[toc]The company that owns the Atlantic City resort formerly known as Revel needs a casino license if it wants to have gambling on its property, New Jersey regulators ruled on Tuesday.
The latest on TEN AC and gambling
TEN Atlantic City — the name for the planned resort in the shuttered Revel location — is not any closer to having gaming inside its doors. That’s thanks to a ruling from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission:
NJ casino regulators rule that Revel/TEN owner Glenn Straub does indeed need a casino license. Straub grumbled, says he'll appeal
— John Brennan (@BergenBrennan) January 31, 2017
Leading up to the meeting held on Tuesday, TEN AC owner Glenn Straub had said his company, 500 Broadway LLC, shouldn’t need to apply for a gaming license. That’s because he plans to have a third party operate table games and slot machines, eventually. The third party should procure the license, Straub has argued.
But the NJCCC categorically disagreed with statement, saying Straub’s company itself must get a license.
Per Straub’s comments to the press, the matter is apparently headed to court.
Is TEN AC really opening?
Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the meeting is the actual status of the resort. Straub said he was going to open the resort — at least in a limited fashion — on Feb. 20. The resort’s website still just says “opening 2017.”
That promised opening date was already being looked at with a great deal of skepticism. But reporting from Philly.com cast further doubt on the relaunch:
Indeed, the head of the Division of Gaming Enforcement went a step further Tuesday, and questioned the ability of property to reopen any time soon. He noted that the TEN operators had not submitted a completed application to be licensed themselves.
“The opening of this facility for casino operations is not even remotely imminent at this time,” said director David Rebuck.
The betting odds on TEN AC opening in less than a month likely just took a tumble.
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The latest in an unending story for the former Revel
The Revel has been a mess pretty much since ground was broken on the resort that was built for a pricetag of more than $2 billion.
Straub bought the distressed property, but the resort and Straub have suffered through both legal and regulatory hurdles — as well as stops and starts — in an attempt to get the property functioning again.
Will TEN AC ever actually reopen? That’s at least a question that can be asked, given the latest developments.