Caesars Entertainment says it’s showing its Showboat Casino Hotel in Atlantic City to “an interested party” less than a week before the property is scheduled to be closed. On Tuesday, Caesars spokesman Gary Thompson told the Associated Press an unidentified person/company had expressed an interest in viewing the property before it officially closes its doors this Sunday (31) at 4pm.
Caesars has publicly insisted that it remains open to selling the property – which turned a $7.6m profit in the second quarter of 2014 – but the company hasn’t commented on rumors that it has placed deed restrictions on the property that would prevent any buyer from continuing to operate a casino on the premises.
Meanwhile, the bankrupt Revel Casino Hotel – which is closing on Tuesday, Sept. 2 – will get its $21k back following an armored car company cockup. The sorry saga of the $2.4b Revel took an embarrassing turn last week after word spread that a truck belonging to the GardaWorld firm had driven away from the casino with a big bag of money on the roof, only to have it fall off at some point, never to be seen again. The Press of Atlantic City reported that an internal investigation by GardaWorld had found no wrongdoing (at least, not the intentional kind) and the company would be reimbursing the casino for the lost loot. Dare we suggest the money go towards a booze-fueled blowout for the 3k-plus employees who will soon be out of work?
The imminent closure of Revel, Showboat and the Trump Plaza (due to close Sept. 16) is expected to result in around 8k casino staffers hitting the unemployment rolls, but the damage doesn’t stop there. On Tuesday, AC Mayor Don Guardian announced the city would be trimming its municipal workforce by about 300 positions, representing 18% of its total payroll. With some casinos having won significant property tax rebates and credit agencies downgrading AC’s debt to junk status, Guardian said the city needs to cut spending by $40m over the next three years. Eighty of the job cuts have already been achieved via attrition, but Guardian doesn’t “believe we can wait any longer for attrition” to meet the rest of the expected cuts.
