Revel’s 21 grand goof

Revel‘s high-speed shutdown is descending into farce. Its armored-car contractor, GardaWorld, managed to lose $21,000 of long green. How? They — no kidding — left a cash bag on top of the truck. Security footage shows the cash still precariously in place by the time the truck reaches Resorts Atlantic City. Then the truck heads out on Pennsylvania Avenue and the money is never seen again.

Revel has private investigators working on the matter. We’ve all made similar goofs in our lives. But they usually involve a cup of coffee, not 21 grand.

On a more serious level, Atlantic City is facing an identity crisis as a third of its casino-floor space is scheduled to be taken out of circulation, following an impending round of closings, plus the Atlantic Club shutdown. “The one-size-fits-all gaming-floor model is not working,” says developer Curtis Bashaw, in something of an understatement. Alternate uses ranging from timeshares, resort hotels and university campuses have been mooted for failing Boardwalk casinos. Gov. Chris Christie (R) advocates reinventing Atlantic City as a resort — easier said than done.

Well-traveled casino architect Paul Steelman is skeptical. “Casinos are not great conversions to other uses. They are custom-designed buildings that are very expensive to operate and maintain,” he told the New York Times. Like others, he advocates the wrecking ball for Trump Plaza, but sees a gaming future for Showboat and Revel (where the check-in desk is on the — whew! — 11th floor). The latter’s failure is at least partly attributable to its lack of a poker room. Borgata has made poker one of its signature offerings and for Revel to have unilaterally disarmed was sheer madness.

In other news, Showboat has been cleared to close. One school of opinion holds that Caesars Entertainment‘s determination to shut down on Aug. 31 belies claims of a willingness to sell. The inevitable call for racinos has been made by state Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R, right), who would have the slots run by Atlantic City casinos, not the tracks. (Good luck getting the horsey set to sign off on that.) The racinos would be taxed at 60%, with 10% going to Atlantic City infrastructure improvements, while the bulk of the money funds pensions.

Plans, meanwhile, gather speed for casino-hotel additions to the Meadowlands. So far the NFL has kept mum but, with its public aversion to gambling, it’d be interesting to know what it thinks about the prospect of multiple, themed casinos sprinkled near Met Life Stadium or of private, VIP casinos.

If it didn’t have enough problems, Caesars has at least one case of tuberculosis on its hands in Tunica. Closer to home, CEO Gary Loveman shaved $548 million off the company’s $24.2 billion debt load, in yet another of his signature restructurings. Wall Street analysts, however, were generally unimpressed, and there were rumblings of more closures and asset sales. (With the regional gaming markets saturated, it’s a devil of a time to go to market.) To put Caesars’ debt in context, Detroit ‘only’ owed $18 billion when it went into bankruptcy.

What am I thinking? Only $24 billion? Deleveraging ought to be a cinch.