ToCasino.net Online Casino

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. –  A developer who wants to reopen the former Revel casino lost his bid Tuesday to be exempt from having to get a New Jersey casino license.

Glenn Straub has to be licensed, even though he plans to have a different company run the Ten casino resort, the Casino Control Commission ruled.

Straub said after the hearing that he will fight the issue in court and the he doesn't want to subject his company to regulations from the state board.

"I recognize the social and economic benefits that reopening a casino hotel would have," board Chairman Matthew Levinson said. "But the environment in Atlantic City does not change the requirements of the Casino Control Act."

Straub says he will open portions of the hotel and spas on the property on Feb. 20, but Division of Gaming Enforcement Director David Rebuck said that the opening of a casino is "not even remotely imminent."

Straub scooped up Revel in 2015 from bankruptcy court for $82 million. It cost $2.4 billion to build and closed after a little over two years, never having come close to turning a profit.

Straub has complained repeatedly that government officials at all levels are preventing him from reopening the casino due to unnecessary regulations and that "abusive" red tape from state casino regulators is preventing people from investing in Atlantic City.