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    crayoneaterGabrielle Bluestone
    8/12/14 9:01pm

    It might have had something to do with the fact that they built a billion dollar facility with $400/dollar a night rates, high end clubs, and expensive restaurants in a place where most people want a 'vegas on the cheap' experience. Should've pushed to renovate the old casinos (yay hindsight!).

    Also, the stats on PA gambling's growth in the past 4 years are astonishing.

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      Holacrayoneater
      8/12/14 11:34pm

      On the other hand, there was already a place almost like that already in AC...Borgata. I didn't get a chance to see Revel in it's heyday (booo), but I never thought that Borgata & Revel were going to be able to share that type of younger "dress up, eat at a nice restaurant, see a show and/or hit a club & gamble" crowd.

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      crayoneaterHola
      8/12/14 11:37pm

      Right, Borgata was that. They weren't exactly killing it when this was proposed.

      It was entirely supported by the state and forced at at time when the market was pulling back from AC. A few analysts even said that this proposal was likely to not only fail, but sink Borgata and other 'higher end' AC places at the same time (like the newly renovated Trump Taj towers.

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    CydoniaGabrielle Bluestone
    8/12/14 9:28pm

    This thing will get sold very quickly after it closes. I wouldn't be surprised if a 'vulture' is just waiting to buy it for $50 million. Same with Trump Plaza (best location on the boardwalk) and Showboat (which is profitable). They may not all function as casinos, but just a hotel, like the Atlantic Club.

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      crunchycats1111111Gabrielle Bluestone
      8/12/14 10:15pm

      While other commenters on here are buzzing nervously about the Gawker Gif Crisis of 2014, I would like to address this blurb on Atlantic City as it is something that is currently affecting my family, several friends, and the overall community of southern New Jersey.

      I don't think that the Revel was a dream anyone really believed in (excluding it's desperate investors, of course). Atlantic City has been tumbling downhill for years now. Other than the Borgata, enticing outlet stores sprinkled along The Walk, and America's insatiable hunger for Ruby Tuesday's, there isn't much to like about the area, unless you're a sad grandma with a pocket full of $100s and a season bus pass. The sad truth is, many people steer clear of Atlantic City because of its significant crime rate and lack of aesthetic appeal. Rather than show some pride in itself, maybe get out a weedwacker and spruce up the streets people dart in and out of, politicians have treated the city like a diabetic's tired arm, stabbing a needle into the one vein in the process of collapsing, bleeding any chance of profit out of it while ignoring the conditions of the city blocks surrounding.

      Unfortunately, this lack of foresight that some here have referred to will have some dire consequences for this state's economy. Detroit's colossal car industry collapse comes to mind, when thinking about the future repercussions that this rotting casino industry shall have on my community. When I leave my house, I count dozens of faded "GO AC" stickers peeling off cars' fenders. At night, while watching the cheap local news, I'll catch a tourist-y commercial starring our beloved Governor Christie, who sits at a picnic table with sunburnt children, panting "Jersey Strong" before chomping into a rare-cooked cheeseburger.

      As I continue to type the longest comment ever, I'm starting to wonder what it is I'm trying to say. Basically, I feel sad — for people like my stepfather who have made a career out of serving drinks to stupid, annoying tourists. And now they're gone, ready to fart in someone else's barstool and eat all their peanuts. I am afraid to see what is left after droves of laid-off employees move away, and Atlantic City, and its surrounding areas are left near-empty, bare, vulnerable.

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        grapepizzaGabrielle Bluestone
        8/12/14 9:54pm

        Bae loves Atlantic City so we went after I got my paltry annual bonus check (staying in a shit hotel and not a casino, obviously).

        We checked out Revel and the main takeaways: this place is too fancy for us! and, why is it so far down the boardwalk?

        I think the cross section of people willing to walk ~20 minutes and people who like to gamble is pretty low.

        NJ needs to consider legalizing sports betting if it wants to become competitive. Just my .02.

