino in Manila<\/strong>‘s largest suburb. Quezon City<\/strong>. Razon points to an increase in Chinese tourism, including many VIP players avoiding Macao<\/strong>, and notes that Duterte’s crackdown on small gambling parlors will only drive more players to big, established casinos, like Bloomberry’s Solaire Resort & Casino<\/strong>, also in the Manila area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we enter the waning months of 2016, Glenn Straub has decided to wait until next year to reopen Revel. He also announced its long-awaited new name: Ten (actually it’s “TEN” but we don’t go for that all-caps tomfoolery at … 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":[23,185,37,62,91,95,192,25,157,129,21,196],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18892"}],"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=18892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18893,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18892\/revisions\/18893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}