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Hard Rock Granted License To Reopen Casino In Atlantic City

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS/AP) — Hard Rock got a license to reopen a casino in Atlantic City on Wednesday.

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The Casino Control Commission granted a license to Hard Rock, the worldwide hotel, gambling and entertainment company owned by Florida's Seminole Indian tribe. It is reopening the former Trump Taj Mahal.

The casino is set to reopen on June 28 — the same day as another shuttered Boardwalk casino, the former Revel property, that will open as the Ocean Resort Casino. Together, the new casinos will restore as many as 6,500 of the 11,000 jobs Atlantic City lost when five of its 12 casinos went out of business since 2014. Casino officials say Hard Rock has received 50,000 applications for 4,000 jobs.

"What we have in store is going to blow people away," said Jon Lucas, chief operating officer of Hard Rock International. "It'll be a boost for the reinvention of Atlantic City."

While Hard Rock officials attended the hearing Wednesday, new Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam delivered his first State of the City address at a luncheon of the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.

"This is a very, very exciting time in the history of Atlantic City," said Gilliam inside a ballroom at Boardwalk Hall. "That you'll have 2 casinos opening, I don't know that's happened anywhere on the planet."

Gilliam declared June 28th as the rebirth date of Atlantic City when the Hard Rock and Ocean Resort both plan to open.

"We always suspected that Atlantic City was going to have another opportunity, just like any other market there are ebbs and flows and I'm very proud that we're coming out of those ebbs and we're flowing very well right now," says Gilliam.

In addition to the casinos bringing back thousands of jobs, Stockton University will open it's Island Campus over the summer, creating a much needed diversification in the regional economy.

"We are now starting to see both unemployment rates and foreclosure rates start to reduce," says Chamber president Joe Kelly.

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Four casinos — The Atlantic Club, Showboat, Trump Plaza and Revel — went out of business in 2014. The Trump Taj Mahal followed in 2016.

Hard Rock gutted and is completely renovating the casino resort that Trump opened in 1990.

"We could have just re-carpeted and put up some (memorabilia). But we want to grow Atlantic City rather than just moving people from an existing facility," said James Allen, CEO of Hard Rock International.

The casino has budgeted $30 million for entertainment in its first year, Allen said. That will fund over 300 nights of live music, comedy and drama. Carrie Underwood (June 29) and Pitbull (June 30) will be the first acts to perform there.

The casino will have no debt, being self-financed by Hard Rock and its local investment partners, Allen said. The resort plans to offer internet gambling and sports betting, if it is legalized.

The Taj Mahal went bankrupt within a year of Trump's opening, and Trump lost control of it in a subsequent bankruptcy years later when bondholders took over. His friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn shuttered the Taj Majal in 2016, after failing to reach a labor agreement with Atlantic City's main casino workers' union.

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Hard Rock bought it in March 2017 after repeatedly testing the waters in Atlantic City. It had proposed, then abandoned a plan for a smaller music-themed casino in 2011, and its executives considered buying Revel after that casino had gone dark.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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