With the future of its nearby neighbor (the now-shuttered Trump Taj Mahal) up in the air, the owner of the former Revel Casino, which has been rebranded as TEN, is planning to open its doors on Feb. 20… no matter what.

The question is whether the property will have a casino when it reopens. That uncertainty can be traced to Glenn Straub’s ongoing fight with state regulators over a casino license.

Straub questions need for NJ casino license

Interestingly, Straub isn’t trying to secure a casino license; he’s trying to avoid receiving one.

Straub previously said he wouldn’t reopen the property in any form until the DGE drops its insistence that he apply for and receive a gambling license — a stance he has apparently softened.

The crux of the fight is that Straub sees himself as nothing more than a landlord, as he plans to lease TEN’s management and gaming operations out to a third-party company. New Jersey gambling regulators don’t agree with Straub’s assessment of his role, which has caused the reopening of the multi-billion-dollar property to be delayed several times.

“The division continues to work with Polo North and its gaming attorney to secure all appropriate licenses and authorizations,” DGE Spokeswoman Kerry Langan told the Press of Atlantic City in June 2016 when this issue first arose.

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Straub’s frustrations reminiscent of Steve Wynn’s time in AC

Straub is turning into a modern-day Steve Wynn, whose well-documented issues with state regulators led him to wash his hands of Atlantic City in 1987, calling city officials “corrupt and stupid” on his way out the door.

Channeling his inner Wynn, Straub was recently quoted by Philly.com as saying, “The red tape in this state is so abusive. Who would ever invest here?”

These comments echo previous remarks Straub has made about Atlantic City.

“This is just one more example of New Jersey’s anti-business attitude,” Straub’s company, Polo North, told the Press of AC in a statement. “What is especially galling is that New Jersey is engaging in this conduct when it has imposed a strict time limit on Atlantic City putting its financial house in order.”

They also reverberate more recent comments Wynn made about the city.

In a 2014 interview, Wynn said he predicted the downfall of Atlantic City, and that his suggestions on how to insulate the city from falling victim to market saturation were ignored.

Wynn told the Wall Street Journal:

“You must take control of the central planning of this community. Right now you’re the monopoly on the East Coast; that will end someday.

But for that, the government had to take over – the New Jersey state government, not the local Atlantic City government, which was pathetic. Well they wouldn’t. And they didn’t. And I came at one point of the view that Atlantic City was never going to take advantage of its opportunity and would eventually face obsolescence, which I’m afraid is true today.”