Senior vice president and general manager of the Showboat Casino-Hotel in Atlantic City, Jay Snowden, claims that the casino lost an estimated $150,000 due to the standoff on Tuesday November 13th. A masked man with a pellet gun and a device strapped to his chest took a shuttle van hostage that picks up and leaves off passengers just outside of the Showboat.

The loss of revenue from the casino was estimated at between $100,000 and $125,000 in gambling revenue cost and another estimated loss $25,000 of food and beverage business.

Showden says, "We're thrilled about the way this turned out in that there were no injuries and everybody came away from it unhurt," he said. "Monetarily, we'll deal with it. That part of it is frustrating."

The situation started around 10:30 PM on Tuesday with the masked David B. Kilkeary of Maryland seizing the shuttle van with an alleged bomb strapped on his chest and a pellet gun demanding $3 million. Kilkeary told authorities that he had planted 4 bombs in the casino. The authorities recovered 2 of the devices inside of the Showboat but they were fake devices and not bombs, as was the device strapped to his to his chest. Kilkeary released 4 hostages and surrendered around 4:30 AM, no one was hurt.

The Showboat Casino is looking into their insurance to see if this could be considered a ‘catastrophic event’ and receive any of their lost revenue.

- 2007-11-16