(Charles V. Bagli) Atlantic City’s ailing casino industry is losing its biggest player. Revel Casino Hotel, the newest and largest casino in town, will shut down in September, putting more than 3,000 employees out of work, the owner announced on Tuesday after failing to find a buyer for the hulking blue-glass tower on the boardwalk.
A $2.4 billion hotel and casino, Revel opened two and a half years ago but never turned a profit, so its closing was not unexpected. It will join two other boardwalk casinos that are also scheduled to close soon, the Showboat on Aug. 31 and Trump Plaza on Sept. 16. A fourth, the Atlantic Club, closed in January.
The loss of three casinos in the next few weeks would leave Atlantic City with eight casinos, and an industry that has been battered by competition from smaller casinos that have opened in Pennsylvania since 2006.
Ronnie Downing, a kitchen steward at Revel who learned on Tuesday morning that he would soon be out of a job, said it was a “gloomy” time for Atlantic City.
Still, he expressed optimism that the city would reinvent itself with a smaller gambling industry, as city and state officials are hoping, as a resort, a shopping mecca, a convention city and a setting for concerts.
“The future looks dark, but I don’t think it’ll be that way for long,” Mr. Downing said. “Atlantic City always finds a way to change and come back.”
Revel AC, the owner of the casino-resort, issued a statement on Tuesday saying the company planned to “cease operations no later than Sept. 10, 2014, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals.” The statement added that the company continued to hold out hope for a sale.
An Air Force veteran, Mr. Downing was 18 in 1976 when he voted in his first election, which included a state referendum to legalize casinos as a way to revive the city in which he grew up. He worked at Resorts, the city’s first casino, for 18 years before it was taken over by lenders in 2009.
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