Atlantic City could end up opening its 9th casino within the next few years as Glenn Straub finally confirmed his plans to start development work on the former Revel casino site. Straub recently announced that he will build another casino at the property, but the new casino will be just half the size of the former Revel casino.

Glenn Straub purchased the former Revel casino and resort for $82 million in early 2015 but Straub hasn’t been able to do anything with the property since then as he has been in the middle of a legal battle with the former power supplier, ACR Energy Partners. Straub had announced in November 2015 that he decided to purchase the power plant after cutting a deal with ACR Energy and Bank of New York Mellon.

Straub plans to use fifty percent of the property to develop an entertainment facility that will house a water park. This will be the first phase of the project and construction is expected to commence in May and hotel rooms will also be open to the public from June. The second phase of the project will be the development of the smaller casino but Straub has stated that he has no specific timeline as to when the casino will be opened. His current focus is to develop the resort and ensure that its facilities and amenities are of the highest standard.

Straub stated that his application for a casino license is yet to be completed and considering the fact that New Jersey’s licensing process is a long drawn out one, the new casino will most likely not open in 2016. The Florida real estate developer plans to introduce a number of popular Asian casino games at his new casino and will also target gamblers from Asia who are known to be big spenders. Straub will look to hire the services of a gambling operator to manage the new casino and its operations.

The former Showboat casino located at the side of the Revel property has also been out of business and has recently been acquired by Philadelphia entrepreneur Bart Blatstein. There is no information as of now if Blatstein wants to develop a new casino at the property or turn it into something else.

However, the new casinos that open in Atlantic City must be prepared to face the possibility that gaming venues might be allowed to operate outside of Atlantic City, if the state legislators decide to approve a new bill which would introduce two new casinos outside of Atlantic City to address the competition from neighboring states.