Even though it opened its doors two years ago, Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey had to shut down. The shutdown of the $2.4bn (£1.4bn) casino is the latest casualty of the struggling casino market in the city.
From the land based casinos that already closed and the upcoming closure of another casino, Revel is probably the biggest failure in Atlantic City. The construction of the property began just before the great recession hit in 2007 and it had to cover a lot of debt, therefore, it couldn’t turn profit. Since it’s opening in 2012, the casino had its second bankruptcy. The hotel section of Revel closed its doors on Monday, September 1, 2014 followed by the closure of the casino department the next day.
A lot of former employees at Revel Casino are now wondering about their future. Shirley Green, former card dealer at Revel and a mother of two children said: “It was the main job that paid for the bread. Now I have nothing.”
The Showboat Casino also closed its doors the previous week and Atlantic Club closed at the beginning of the year. Trump Plaza is another casino closing in mid-September. Along with Revel Casino, all four generated $457m or £275m during the 12-month period that ended in July.
Some of the closed casinos attracted low and mid roller players and offered a lot of bonuses and promotions. However, some people say that the closure of the above mentioned casinos is a result of the saturated northeastern casino market in the USA that continues to add new gambling facilities to markets even though there is not enough demand to support all of them.