Atlantic City Fines Glenn Straub Over Revel Casino Safety Issues

After a long drawn out battle, Miami real estate developer Glenn Straub finally succeeded in closing the sale of the bankrupt Revel Casino and took ownership early this week. One of the biggest challenges Straub faced came from ACR Energy, the sole power supply plant that was responsible for supplying the casino with power that supplied their water and electricity.

The Revel paid ACR Energy millions of dollars each month as there was no other source of power available to the casino. The casino accumulated a huge amount of debt with ACR Energy and it still remains unpaid. Straub made it clear that he had no intention of continuing a relationship with ACR Energy and would use portable generators for power. As a result, ACR Energy stopped supplying power to the casino on the 09th of April at 2.13 pm. The decision appeared to catch Straub off-guard as they had no immediate solution to generate power.

A lack of power has resulted in safety issues as there is now no water flowing through the casino pipes and the fire department has issued a warning stating that should a fire breakout, their rescue efforts would be clearly hampered due to a lack of water. The Revel Casino is 710 feet in height and the second tallest building in Atlantic City with 47 floors. The Mayor of Atlantic City has issued a notice to Straub informing him of the dangers and imposing a fine on the company for every day they fail to provide power to the fire suppression systems and have water readily available.

Straub has not taken this double blow well and has expressed his disappointment over these two decisions saying it left him with a bad taste in his mouth. In a statement, Straub said

If they turn us away, we’ll go spend our money someplace else. I can very easily go back to Miami and be busy down there. They ought to be fining the people that caused this, not the person who just walked through the door.

Straub recently purchased the Showboat casino in Atlantic City which is situated next to the Revel casino. Straub stated that his company was working on connecting the Revel casino to the utility grid in the Showboat casino and using Showboat’s power generator to supply power to the Revel casino. However, this move will take Straub atleast two weeks to complete and till then he will have to pay thousands of dollars in fines.