I was lucky enough to be there the night they closed. The bartenders were just giving bottles away. We had a room for like 10$ Nothing was really working and it was awesome

“..and everything was hastily being held together for something that might just collapse.” Welcome to Atlantic City.

They failed to mention the reason why so many AC casinos closed recently because in the last 10-11 years surrounding states got gaming licenses to open local casinos.

I was on the opening team for Revel. Worked there for months before opening and until it closed. There were so many abandoned or vacant unfinished areas even when we opened. I know all the secret spots! It was such a labyrinth. Unreal. There were even homeless living in these spots in the second tower base that was never finished. So many crazy stories to tell. This was interesting to watch and took me back. Thanks!

“In the end, it was the revel who had the gambling problem” oooo gotemmmm.

This series should be renamed Money Pits.... Holy shit...

Can we talk about the man who straight up bought the 2.4 billion dollar building for 80 mil and just made sum shit up until he could sell it for a profit two years later. He’s the only true winner in Atlantic City

The bigger question is why did ANYONE finance this, starting in 2006, given that it was obvious by then that Atlantic City was on life support.

Chris Christie is such a constant figure on this channel 😂 too funny

The tower kinda looks like a ps4

It’s now Ocean Casino and it’s my go to place!

who would've known how absolutely gorgeous the ocean casino resort would turn out to be nowadays? it's true that the property had an extremely rough start, but their staff go so hard with customer service, gaming incentives, food choices, and room quality. they go above and beyond to the furthest possible extent to make sure that you enjoy your stay. the prices for rooms are reasonable even if you don't frequent atlantic city, the walk to the beach is shorter than with any other casino/hotel on the strip, and the views of the ocean and steel pier from the rooms are breathtaking. it is always a good time here year-round, so thankful that they kept building this place up to what it is today.

Their biggest mistake was opening a casino as the city was dying. I’ve lived in the area my whole life and the way AC died and the way it killed EVERYTHING for nearly 50 miles is depressing and irreversible

One thing never mentioned was the fact that Revel originally opened as a Smoke Free casino, unheard of in that industry. That one thing kept a lot of hard core gamblers away from the property and no doubt affected the bottom line. I enjoyed going there but gamblers have addictive personalities and more are addicted to substances like tobacco and want to be able to indulge that habit while gambling.

I absolutely LOVED the Revel and love it even more as the Ocean... fabulous and affordable rooms, great casino, can’t wait till we go again in a few weeks!

What’s funny is that Ocean was the only casino in AC to increase their profits from 2019 to 2020 despite COVID. They’re my go to casino and I’m so glad they have been really able to turn things around.

If you’re scared of heights don’t go there. The escalators are scary AF.

When you put a hotel on Boardwalk and no one ever lands on it.

I used to make fun of this property, but now it's the only one I will go to in AC. Better than Borgata imo. Love the vibe of Ocean, the rooms are fantastic, the casino floor is great. They've done a great job turning this property around. Can we get an update?

I love this hotel-casino. It is now called Ocean Casino Resort. The rooms are still nicer than other nearby major hotel-casinos. The table games have the best minimum and variety of game choices with bj surrender. Also the comps are great including rooms. I just stayed there today and it is busy.

I followed the Revel history intently when living in the area. They made many mistakes in terms of attracting gambling. They were targeting the rich gamblers, and not your average gamblers. 1. There were many escalators ride to get to the gambling floor. They were very high and scary. All of the other casinos can just be accessed within a few steps from the Boardwalk. 2. They didn't want any buses, especially those from NYC and Philly, to stop over. Those "kind of people" wasn't what they were aiming for. Of course, they quickly changed their stance. 3. The rewards program only had 1 tier, unlike all other casinos' programs. This pissed off the rich gamblers, who has no incentives to gamble even more. Again, they had to change to appeased everyone. As for the power plant, that was a set of it's own issue. The company that built it was lending the casinos the money. Every month, the casino had to pay back millions of dollars, just to cover the debt.

You know the project is destined for failure when a major investment Bank is willing to take a $900 million loss to get out

Atlantic City as a whole is worthy of an abandoned episode, I went like six years ago and it’s… sad.

I’ve been fascinated with this complex since it first opened. It’s a stunning tower complex. Yet just across the street sits empty lots. It was ambitious to say the least to build such a giant structure at the north end of Atlantic City. I hope in the near future it finds success and breathes life into the whole surrounding area.

Maybe designing the building in the shape of a credit card wasn’t a good idea

I’ve been to Atlantic City. There is legit 3rd world poverty, abandoned lots and houses next to billion dollar casinos. It’s surreal.

