Well the saga of the ailing Atlantic Club Casino has finally come to an end. Caesars Entertainment and Tropicana Entertainment bought the casino and its assets for the combined price of $23.4 million. Caesars get the property and its 800 hotel rooms for $15 million, while Tropicana take 1,641 slot machines and 48 table games for the bargain price of $8.4 million.
It’s sad to see a casino go that’s been in Atlantic City for well over three decades. But even more tragic is the fact that 1,600 workers will lose their jobs. Caesars have no plans to keep the Atlantic Club operational, and they merely want to gut the property and transfer assets over to their existing Atlantic City casinos. And this brings us to one important question: would Atlantic Club have been better off selling to the Rational Group? Here are three thoughts on the matter.
1. Corporate greed got Colony Club in the end
As far as casino sales go, the Rational Group wasn’t paying much at all for Atlantic Club. In fact, the $15 million that they were in the process of paying was the lowest casino sale price in the history of Atlantic City. But at least it would’ve helped Atlantic Club from going bankrupt, which happened this past November. But the Club’s parent company, Colony Capital, walked away over halfway through the deal. The reason why was obvious: they saw dollar signs attached to regulated online poker and used a contract loophole to void the deal with Rational. In hindsight, they should’ve sold to PokerStars since they went bankrupt and had to be saved by an unnamed California hedge fund, which ultimately saw the benefits of the sale.
2. The Casino would’ve stayed open, jobs would be saved
There were no secrets about why the Rational Group wanted the failing Atlantic Club – they had their eyes on regulated online poker in the United States. New Jersey was on the verge of regulating online poker and Rational saw this as a perfect opportunity to get their biggest assets, PokerStars and Full Tilt, involved in the market. Even though PokerStars’ New Jersey gaming application has since been suspended for two years, they would’ve at least kept the Atlantic Club operational. And this would’ve resulted in 1,600 jobs being saved.
3. PokerStars would stand a better chance of getting accepted
Expanding on the above point about Rational keeping the Atlantic Club operational, this would’ve bettered their chances of eventually being accepted in the New Jersey online poker market. Who knows, maybe the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement would’ve looked at how Rational stepped in and saved 1,600 jobs, then decided to approve their application. Instead, PokerStars are still on the outside looking in because New Jersey government officials want to give Atlantic City casinos a better chance to succeed in their online poker market.