
Florida investor Glen Straub has kicked off the auction bidding on Revel for $90 million.
Atlantic City’s Revel Casino is up for auction grabs, and a Florida real-estate developer has provided $90 million in cash to purchase the house which was shut straight down for good last week. Glenn Straub, who has the 22,000-acre Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in Wellington, Florida, will now become the ‘stalking horse,’ or bidder that is lead who may be outbid by competitors at an auction on September 24. Other potential purchasers have until September 23 to produce offers.
Straub said this week that their offer ended up being ‘an opportunity to turn things around. That is what they need now; a brand new direction,’ he added. ‘Give us our six months, and now we’ll really physically likely be operational. In 2 years, we’ll be 100 percent open.’
Which begs the question, what are going to be open, exactly? It appears unlikely that Straub will reopen Revel as being a casino; the Revel Casino project, after all, ended up being a cataclysmic $2.4 billion failure with huge operational costs that were hemorrhaging $2 million a week when it shut. And besides, it seems Straub features a dislike that is personal of.
Casino Doctor
‘When everyone believes of Atlantic City, they think of casinos,’ Straub told United States Of America Today, adding which he dislikes the concept of Atlantic City as a casino town and could be uncomfortable with the notion of his family profiting from gambling. However, we’re unsure a polo club for the uber rich quite fits in aided by the boardwalk vibe either.
Whatever Straub has in mind, he’s keeping buttoned up for now, but he says he’s got Atlantic City’s most useful interests at heart. ‘ We feel the city needs what we do,’ he says. ‘Our company is like medical practioners whom turnaround sick patients. We turn around big properties.’
Although, in some of his past dealings, we would venture to express that he’s been similar to a vet putting down an animal that is sick. When he purchased the Miami Arena in 2004 for half the price the price it cost to construct, for example, he eventually demolished it to make way for Grand Central Park.
It doesn’t bode too well for Revel.
Intriguingly, however, Straub hinted in his interview that his plans include building high-speed rail links Atlantic City, New York City and Philadelphia.
Other Bidders in the Mix
It’s very early days, however, and Straub may well yet be outbid, he attempted to buy the Versace Mansion in Miami Beach at another bankruptcy auction last year as he was on a recent venture when.
There is, based on sources, some competition. One bidder is Alex Meruelo, whose California-based Meruelo Group attempted to choose the soon-to-be shuttered Trump Plaza year that is last. The proposed sale price had been $20 million, incidentally, but the deal fell through when Trump Entertainment was struggling to get a launch on its mortgage, since the senior lender refused to approve the sale at such a low price.
Meanwhile, investor Carl Icahn is additionally a contender that is possible. Icahn, while the holder of most of Trump Entertainment’s debt, stands to just take over both the Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal as a result of the parent company’s bankruptcy filing this week.
Long lasting outcome, however, the Straub deal benefits Revel and its particular creditors by setting a base price for the auction and ‘increasing the reality that top purchase that is possible for the assets will be received,’ explained court documents. Straub has made a $10 million deposit and would receive a $3 million breakup fee whether or not it’s outbid at auction, in accordance with proposals.
Dutch Regulators Warn Sports Betting Sites to Stop Advertisements
Regulators in the Netherlands say their campaign to limit sports sites that are betting the country have now been successful. (Image: AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Dutch regulators don’t want recreations betting websites to target consumers in the Netherlands, so they’ve gone after organizations that have tried to attract players there who would like to be in on major events. Now, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) says that their efforts have been largely effective in reducing the experience from these rogue operators.
Based on the KSA, a letter-writing campaign that has been aimed at warning operators against targeting Dutch citizens has restricted what they called ‘excessive’ advertising of such services through the World Cup and also the Tour de France, both occasions with major followings in the nation. In total, the KSA said they wrote letters to eight operators, and all eight have ceased the activities in question.
Companies Comply with Dutch Demands
In accordance with the body that is regulatory every one of the companies has stopped promoting their brand into the Netherlands. In addition, the companies have taken steps that are additional such as for example closing promotional internet sites and Dutch-language Twitter records that were designed to attract players to their sites.
Those actions had been apparently sufficient to satisfy the KSA. The regulator told the eight firms that no more actions would be studied against them, thanks to their compliance with the requests manufactured from them. Nonetheless, the KSA has also reminded operators that with the Netherlands expected to enact online gambling legislation next 12 months, operators should cease any marketing tasks inside the country until that time.