They have now reopened as Ocean Casino Resort and are incredibly popular - its a great hotel and casinoe now - would highly recommend

I remember staying the Revel when I was 15. My parents took us there back in 2012 and it was cool, but the service and hotel amenities were shitty. It was a failure from the start. I remember my dad complaining about the casinos there. I just went back last night for the first time in 11 years and I forgot it was the Revel. It’s now the Ocean and it is awesome. Looks so much better and can tell it’s doing better as far as I know. It was nice to be back though.

At least the Revel had a chance to open. Here in Las Vegas, The Drew Hotel (formerly known as The Fontainebleau) has been standing empty for years without ever opening. It's about 90 percent complete but it's just a creepy eyesore. Now the projected opening date is November 2022. That will be 15 years after construction started in 2007.

Let me tell you, I was around when this monster took place.. Not only was every surrounding state legalizing gambling, but casinos in Atlantic City were already failing.... Why would any investors allow money to be spent to the tune of 2.4 BILLION dollars. Currently the Ocean Club is doing well, but still 12 floors are vacant, and it does seem the building is unfinished.... Great job Jake, as always, your so great at what you do!!!

"It was Revel that had the gambling problem" Well said.

this gets recommended to me as I'm literally staying at the new Ocean Casino right now

I stayed there once. I was amazed how cheap the rooms were, and how empty the place was. I had a room 3/4 of the way up that had an ocean view, and it was under $100/night.

Imagine finally making money on something then COVID hits.

Its now the Ocean Casino and its awesome!

I live in NJ and enjoy going to Atlantic City. I have to tell you that after watching this excellent piece you’ve done on the Revel, it reminded me of something a security guard said to me on the casino floor of the Hard Rock Casino, formerly Trump Taj Majal. I said to him that the place was bigger and better with more of everything than it was before when it was the Taj. He asked me if I thought it would last. My answer was that if people could win on the casino floor and they made things happen that would attract customers, then it would be fine. On our trip we had free tickets to see Bob Dylan. If they got greedy and it was not interesting to go to then it might not. I could not get into the Taj when it was closed but I got into the Showboat and took pictures of the empty casino floor with broken gaming lights and garbage cans around. I had. Lot of fun in those places 30 years ago. Saxman

True what you say, there’s just something off about the whole thing.

First and only mistake was building it in AC. It’s been washed up for decades.

I liked hearing your opinion on how you felt being at this hotel. I love the “feeling” buildings can give us; an uncertainty about its own future so much so that it graces you with that vibe. I look forward to the next video you do on this building if you do revisit it in the future due to it closing its doors once again.

i just went maybe about a week ago and actually got to go inside the base of the second building because if you go left in "the park" there are doors into the building, a worker saw me but he said that they don't really care when people go in their but he said they do have security that walks through the building every here and there because people tend to come off the boardwalk and sleep in there. unfortunately i did not get any pics but he said that Ocean uses the top floor as just storage and they simply leave the doors open for the workers if they ever need to get in or through. all it is inside is just one simple really wide staircase that actually runs completely adjacent to the hotel and casino. it brings you to the bottom floor/ground level and it dumps you out into the back street but you can get back into the hotel by going back through the tunnel for leaving the parking deck or valet. it was a really cool experience.

Why someone would build that monster in Atlantic City is just insane. It’s either money laundering or criminal negligence...

I remember being a security guard at the Taj Mahal after coming back from Afghanistan, and looking over the construction of the Revel from a window each Morning and thinking how stupid it is to keep building that thing when every casino was losing money. Now the Revel is gone and so is the Taj Mahal. Luckily, I was fired before this happened for fighting a drug dealer on the boardwalk. Damn cameras.

I'm getting addicted to Bright Sun videos...

Thanks to the Smithsonian channel show "Arial America" for showing New Jersey and Atlantic City. It prompted me to find out about the massive REVEL hotel and I found your story on this facility. VERY interesting and hope the place stays running now that we are getting past Covid. Great narration and amazing footage. Such a shame that Atlantic City struggles so much. Keep filming, great stories.

Man, everything about Atlantic City is so depressing when you look at it

It boils down to the old adage, "Know your audience." AC is not, and never was, Las Vegas.

It's def finished now! Ocean is lovely. My fav place in AC. Absolute best pools.

I've lived, and still live in Atlantic City and the revel is now called Ocean resort hotel and casino, and is a top two Casino/Hotel in Atlantic City today!

