Former Ocean Resort Casino Owner Dies in Tragic Car Crash

Bruce Deifik, the former owner of the Ocean Resort Casino who played a huge role in the recent resurgence of Atlantic City, was on Sunday killed a tragic car crash. The 64-year old real estate developer was reportedly driving home from a Colorado Rockies baseball games when he was involved in a “single-car, low-speed auto crash”.

Remembered for his Investments

Bruce Deifik played a monumental role in reversing one of Atlantic City’s biggest slumps in recent history. His main contribution was with the former Revel casino – the facility went live in April 2012 as an intended competitor or Borgata but closed down shortly after in September 2014. Shortly after, there was a bit of drama during the bidding process for the property before Glen Straub bought it for $82 million in April 2015.  This amount was less than four percent of what it had cost to construct Revel three years prior.

While Straub had huge plans for the casino property, he eventually ended up not doing anything with it and in January 2018 Deifik’s company, AC Ocean Walk, purchased it for $229 million. In May 2018, the real estate developer personally announced the grand opening of Ocean Resort Casino which was scheduled for June 28. While this helped to revitalize Atlantic City’s gaming industry, the facility was already experiencing a few financial problems, especially with regards to making profits for its shareholders.

At the time of Deifik’s death, he was in the process of relinquishing ownership to Luxor Capital Group which had helped finance the casino’s reopening in June 2018.

Ocean Resort Casino Atlantic City Rebrands, Again

In a bid to emphasize on gambling, Atlantic City’s Ocean Resort Casino will be changing its name for the fourth time since its construction. The 47-story tower that was once known as the Revel will now be referred to as Ocean Casino Resort.

According to a Wednesday Twitter post by the owners of the casino, the casino’s name has been tweaked as part of the operator’s bid to put more emphasis on its gambling facilities and amenities.

“Time to unveil a tide of changes! 🌊 After rolling out a new marketing campaign, Ocean is making several improvements beginning with a shift in focus. We are a casino first. To reflect this, we are kicking it off with a new name—Ocean Resort Casino is now Ocean Casino Resort!” reads the tweet.

In addition to that, the casino will have a new logo that reflects “elegance”, “approachability” and “constant movement to the future”. It seems that Ocean Casino Resort will put emphasis on affordability in a bid to backpedal on the initial Revel model that mainly involved catering to high rollers.