Poker Advertising a true point of Emphasis Going Forward
In particular, the KSA says that its taking a look at poker marketing. They are also improving their efforts round the times during the major events: for instance, for poker advertising, they’ll be making sure to look closely at what are you doing around the final dining table of the World variety of Poker (WSOP), while sports betting sites will face more scrutiny near major international sporting events.
‘The KSA does not expect that Dutch betting ads will disappear entirely from the web,’ the corporation published. ‘But laws are being enforced, handling instances that will induce the largest risks for consumers first.’
Affiliates have also been targeted, and while their conformity was not quite as swift, the KSA reports progress on that front at all. Since the crackdown, at minimum two new operators have actually attempted to step to the now market that is largely vacated the KSA says these are typically now being investigated, because are affiliate networks.
KSA Has Reputation for Heavy-Handed Strategies
The KSA has made headlines recently for their hands-on approach to gambling that is enforcing in the Netherlands. Final month, the body that is regulatory an €80,000 ($103,000) fine against an elderly couple that organized a lottery for the home they owned in South Africa.
That lottery was ultimately managed in Austria, and both members regarding the couple held Belgian passports (though one was also a Dutch citizen). But, because the contest had a web site that included information in Dutch, and as a result of an interview about the lottery on Dutch radio, the KSA felt it was in violation of Dutch gaming laws. The KSA reportedly also went so far as to track down we blog posts in order to establish that the lottery could be viewed A dutch event.
‘Many people spoke about it on the Internet, but the regulator has decided to blame the couple for all the remarks, as if these were the ones who wrote them and even started the discussion,’ lawyer Bas Jongmans told PokerNews.
NJ Sports Betting Challenge Offers Hope for any Other US States
New Jersey Acting Attorney General John Hoffman, upon whose legal opinion the challenge to PASPA is based. (Image: Star-Ledger)
Could the brand New Jersey sports gambling decision to decriminalize wagering at casinos and racetracks in the Garden State spark a wave of similar moves in other states? Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia and Kansas have come out to get brand New Jersey’s stance, and lots of more are watching with interest since the state seeks clarification of its position in a federal court.
Currently only four US states, Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon, are able to offer sports betting lawfully under federal law. This might be due to a legislation called the Protection and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), which sought to determine the status that is legal of gambling (compared to parimutuel horse and dog race) into the US, and efficiently outlawed it nationwide.
Exemptions were manufactured from the aforementioned states which had currently declared sports betting to be appropriate of their borders, while nj-new jersey ended up being given an one-year window of opportunity, a deadline of January 1, 1993, to prepare and pass legislation permitting sports betting, an opportunity it chose not to grasp.
On the Cards
These were more positive days for the Atlantic City casino industry, a period of growth and investment, and it seems the state felt it could do without. But today things are extremely various. Atlantic City’s economy is in crisis. With a spate of casino closures, and thousands of staff set off, it was clear something different and drastic had been needed.
It had been on the cards for a time. In 2011, New Jersey residents voted overwhelmingly in benefit of repealing PASPA. In response, New Jersey created the Sports Wagering Act, which attempted to decriminalize and regulate sports gambling at casinos and racetracks.
This was challenged by the professional activities leagues, which stated that the Act was a violation of quick hits slot machine free play federal law and threatened the integrity of sport. This past year a judge that is federal, putting the kibosh regarding the Sports Wagering Act once and for all. This resulted in the understanding that, while PASPA banned the regulating and licensing of sports betting by specific states, there was clearly nothing in that act that required states to enforce prohibition.
Floodgates to Open?
Nj Acting Attorney General John Hoffman stated their formal legal opinion this week: ‘Sports pools operated by racetracks and gambling enterprises continue to be exempted from criminal liability under New Jersey legislation as long as no wagering occurs on a college sport or athletic event that occurs in Nj or by which any New Jersey college team participates regardless of where the event takes place.
‘Accordingly, no legislation enforcement or prosecution agency or officer shall … make an arrest, file a complaint against, or prosecute any person involved in the operation of a sports pool by a casino or racetrack to the extent that such activity takes place constant with this specific police force Directive,’ Hoffman added.
This, then, is nj-new Jersey’s position, of which it’s clarification that is seeking a federal court: to deregulate recreations betting completely and to ignore PASPA; a risky maneuver, that may undoubtedly be challenged into the courts by the recreations leagues.
Nj’s gambling enterprises are desperately in need of an edge over the casinos that are competing neighboring states that have actually damaged the Atlantic City market. The decriminalization of sports betting may provide that edge, but for how long? If the state is successful in its challenge to PASPA, the floodgates may open and there is little to prevent other states, including the neighboring competition, from after suit.