As someone that has been pretty obsessed with the story of Revel, I can honestly say you did an awesome job with this video. However, I have 2 slight corrections to things you said: 1) It wasn't the city that cut off service to the Revel when Glen Straub owned it, it was a private utility company. When Revel was first being built, Revel built it's own state of the art electric and water plant to service the massive building. When construction stopped and they were looking for funding, one of the ways they got additional money to complete the building was to sell the utility plant to a private company and sign an agreement with that company to buy their water and electricity to them. The agreement was structured such that Revel needed to pay a huge fixed price every month plus pay for its usage. This came out to more than $3M each month and was one of the main reasons they were losing money. Since such a high overhead for utilities would make the building unprofitable to operate, most bidders were deterred from placing bids for Revel, allowing Straubb to buy it for such a low price. Once he owned it, he fought with the utility company for months until they caved and sold the plant back to him at a loss, making the operation of that resort economical for the first time. 2) The hedge fund that took over Ocean did so prior to Bruce Deifik's passing. He ran out of cash before he could make it profitable and couldn't pay back the money owed to the hedge fund. This caused the hedge fund to force him hand over ownership in the property. He passed away shortly after. Bonus fun fact: as part of the sale agreement from Glen Straub to Oceanwalk, Straub will continue to receive money for each car parked at Ocean for years to come.

Amazing video as always Jake! I was super excited to see this in my subscriptions since im from ny and have visited atlantic city many times. I went to a concert at the revel in 2012 and was blown away at the scale and modern architecture, but I do remember a sort of unfinished & eerie vibe in there. Glad you got to visit!

The irony was not lost. Good little documentary.

Hotel: “Finally, I’m profitable. 2020 is gonna be a good year.” COVID: “I’m about to ruin this mans whole career.”

I don’t know what it is about this building, but it gives me major anxiety.

I always stay here, when it was revel and now oceans

Love how you walk us through the history in a very informative and interesting way. Great videos! 👍

Definitely one of the best channels on KZfaq!

A perfect example of the reckless hubris of these developers and the crooked politicians who enable them. They come in and slap together a monstrosity like this, then leave contractors and workers holding the bag while they slip out the back door of bankruptcy. Then they move on to ruin some other neighborhood somewhere else while they take advantage of a system specifically designed to benefit their class. Disgusting.

While the casino was transitioning from the old Revel to Ocean, I was there working on taking down and moving almost all the cameras on the gaming floor. While there, I got a little history lesson from a higher up about the failures of the old Revel. People here already mentioned about the no smoking issue. That was huge. I believe a few months before they closed, they opened up some smoking sections but it still failed to help them stay afloat. Now, the most interesting parts. This is what I was told and Im just passing it along. The Revel owners didnt own any of the restaurants or clubs in the Casino. They were rented out. Well when the big spenders got sent to the restaurants to be comped, the casino would get back enormous bills. Also, the HQ club that is located on multiple floors of the casino, was a gold mine and the casino was only charging them 100k per month. The club, on most summer days, was making over 300k a day! I think they begged to be allowed to keep running when the Revel closed but got denied. Once again, this is what I was told.

Lol was just there a few nights ago.... I’ve been a fan since revel. Ocean is the hotel I love to go to, back then it was the place for DJ sets and getting wild at the clubs, forget premier, forget the pool after dark & haven, HQ was the spot. Hopefully most things open back up fully this year, but if you have a chairman’s card it hardly matters. It’s my favorite place to stay- and that’s that I was a waterclub lifer.

I used to love Atlantic city but they never took into consideration that eventually casinos would open up all over the country. Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland took a lot of their business

It looks like the biggest problem is that it was just built in the wrong place. Look at what’s around it. Why would anyone want to go there?

That was one powerful escalator to carry Chris Christie...

The resort is beautiful. I go down to AC quite a bit and I always swing by oceans when I’m there. I’ve stayed there a couple of times and the rooms are great. I hope they do well and remain open for many years.

Ah every NJ resident is screaming right now: *CHRISTIEEEE*

When you started the story with "In 2007...." I was like "Welp, shame that."

I stayed there last weekend. It was actually super nice and best place I've stayed in AC. Glad they were able to reopen it

My hands at 10:59 minutes. Ocean was doing great in 2019 and early 20 until Mr. Virus showed up. Its a beautiful Hotel and Casino and great people to work with and for. I'm sure she's making a great come back as its busier than the other houses in town and very clean. Good luck and enjoy your experience!

Larry Silverstein would have insured it for for $4.5 Billion then "Pulled It". He would collect the insurance money and built a new non tainted property.

They even paid Beyoncé to perform there, where she had all sold out shows and it still cannot generate enough revenue 😬😬😬

Glad to see Atlantic city finally getting some love lots of abandoned casinos there but they have finally torn most of them down recently

I worked in the construction of this building… it was beautiful designed and enormous! I was there during the first shut down and returned when the project had resumed… I would have never imagined that it would go through such a roller coaster of misfortunes…. I’m glad it’s finally opened and I still occasionally visit there… thanks for the video!👍🏼👍🏼

there was no demand for something like this in atlantic city

If New Jersey property tax wasn't astronomical, that would make an incredible project for offices / boutique condo living.

this place has the scariest escalator I've ever been on

Was there when they first opened. It was wonderful to be there. You could tell it was unfinished.

