
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 property designer has offered $90 million in cash to purchase the property which was shut down for good week that is last. Glenn Straub, whom has the 22,000-acre Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in Wellington, Florida, will now get to be the ‘stalking horse,’ or lead bidder, who may be outbid by competitors at an auction on September 24. Other prospective purchasers have actually until September 23 in order to make offers.
Straub said this week that their offer ended up being ‘an possibility to turn things around. That is what they need at this time; a direction that is new’ he included. ‘Give us our six months, so we’ll actually actually likely be operational. In two years, we’ll be 100 % open.’
Which begs the question, exactly what are going to be open, precisely? 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 costs that are operational were hemorrhaging $2 million a week when it closed. And besides, it seems Straub has a personal dislike of gambling enterprises.
Casino Doctor
‘When everybody believes of Atlantic City, they think of casinos,’ Straub told United States Of America Today, adding that he dislikes the notion of Atlantic City as a casino town and will be uncomfortable with the notion of his family platinum quick hits slot profiting from gambling. However, we’re unsure a polo club for the uber wealthy quite fits in with all the boardwalk vibe either.
Whatever Straub has in mind, he’s keeping buttoned up for now, but he says he has Atlantic City’s most readily useful interests in your mind. ‘ We feel the populous city needs what we do,’ he says. ‘we have been like medical practioners who turn around patients that are sick. We turn around big properties.’
Although, in some of his previous transactions, we would venture to express that he is been similar to a vet putting down a unwell animal. It cost to build, for example, he eventually demolished it to make way for Grand Central Park when he bought the Miami Arena in 2004 for half the price the price.
That doesn’t bode too well for Revel.
Intriguingly, nevertheless, Straub hinted in his interview that his plans include building high-speed train links Atlantic City, New York City and Philadelphia.
Other Bidders in the Mix
It’s early days, though, and Straub may well yet be outbid, as he ended up being on a recent venture when he attempted to buy the Versace Mansion in Miami Beach at another bankruptcy auction last year.
There is, based on sources, some competition. One bidder is Alex Meruelo, whose California-based Meruelo Group attempted to buy 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 whenever Trump Entertainment was not able to get a release on its mortgage, as the senior lender declined to approve the purchase at such a price that is low.
Meanwhile, investor Carl Icahn is additionally a contender that is possible. Icahn, once the holder of most of Trump Entertainment’s financial obligation, stands to take over both the Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal as a consequence of the moms and dad company’s bankruptcy filing this week.
Whatever the outcome, however, the Straub deal benefits Revel and its own creditors by establishing a base price for the auction and ‘increasing the likelihood that the most effective 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 if it is outbid at auction, in accordance with proposals.
Dutch Regulators Warn Sports Betting Sites to Stop Ads
Regulators in the Netherlands say their campaign to limit activities betting sites in the country have been successful. (Image: AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Dutch regulators do not want sports sites that are betting target consumers in the Netherlands, so they’ve gone after organizations that have tried to attract players there who wish to be in on major events. Now, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) says that their efforts have been largely effective in reducing the game from all of these rogue operators.
In line with the KSA, a letter-writing campaign that was aimed at warning operators against targeting citizens that are dutch limited what they called ‘excessive’ advertising of such services through the World Cup while the Tour de France, both occasions with major followings in the world. In total, the KSA said they wrote letters to eight operators, and all sorts of eight have ceased the activities in question.
Companies Comply with Dutch Requests
Based on the body that is regulatory every one of the companies has stopped promoting their brand into the Netherlands. In addition, the companies took extra steps, such as for instance closing promotional websites and Dutch-language Twitter reports that were created to attract players to their web sites.
Those actions were apparently sufficient to satisfy the KSA. The regulator told the eight businesses that any further actions would be used against them, thanks to their compliance with the requests made from them. Nonetheless, the KSA has additionally reminded operators that with the Netherlands expected to enact Internet gambling laws next 12 months, operators should cease any marketing activities within the country until that time.
Poker Advertising a true point of Emphasis In The Years Ahead
In particular, the KSA says that a look is being taken by it at poker marketing. They are additionally improving their efforts round the times during the major events: for instance, for poker advertising, they’ll certainly be making sure to look closely at what’s going on around the table that is final of World number of Poker (WSOP), while activities betting sites will face more scrutiny near major international sporting events.
