After a career managing and developing gaming properties that spans over 30 years, Kevin DeSanctis is now the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Revel Entertainment. The company recently opened REVEL, a $2.4 billion beachfront property in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

HOMBRE: What was your vision for developing Revel?
Kevin DeSanctis: The goal was to create a place in Atlantic City that attracts a much broader market. To accomplish that goal we said this will have to be a more upscale resort than just a gaming operation That’s essentially how we started.

H: Food is a major component. How did you select the chefs?
KD: First they had to be established, to be successful with their own operations; and generally we looked to Philadelphia, New York and Washington, DC.
Secondly, we wanted chefs who were interested in investing in their restaurants. The third part is that we wanted to make sure that they were here.
And the last piece is that we wanted to have a combination of chefs that would be at different price points because we don’t want to hold our guests hostage.
We don’t want to overcharge. That was the thought process.

H: Tell us about the name?
KD: ‘Revel’ means to have fun in the company of others and we thought it was an appropriate name. Once we selected it we socialized with everybody and they came back and said ‘This is what your company is all about. This is what you should name this place.’

H: You worked with the most successful gaming hotel entrepreneurs in the business, what is the best advice you received while working with them?
KD: Each one was really different. When I look at each person – Steve Wynn, Donald Trump, Sol Kertzner, Chris Hammer – they all thought me something.
Steve is probably the best all around business person. He is incredibly smart, incredibly driven, he won’t settle, he is a perfectionist and that shows in all of his resorts.
Donald Trump, I really enjoyed working with him. He is personable, he is down to earth, he doesn’t get rattled easily, he is the master in understanding human nature.

H: As a kid growing up what were your goals?
KD: I thought I would be an FBI agent, but it didn’t happen.

H: You started as a police officer and then went on to investigating gambling
resorts…
KD: Actually what happened is I came out of college knowing what I wanted to do, applied to the New Jersey State Police, got accepted and was pretty happy.
It was a good job, I enjoyed it and around 1978 gaming came to New Jersey and they were looking for state troopers with accounting degrees. I applied and got a job. Then we went down to the Bahamas to investigate a resort and we found out a bunch of things that probably people didn’t want to know. And when we came back they disbanded our unit. My boss at the time then went to Vegas, called me and said, ‘Do you want a job?’ I said ‘Yeah!’ went to Nevada and that
was the start of my gaming career.

H: What do you hope “Revel” does to Atlantic City?
KD: My goal and hope is for Revel to broadened the market. I think we are starting to see a little bit of that already. In other words we need to attract people who have up to this point rejected Atlantic City as an option. And the reason is that there are many ways in which Atlantic City has not offered many different things that you can get in New York, Philadelphia or Washington, DC. What Revel does is provide retail, dining and entertaining and it allows us to reach much broader audience. I think that is my hope and obviously we believe that we have a shot at success.

H: What plans do you have for the company?
KD: We still have some things to finish. Next is to look at where the customer is, what the customer wants. At the end of the day that is what we really should be focused on.

H: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
KD: There are a couple things. One is you have to get out of your comfort zone.
You have to get in the business and learn as much as you can about whatever you are interested in. Secondly you have to push the limits. You can not be afraid of failure. Sometimes you can fall, stumble and that’s okay because you learn a tremendous amount from that.

H: Tell us about the process of having that thought in 2006 to actually realizing the concept today?
KD: From the time I started the company until now it’s about 6 years. My partner early on was Morgan Stanley and what they asked me to do is to put together the concept and the design and tell them how much it will cost so we could get things financed. When we started the company in 2006 there was a very short period of time, we had a very broad concept and it was fundamentally the same as it is today. The goal was to create a destination resort in Atlantic City. And it was quite quick. We started building in 2007.

H: Was if difficult to find the land?
KD: Before I even came on board, before I started the company, Morgan Stanley owned the land. They were looking for someone to develop it.

H: And then they backed out of the deal; what made you decide to continue with the project?
KD: It was pretty far along and when Morgan Stanley pulled out I had a provision that allowed me the first right of refusal…so I sat down with them and said ‘It doesn’t work for you but I would like to keep things going.’ They said okay, go ahead.

H: Why should one go to Revel?
KD: It’s very simple. If you are on the East Coast and you don’t want to get on an airplane and you want to go to a place that has a great beach, lots of pools, spa, restaurants, entertainment; and if you ever get bored you can go to a whole bunch of other places in the same city – Revel would be the choice. There is no other place like Revel on the East Coast.

500 Boardwalk
Revel Beach
Atlantic City, New Jersey 08401
(at Connecticut Avenue)
* (855) 348-0500