Two episodes in NJ? Eh, whatever, as long as you upload, you’re the bright sun in my day.

Just stayed 3 days at oceans. Probably the best and cleanest casino in ac. Imo It's always packed and we are lucky we can get a room

I went to Atlantic City 4 years ago it was one of the nastiest towns to walk around in outside the boardwalk.

Also an interesting fact, Revel is where Baltimore Ravens RB Ray Rice beat the hell out of his fiancée in an elevator.

Ocean is by far my favorite AC destination resort. One thing you didn't mention was that when Revel was open it tried to be the only non smoking casino in AC, gamblers like to smoke and I think a large part of their demise was the non smoking rule. Ocean is staffed with amazing workers who are so kind and so helpful, even post Covid I feel safe there. Clean teams are working, sanitizer and wipes are abundant, Terry the new CEO is doing a great job leading this casino through the most difficult year possible. It will remain my happy place for as long as it is open!

I’ve been here a couple of times. The problem is the casino is located more towards the edge of Atlantic City and no one wants to drive there to gamble. They drive right in and pick the first few casinos. Online gambling started to become a thing when this first went up also so that made a big impact also. I think people of today realize that the house always wins. People don’t gamble like they used to in the 80s 90s.

hey buddy, thanks for these videos, they are so awesomely made and narrated.

GEORGIOUS, STUNNING, MAGNIFICENT CAMERA WORK FROM YOUR AUDIOVISUAL TEAM.

I was there for work during the Soft Opening in 2012. A number of things came to mind while I was there. 1st and foremost, I always said that they built a Las Vegas Strip casino... 3,000 miles off The Strip. They definitely overspent for the area. It was nice to be in a non-smoking casino. It was odd for me seeing windows in a casino, but I did enjoy the view of the Atlantic and the Boardwalk. Usually casinos don't have windows so you don't have a concept of time while playing.

What a great episode. My family and I are semi-regulars in Atlantic City. And when I walked up and down the boardwalk when I was there last year, I remember passing by Ocean Casino, and thinking it looked kinda sketchy despite it being so modern and fairly new. I know it had kind of a rocky history, but I didn’t know it was this tumultuous. You guys could probably do several episodes of Abandoned on sites in Atlantic City, like trump plaza, the pipe organ at the old Convention Hall, and the half-dozen large resorts on the south end of the boardwalk, past Tropicana, that are boarded up and decrepit. Keep up the great work, Jake and co.

It’s so beautiful it makes Vegas look secondary. I worked at the Wynn in Vegas and this is over the top

The Revel murdered itself when they tried to open as a non smoking casino. What percentage of gamblers *DON'T* smoke? 😂😂😂

I worked there the year it opened. It was one of the greatest years of my life but there was always this weird looming sense that everything was on the verge of being shutdown.

I love these videos. Ever since abandoned began back when the channel was named Bright Sun Gaming, these videos are the sun in my week. UR THE BEST JAKE!!!!

What a beautiful exterior! I'm in awe! So beautiful with the ocean 🌊 and sunset 🌇!!! Congratulations and welcome to Atlantic City 🏙️

I love how the shot at 1:30 shows the apartment building both my Grandmother and Great Grandmother live in. Literally grew up watching the Revel being built and then closed and then opened again.

I don’t know why but all of your videos are so interesting and totally one of my favorite Creators.

Dang we’re hitting close to home the more episodes of Abandoned being in Jersey. Just waiting for a Philly episode. 😅

Stayed there back in Sept of 2019, I thought it was a nice place. The room was awesome and we got it for a steal as well! Had no idea it had such a detailed past.

Good gosh.I've been binge watching for 2 days and am a Sub now too.I just realized I've gone back in time.Thanks for all these interesting videos.I'm hoping to hit 2018,and forget 2020 altogether.

I honestly love Bright Sun films, and can binge it ALL DAY! Such a great channel, and the 'Abandoned' series is my FAV!

When I saw the title I thought, how can a casino be abandoned. And then I saw that it was in Jersey and no more questions were needed.

Nice one! Thanks, Jake, for another interesting episode.

WOW! I grew up right across the bridge from AC. happy you covered it!

I am an Iron Worker from Easton PA and was working on the Sands in 2008 when everything fell apart. The company I was working for sent me to work on the Revel in AC and I had never seen anything like that job site. The things that were going on there were wild as hell and I worked on site over the winter just to watch that job fall apart as well. 😑