For months, there was little, if any, sign that Atlantic City’s former Revel casino, a $2 billion bust, was getting ready to reopen.
Colorado developer Bruce Deifik bought it in January and made plans for its reincarnation as the Ocean Resort Casino. But there was scant activity visible on the site.
That has changed.
ATLANTIC CITY — When the first guests walk through the doors of Ocean Resort Casino on June 28, there is a good chance a member of the Deifik family will be there to greet them.
Family is important to Bruce and Nancy Deifik and son Jordan. And the new owners of the former Revel Casino Hotel believe a focus on treating everyone like they are part of theirs will be the most noticeable difference to guests.
ATLANTIC CITY — One of the two new casinos that will be opening at the end of June has partnered with Nevada’s largest sports book to run its sports wagering operation.
Ocean Resort Casino has partnered with William Hill U.S., a London-based sports book that currently operates 115 of Nevada’s 183 books.
Since 2015, at least a dozen NBA teams, owners and players have invested heavily in the growing esports market, backing or buying competitive gaming teams around the globe. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a dot-com pioneer who built a fortune in the tech world, opted for a different route.
“It’s a new sport for a new medium,” says Seth Schorr, CEO of Fifth Street Gaming and the chairman of the Downtown Grand, who’s also a Rogue investor and adviser. “Rogue is the center to build a universe around.”
On the final night of the trip, Villareal and future Rogue General Manager Sean Mulryan, who were working at NME at the time, were treated by Downtown Grand CEO Seth Schorr to a VIP table on stage at XS Nightclub, where electronic dance music superstar Zedd was performing.
There, they hatched a plan.
The eSports community has been around for decades, but has experienced explosive growth in the past five years. Tournaments such as the International Dota 2 tournament – with its $23 million prize pool – exceed, in total prize money, the PGA Masters.
However, these large tournaments are few and far between. Blaine Graboyes, CEO of GameCo, mentioned Thursday at an eSports seminar at G2E that many casinos come to him expecting to host large tournaments and make their revenue from ticket sales. The data, though, shows that only 9% of global eSports revenue in 2017 is from ticket sales. On the other hand, sponsorship and advertising make up more than half.
Ask those involved with the gaming business to find a solution to entice millennials to spend more time and money in a casino and the answer is quite simple — give them an overall casino experience that is more intriguing than today’s slot-machine games.
On most casino floors in Las Vegas, Atlantic City or Biloxi, Mississippi, patrons will find traditional slot machines with names such as AMC Walking Dead slot game, Lucky Hot 7s, Blaze of Glory, Wheel of Fortune, Willy Wonka Dream Factory or Sex in the City.
But those games, although popular with baby boomers and Generation X, are not proving to be as popular with a generation between the ages of 21-35 that grew up playing video games on Nintendo, PlayStation or Xbox.
Last weekend I had the chance to attend the Casino eSports Convention (CEC), which was an overflowing fountain of knowledge. From the generality of eSports to the mindsets of gamers, all the way through to the legalities of betting on competitive video gaming and tips on how to best implement it onto the casino scene – CEC had it all.
With an amazing line up of extremely competent speakers, there was much to learn from each one on the several different topics spoken about.
Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale — not of a fateful trip, but of an escape from reality, your own three-hour tour.
It comes by way of tiki culture, which had disappeared from Las Vegas but came roaring back thanks to Frankie’s Tiki Room, which is approaching its ninth anniversary, and The Golden Tiki, which just marked its second.
But while the two spots share a clear appreciation for all things tiki, they’re really about as dissimilar as a toddler and an almost-tween could be.
Frankie’s filled a void that was absolute. Tiki tradition started in Las Vegas in the ’60s with Aku Aku at the Stardust and Don the Beachcomber at the Sahara, but both closed in the ’80s. Taboo Cove, The Venetian’s attempt to revive the genre, lasted only from 2001 to 2005.
Enter P Moss, owner of the Double Down, the venerable Paradise Road dive bar. While Moss said he “wasn’t a fanatic or anything” in regard to tiki culture, he knew a niche when he saw one.