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          theoriginalFUDGabrielle Bluestone
          8/12/14 11:06pm

          It's actually a damn sham because it's a pretty nice hotel / casino. I've done a lot of work in and around Atlantic City and stayed here, the Golden Nugget, Harrahs (tower bay view, baby!), Trump, Bellagio etc. As you drive in, you wonder why the hell doesn't this place work.

          2 hrs from NY, Philly, etc. and yet everyone would rather spend the equivalent of 1/2 a day in travel to go to Vegas in the middle of a fucking desert.

          It has an infrastructure (airport / expressway), a good stretch of decent Jersey shore beach, high rise hotels already operating (most fairly recently renovated)...and you go there, walk in, and see the dregs of society, lugging their oxygen tanks around and spending every bit of their social security check. It's like the clientele is stuck in 1982.

          Don't get me wrong, I actually can't stand gambling. And to have gambling be a singular source of revenue does not do a society good, but truly Atlantic City's problem is a marketing problem. New, younger and affluent clientele looking for a resort atmosphere without much effort to get there should sell itself. That's what Revel tried to do. And they failed.

          Anything near prime waterfront is a quantifiable commodity. Honestly, If I had any money, I'd go long on investment there.

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            SlicingFairGabrielle Bluestone
            8/12/14 9:16pm

            There are property taxes, and they're hooked into this power station with the local gas company, and those two bills are $6 million a month," the source said. "So there's $72 million a year before you turn a card.

            See this is what bums me out for these billionaires. If only there was some reliable way of predicting these things like $72 million in known overhead before spending two and half billion dollars on a project, losing another billion, and then just saying "awww fuck it, on to the next try." You have to admit, they really took this thing down every possible road though. I mean TWO WHOLE YEARS. How long did it take to design, permit, build and staff this thing??? Don't worry folks. Billionaires got this whole "future" thing for us.

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              laurduchovnyGabrielle Bluestone
              8/12/14 9:50pm

              Just took a stroll via Google Earth around the resort.

              Here are my 2 favorite views.

              https://www.google.com/maps/@39.36405…

              https://www.google.com/maps/@39.36045…

              What a sad, horrible, sore thumb it is

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                FilmlandgrabGabrielle Bluestone
                8/12/14 9:24pm

                What if Atlantic City became a collection of 1, 2, and 3 story bread-and-breakfasts. One can dream.

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                  t-rexineffexGabrielle Bluestone
                  8/13/14 9:18am

                  The only way to save Atlantic City would be to legalize sports books. There is no way that is happening with two NFL teams in the state.

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                    Boozo_the_clownt-rexineffex
                    8/14/14 1:23pm

                    Why in the world would that "save" anything but the bookies? The gambling would have to be a state-run business in order for the government to have a chance to get any appreciable amount of money out of it.

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                    t-rexineffexBoozo_the_clown
                    8/14/14 1:45pm

                    If you put sports books in the casinos, Atlantic City would become a destination. I'm not sure if you consider sports books in Vegas "bookies", but they make a lot of money for the casino owners and the state of Nevada. If you thought I was talking about bookies as they currently are, I am sorry.

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                  GoneIn60MinutesGabrielle Bluestone
                  8/12/14 11:03pm

                  Atlantic City had — and still has — immense potential to become an East Coast version of Las Vegas. However, decades of mismanagement and corruption from local and state politicians in New Jersey have led to the current downward spiral the resort city is suffering. Vegas saw how the chips were falling in the 1990s and reinvented themselves as a vacation destination with a range of entertainment options, while Atlantic City just clung to gambling and chose not to offer much else. Now that casinos are popping up everywhere along the East Coast, there is very little reason to visit Atlantic City. As a resident of New Jersey, I really would like to see AC reach its potential, but I think it may now be too late for that. Politicians are pushing for casinos in North Jersey which would sound the final bell for Atlantic City.

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