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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Revel, the newest casino in Atlantic City, closed down at dawn Tuesday, the second to shut its doors in two days in New Jersey's gambling hub. One group of employees, who had been attending Revel's slot machines since it opened in 2012, left the casino floor together. They were among the 2,800 people who lost their jobs.
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"I thought I was going to be here for 20 years. We never thought this was going to happen," Philip Bookfor of Margate, N.J., told the Press of Atlantic City. "People left their jobs to come here. Now they have no job."
The Showboat turned off the lights Sunday. Another casino, the Trump Plaza, is scheduled to close in the middle of September.
About 5,900 people worked at Revel, Showboat Casino Hotel and the Trump Plaza, almost half of them at Revel. Between them, the three casinos employed about one-third of the industry workforce in Atlantic City.
The Atlantic Club shut down in January.
Revel, which cost $2.4 billion, was designed to be a resort that would lure customers more interested in great restaurants and other amenities than in gambling. But it never turned a profit and declared bankruptcy twice in its short life.
The casino failed to find a buyer at an auction in August.
When the first casinos opened in Atlantic City more than 30 years ago, the decaying resort was the only place outside of Nevada to gamble legally. Now, it has plenty of competition, with casinos in nearby Philadelphia.
Atlantic City had its best year in 2006, when gambling revenues reached $5.2 billion.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to hold a summit meeting Sept. 8 to discuss Atlantic City's future.
