\nATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 Three Atlantic City-area lawmakers want state casino regulators to force the Showboat and Trump Plaza casinos to remain open at least four more months to let prospective buyers kick the tires.<\/p>\n
\tSen. James Whelan, a former Atlantic City mayor, and Assemblymen Vince Mazzeo and Chris Brown wrote Tuesday to the state Casino Control Commission asking for the delay.<\/p>\n
\tBoth of the casinos recently sent out letters to their employees warning them their jobs are expected to end within two months. The Showboat is due to close Aug. 31, Trump Plaza two weeks after that.<\/p>\n
\tThe lawmakers said two months\u2019 notice \u201cto many 20-plus-year employees is wrong and unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGiven the complexities of the situation here in Atlantic City, this two month timeframe is simply not enough time for potential buyers to do the appropriate research that acquisition of either property may require,\u201d they wrote in a letter to commission chairman Matthew Levinson.<\/p>\n
\tThe lawmakers said the casino companies\u2019 interest is to shut them down as quickly as possible and begin transferring customers to other properties they own. But the public interest is in keeping the casinos open and their thousands of jobs intact, they wrote.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt would be a nightmare for Atlantic City to have a string of vacant properties along the Boardwalk like Atlantic Club, a situation orchestrated by joint venture between Caesars and Tropicana,\u201d added Whelan and Mazzeo, who are Democrats, and Brown, who\u2019s a Republican.<\/p>\n
\tThe Atlantic Club was bought in a bankruptcy court auction last December by Caesars Entertainment, which is the Showboat\u2019s parent company, and Tropicana Entertainment. It was stripped of its assets and shut down on Jan. 13 in the name of reducing competition in Atlantic City.<\/p>\n
\tThe lawmakers also say companies that close a casino should not be allowed to bar a new owner from running the site as a casino. Caesars has included deed restrictions when it sold the Atlantic Club and the former Claridge casino to a Florida firm that plans to run them as non-casino hotels.<\/p>\n
\tLevinson said his agency is studying the request, including whether it has the power to grant it.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI certainly share the very serious concerns they raised about the welfare of workers and all of the businesses that will suffer if casino properties close their doors,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile our authority is broad in some respects, and our ability to direct business decisions of the casinos is limited under the Casino Control Act, the current circumstances are unprecedented and present novel issues which we have been and will continue to review.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tTrump Entertainment Resorts declined to comment. There was no immediate comment from Caesars Entertainment.<\/p>\n
\tBesides the Atlantic Club, Trump Plaza and the Showboat, Revel also could close by September if a buyer cannot be found in a bankruptcy court sale next month. Atlantic City, the nation\u2019s third-biggest casino market after Nevada and Pennsylvania, began the year with 12 casinos, but by fall it could have only eight.<\/p>\n
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 Three Atlantic City-area lawmakers want state casino regulators to force the Showboat and Trump Plaza casinos to remain open at least four more months to let prospective buyers kick the tires. Sen. James Whelan, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}