‘The KSA does not be expectant of that Dutch betting ads will recede entirely on the internet,’ the business wrote. ‘But regulations are being enforced, addressing situations that will lead to the greatest risks for consumers first.’
Affiliates are also targeted, and while their compliance wasn’t quite as swift, the KSA reports progress on that front side at all. Since the crackdown, at minimum two new operators have actually attempted to step in to the now market that is largely vacated the KSA states these are typically now being investigated, because are some affiliate networks.
KSA Has Reputation for Heavy-Handed Techniques
The KSA has made headlines recently for their hands-on method of gambling that is enforcing in the Netherlands. Last month, the regulatory human body levied an €80,000 ($103,000) fine against an elderly couple that organized a lottery for a household they owned in South Africa.
That lottery had been ultimately handled in Austria, and both members of this couple held Belgian passports (though one was also a Dutch citizen). Nonetheless, as the contest had a web site that included information in Dutch, and as a result of a meeting about the lottery on Dutch radio, the KSA felt it was in breach of Dutch gaming laws. The KSA reportedly even went so far as to track down blog posts in order to establish that the lottery could be looked at A dutch event.
‘Many people spoke about this on the net, however the regulator has decided to blame the couple for all the responses, as though these were the people who wrote them or even began the discussion,’ lawyer Bas Jongmans told PokerNews.
NJ Sports Betting Challenge Has Hope for any Other US States
New Jersey Acting Attorney General John Hoffman, upon whoever opinion that is legal challenge to PASPA is based. (Image: Star-Ledger)
Could the New Jersey activities wagering decision to decriminalize wagering at casinos and racetracks into the Garden State spark a wave of similar moves in other states? Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia and Kansas have already come out in support of brand New Jersey’s stance, and several more would be watching with interest due to the fact state seeks clarification of its position in a federal court.
Currently only four states that are US Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon, have the ability to offer sports betting legitimately under federal legislation. This is certainly because of legislation called the Protection and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), which desired to define the status that is legal of betting (as opposed to parimutuel horse and dog racing) into the US, and efficiently outlawed it nationwide.
Exemptions were manufactured from the aforementioned states which had currently declared recreations betting to be appropriate of their borders, while nj-new jersey was given a window that is one-year of, a deadline of January 1, 1993, to prepare and pass legislation permitting activities gambling, an opportunity it chose not to grasp.
On the Cards
These were more days that are optimistic the Atlantic City casino industry, a period of growth and investment, and it seems the state felt it might do without. But things are very different today. Atlantic City’s economy is in crisis. With a spate of casino closures, and several thousand staff set off, it absolutely was clear different things and drastic was needed.
It had been on the cards for a time. In 2011, nj-new Jersey residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of repealing PASPA. In response, nj-new Jersey created the Sports Wagering Act, which attempted to decriminalize and regulate sports betting at casinos and racetracks.
It was challenged by the professional sports leagues, which advertised that the Act had been a violation of federal law and threatened the integrity of sport. Last year a judge that is federal, putting the kibosh in the Sports Wagering Act for good. This generated the realization that, while PASPA banned the regulating and licensing of sports betting by specific states, there clearly was nothing in that act that required states to enforce prohibition.
Floodgates to Open?
Nj Acting Attorney General John Hoffman claimed his formal opinion that is legal week: ‘Sports swimming pools operated by racetracks and casinos continue to be exempted from criminal liability under New Jersey legislation so 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 irrespective of where the occasion takes place.
‘Accordingly, no legislation enforcement or prosecution agency or officer shall … make an arrest, register a complaint against, or prosecute any person mixed up in operation of a sports pool by a casino or racetrack towards the extent that such activity takes place constant with this specific Law Enforcement Directive,’ Hoffman added.
This, then, is nj-new Jersey’s place, of which it is seeking clarification from 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 activities leagues.
Nj-new jersey’s gambling enterprises are desperately in need of an advantage over the competing casinos in neighboring states that have actually damaged the Atlantic City market. The decriminalization of sports betting may provide that edge, but also for how long? The floodgates may open and there’s little to prevent other states, including the neighboring competition, from following suit if the state is successful in its challenge to PASPA.