ATLANTIC CITY, USA (AP) — Atlantic City’s newest casino — and its biggest, costliest flop -— went out with barely a whimper.

Revel Casino Hotel opened a little more than two years ago amid high hopes of turning around Atlantic City’s struggling casino market. But the US$2.4-billion resort shut down yesterday as its casino closed one day after the hotel checked out its last guest.

The property that debuted at sunrise on April 2, 2012, with its then-president joining New Jersey Lt Gov Kim Guadagno in a blueberry smoothie toast, quietly ended operations in the early morning darkness as the last handful of gamblers, who never turned out in great enough numbers to keep Revel alive, filed out of the sleek glass tower.

It never lived up to the hype as the resort town’s “Next Big Thing.”

“When I started, it was promising. We had high hopes,” said Liditze Diaz, a restaurant worker at Revel. “Then we started hearing rumours, but I thought, ‘No way this place is going to close. It’s too new, too pretty.’ It’s hard to believe.”

Revel was the second Atlantic City casino to shut down over Labour Day weekend, joining the Showboat, which closed its doors Sunday afternoon. Trump Plaza received final state approval Tuesday to close on September 16, and the Atlantic Club closed in January.

Atlantic City, which started the year with 12 casinos, will have eight before summer is over. Many casino analysts and industry executives say they expect the remaining casinos to fare better financially with less competition.

“It’s a… shame,” said Ruthie Fenimore of Warren, New Jersey, one of the last gamblers to play at Revel on Tuesday. “I really love this place. This place would be perfect if it was in Las Vegas. It would be right up there with Wynn. All the restaurants were awesome and HQ is the best nightclub I’ve ever been to in New Jersey. I remember the first time I came here, I was lying on the bed opening and closing the curtains with a remote control. It blew my mind. The bathroom was bigger than my home.”