Taken together, the two developments could represent some hope for growth in the Atlantic City casino market, even as the area braces for losses from two new casinos being proposed for the northern part of the state. Its next-door neighbor, the former Showboat Casino Hotel, was bought last week by Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein, who has yet to decide whether to reopen it as a casino or as a non-gambling attraction. If Straub succeeds in reopening Revel with a casino, it would become the city's 9th casino. It cost $2.4 billion to build, but Straub bought it for $82 million from bankruptcy court. It was one of four Atlantic City casinos to go out of business that year. But it never caught on with gamblers, filed for bankruptcy twice and shut down on Sept. Revel had high hopes of reinvigorating Atlantic City's struggling casino market when it opened April 2, 2012. Straub said he plans to hire an operator to run the casino, which would include Asian gambling attractions. The Florida developer's application for a state casino license is incomplete, and it appears unlikely a casino could open at Revel this summer, given the lengthy investigation state gambling regulators would be required to undertake.
