Buyers place bids on Atlantic City's Revel Casino

Final bids are due Monday as Atlantic City’s newest casino resort - mired in its second bankruptcy already - seeks a buyer. Last month, Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian there are six potential buyers for the Revel Casino Hotel, which is up for sale at a bankruptcy auction.

The city's Republican mayor spoke last month at a news conference on a parking lot in sweltering heat after he had lunch with state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Sen. James Whelan, a former Atlantic City mayor, about the possibility of the state allowing a casino to open in the northern New Jersey Meadowlands.

Revel, the city's newest casino, cost US$ 2.4 billion to build. It opened in April 2012 but has declared bankruptcy twice.  Guardian acknowledged the city is going through hard times with its rapidly shrinking casino industry, but sought to emphasize the positive, even as the Showboat and Trump Plaza prepared to shut down by September, and Revel could do likewise if a buyer is not found.Guardian also said Showboat has potential buyers, but did not say how many. He said he did not know of any potential buyers for Trump Plaza.

Sweeney has said he is open to letting New Jersey voters decide through a referendum next year whether to amend the state Constitution and permit casino gambling in locations other than Atlantic City. But Wednesday, he was vague about what that would entail, promising only that he would not put forth any bill that does not sufficiently help Atlantic City.

Under proposals being considered by state officials, the operator of a casino at the Meadowlands race track would be taxed at a much higher rate than Atlantic City casinos and a certain as-yet unspecified percentage of that extra revenue would be returned to Atlantic City to help it deal with the in-state competition.Sweeney said that whatever the percentage ultimately is, the money would be Constitutionally dedicated to help Atlantic City and could not be diverted to the state's general fund.

Israel Posner, a gaming expert at Stockton College of New Jersey, predicts if any of the struggling gaming halls can be saved, it’s Revel. “That will be the newest and nicest property on the boardwalk for a generation or two,” he said. “Why would that not be at least worth a look?” But Posner suggests the eventual buyer might not want to run it as a casino.

“I think it brings out a lot of players,” he said, “whether they’re in the traditional casino industry or they’re in the resort tourism industry or something entirely different.”And he says it’s not out of the question that a buyer might shut down Revel for a makeover.