Revel draws more interest; Risky business

Revel_0947Glenn Straub having put $130 million in escrow just in case his $90 million, all-cash bid on Revel doesn’t do the trick, other bidders are tipping their hands. Money doesn’t mean much to California developer Richard Meruelo, who forfeited a $5 million deposit on the defunct resort in favor of bidding on it at a bankruptcy auction. “We were of the belief that the shutdown of Revel could increase bidder interest, and that is exactly what happened,” Revel attorney John K. Cunningham told aforementioned court. Straub consigliere Stuart J. Moskovitz countered that his boss could have Revel back on its feet “within a few weeks,” although casino operations would be farmed out to a management company. Meruelo scrapped with Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns over Straub’s $3 million breakup fee, demanding a “level playing field.”

Cunningham shrugged off Meruelo, saying, “We don’t have another buyer standing in the wings.” Straub’s all-cash offer would have to be exceeded by $4 million, at which point the bidders would have to top each other by at least $1 million per counter-offer.

“We’ve been here for nearly three months and no one else has stepped up. [The fee] sets the stage to have more bidding,” Burns replied. She also fended off objections from creditors, who want the auction pushed back a week, to give rival bidders more time to emerge from the underbrush — and for Rosh Hashanah to pass. “I hope it’s not indicative of what might happen when we get into the auction,” said a creditors’ attorney of the acrimony.

* In a penny-wise, pound-foolish move, Ohio gaming regulators have approved the use of pre-shuffled decks on Buckeye State casino felts. This will save all of 25 cents per deck, although the casinos’ main concern in asking for the indulgence was to save Cards 2man hours. They contend it takes 30 minutes to open a blackjack deck as all the cards are inspected. (Penn National Gaming goes through 36,000 card packs a month at its Toledo and Columbus casinos alone.) However, trusting card companies to send pre-shuffled packs is a risky practice — especially if players get wise to it. Ohioans should ask Tilman Fertitta about that.

In its own defense, United States Playing Card — parent of the Bicycle, Bee and Hoyle brands — says, “We load sheets of printed decks at the front of the production line. They are cut and then shuffled automatically by our approved equipment, and then we load finished and secured, pre-shuffled cartons of cards into a shipping carton.” A visit to the USPC assembly line made a believer out of regulator Matthew Schuler, who “realized the process they employed would actually improve the integrity of the game, and that’s what convinced us. The issue of time is an issue for the casinos, not for us. What we’re concerned about is the integrity of the game.” If you say so … but it’s still a calculated risk.

sugarhouse-casino* Debotors’ prison is out of fashion — but Neil Bluhm might be wishing it weren’t. His SugarHouse casino in Philadelphia is taking 63 players to court, in hopes of recovering an aggregate $520,000 in dishonored markers. The vast majority of the cases are headed for small-claims court but a few, including one of $90,000, will make their way to the Court of Common Pleas. The time stamps on the marks provide the narrative: “For example, on Oct. 10, 2012, a gambler borrowed $500 at 4:45 a.m., $2,000 at 5:55 a.m., and $1,000 at 7:47 a.m., to land very quickly $3,500 in debt in about three hours.” That’s quite a desperation streak. I’ve got a feeling SugarHouse will have trouble getting debtors to make good on their losses but S&G wishes them luck anyway.

 

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