This week’s casino news kicks off in Las Vegas, then moves on to Atlantic City before wrapping up in Turkey, where the online gambling industry has run into a few problems.
Crown Resorts Sells Las Vegas Lot
Whenever a piece of land – especially a big lot – gets sold in Las Vegas near The Strip, it makes news. Crown Resorts has done exactly that as speculation has begun about what will eventually end up on the land.
Crown Resorts has sold a lot of 34.6 acres to Wynn Resorts for about $336 million. Wynn Resorts also bought another four acres of land that was adjacent to the property. To put the location in perspective, it is across from Wynn Las Vegas. While they have yet to reveal any concrete plans, it’s easy to figure out what they have in mind. Crown was going to build a resort that was named Alon on that land but VIP players stopped coming from China. In the end, they didn’t have the money to kick off the project as costs ballooned to $2 billion. Now, they are selling land to come up with money for more international projects, allowing Wynn Resorts to expand their foothold on The Strip.
Crown is also planning to sell shares that it holds in Caesars Entertainment and CrownBet.
Revel Casino Slated To Reopen In 2018 Following Sale
It has been announced that AC Ocean Walk LLC has been named the buyers of the Revel Casino in Atlantic City. Glenn Straub bought the casino for $82 million and was due to open it up but those plans never came to fruition. Instead, the investment company from Colorado will take it over. Not only do they plan to buy it, they will pump in $175 million to update the hotel and reopen it in May. When the Revel reopens, it is expected to have 100 table games, around 2,000 slot machines and almost 1,400 hotel rooms, for starters. There will be nightclubs and restaurants and a slew of other amenities.
The Revel opened in April 2012 and closed in September 2014.
Turkey Turns On Online Gambling
Turkey is a country that’s undergoing a crackdown on certain liberties and online gambling happens to be next in the crosshairs. The route that the country is taking is via the national banks, who are going to start regulating how mobile money transfers happen. Now there will be a maximum on how much people can transfer per day, which is about $128 in US dollars. There can only be two transfers per day as Turkey is looking at ways to slow down illegal online gambling. They’re also regulating usage of ATMs as there is a two-year plan in effect to get rid of competition to Turkey’s state-run Spor Toto and Milli Piyango, which are sport betting and lottery, respectively. There will likely be more measures in 2018 as Turkey is trying to get all of the gambling money for itself, but international online gambling sites often have better games for their players.