Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City will be offering free parking throughout the summer, the property announced Tuesday on its Twitter page. The former Revel casino resort is slated for June 28 grand opening, the same day when Hard Rock International is set to launch the renovated and remodeled former Trump Taj Mahal.
Ocean Resort Casino said that guests of the resort will be able to take advantage of free parking through September 4. The announcement came as part of a series of promotional activities undertaken by the property in a bid to attract greater visitor flow to its premises when it launches later this month.
Ocean Resort Casino will occupy the former Revel, which closed doors in the summer of 2014 after two years of operation. The $2.4-billion gambling and entertainment complex originally opened doors in 2012 and was hoped to quickly turn into one of the jewels on Atlantic City’s Boardwalk. However, Revel never became the profitable property it was hoped it would.
Florida-based real estate developer Glenn Straub bought it for $82 million shortly after its closure, pitching ambitious plans to reopen it. However, the businessman missed a number of self-imposed reopening deadlines, while bickering with Atlantic City officials and state gaming regulators over whether he needed a casino license or not.
The shuttered resort was eventually purchased by real estate development veteran Bruce Deifik. The businessman paid $200 million for the property and invested another $200 million to prepare it for a summer 2018 opening.
Atlantic City’s Remodeled Casino Landscape
Following the closure of five casinos in the period between 2014 and 2016, Atlantic City, once the only place on America’s East Coast where casino gambling was legal, now has seven operational casino venues.
The closure of so many properties within such a short period of time was attributed to a mix of factors, including the growing competition from neighboring states as well as the economic struggles in the great recession and post-great recession era.
With seven operational properties and growing Internet gambling sector, Atlantic City seems to have stabilized its gaming industry to a point where more casinos could open doors. Owners of the two casinos that are slated to open doors in just three weeks have expressed optimism about the revitalization of Atlantic City’s casino market and their properties’ participation in that process.
On the other hand, there have been experts that have pointed out that two more gaming facilities could oversaturate a market that has clearly been quite stable with just seven properties.
The US Supreme Court lifted last month a long-standing federal ban on sports betting to conclude a case that was initiated namely by New Jersey. The state is expected to introduce and adopt its sports betting legislation any day now and it is believed that the legalization of that type of gambling activity would certainly come as a much-needed additional boost to Atlantic City’s casino industry and New Jersey’s overall gambling industry. With that said, the opening of two new casinos at this important stage should probably be seen as a positive development.
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