Revel: Straub loses

Bids are in for Revel and the white elephant goes to … Brookfield Asset Management, owner of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. (The fund is revel_0409obviously fond of problem children.) Brookfield’s winning bid was $110 million, leaving stalking-horse bidder Glenn Straub in the dust. Straub has threatened to sue on the grounds that the bankruptcy-court process lacked transparency. He’s also offered to up his bid to $134 million. C’mon, boys: Is Revel really worth starting a fight? (Straub’s complaints will be heard on Oct. 20.)

We probably haven’t heard the last of Straub, who has lain covetous eyes upon the shuttered Showboat. However, his ideas for Revel spelled certain financial doom, including building a second hotel tower. (Heck, there are already 450 rooms in the extant tower that can’t be used because the water Revel_0947pressure is too low.) He expected Atlantic City — at a time when its liquidity is in dire straits — to build tunnels connecting all of the city’s casinos — and he spoke of making Revel a university for men “white and over 21,” which gives you an idea of how out of touch he is. “We’ll make them donate 2 percent of their incomes for their lifetimes,” was his plan for financing this pipe dream. Straub tried to walk the racial remark back, but the damage had been done. Said Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (D), “When you start off with these kinds of ideas, to my eyes, it doesn’t give you a whole lot of confidence.”

Revel_lobbypatio_PANOMeanwhile, although the Revel name has been physically removed from the exterior of the property, Revel Group‘s Kevin DeSanctis wants to ixnay the licensing agreement that would allow it to be used in the future. (Sorta like Donald Trump suing to taking his name off Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal. Nobody wants their name associated with Atlantic City all of a sudden.)

S&G agrees with Straub about one thing: Atlantic City doesn’t need another casino at this point. However, if that’s the route Brookfield wants to take, it should have little difficulty getting licensed. It’s run a clean shop at the Las Vegas HRH, quite a contrast to the Morgans Hotel Group era.

* No need to panic about thoroughbred racing leaving Massachusetts: The owners of Brockton Fairground are talking about offering a 60-day season of races in 2015, subsidized by money from Penn National Gaming‘s slot parlor in Plainridge. Said track owner George Carney, “That slot parlor money is very attractive and makes it viable to race horses in Brockton.” (Suffolk Downs, however, appears to be screwed, whether an anti-casino referendum passes or not.) It’s not a mile-long track, unlike Suffolk Downs, only five-eighths of a mile, but it’s a track nonetheless.

The New England Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, in an interesting twist, is trying to scrape together the money suffolk downsto sublet Suffolk Downs from its owners and mount a 2015 racing season, maybe more. This is certain to fall upon receptive ears at the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which has vowed to do what it can to keep the sport of kings going in the Bay State. (Funny, our historical resistance to the rule of kings had its origins there.) Said a commission spokesman, “We want to do everything we can to help the thoroughbred industry, and we are very pleased to have one application filed and possibly more to be filed before the deadline.”

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