Buyer’s market on the Boardwalk

An East Coast spy for S&G has had his ear to the ground and reports that a veritable horde of prospective purchaser are descending upon Atlantic City. Casino prices having fallen about as low as they can go, “buy” appears to be the watchword of the moment. Colony Capital may have screwed Rational Group for the Atlantic Club, but now the suddenly aggressive Churchill Downs may be making a play for the hotel-casino. (Remember, Churchill Downs is also mooted as a likely buyer for Pinnacle Entertainment‘s Four Seasons in St. Louis, its Lumiere Place and an unfinished Lake Charles casino belonging to Ameristar Casinos.) And now, with most of its value written off, Revel may be in play: Neil Bluhm‘s Rush Street Gaming is rumored to be jockeying for it — Bluhm did a similar rescue job on what is now Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh — as is Penn National Gaming. The latter is all tangled up in conversion of itself into a REIT, so you’d have to like Bluhm’s chances  better. But … would three Revel management teams in less than 18 months be what the doctor ordered for that megaflop? Fine Point Group has barely gotten its fanny into the driver’s seat. Selling Revel now risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.