Atlantic City's Revel Casino To File For Bankruptcy
By Tim Jimenez
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) -- Revel, Atlantic City's newest casino, will be filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy next month, less than one year after opening to the public.
Many hoped the nearly $2.5 billion resort would be the high-end cash cow that would boost the Atlantic City comeback, but that hasn't happened. Revenues rank Revel toward the bottom of the 12 casinos in the city. And now comes the announcement of Chapter 11 bankruptcy to wipe out a billion dollars in debt.
Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis called it a positive step. And gaming analyst Joe Weinert, Senior VP with Spectrum Gaming Group, agrees.
"It effectively is a reset button," Weinert says. "Revel is still going to have some debt, but not nearly as much and they're going to be keeping the same management team."
Revel officials say it will be business as usual for guests and no layoffs are planned for employees, with a new $45-million coming in from lenders.
As for its future, Weinert says Revel can still succeed.
"Maybe not on the level of Wynn or Belagio in Las Vegas," he says, "but it certainly has the potential to be a Borgata-like property in terms of its positioning and in terms of its business volume."
