There’s no sign of “normalization” of gaming revenues in Maryland, where February yielded $163 million, a 19% gain over 2019. Horseshoe Baltimore continued to be somewhat sickly, down 14% to $18 million while everyone else climbed. The silver lining was that it was 10% above last year and $3 million ahead of Deutsche Bank expectations. MGM National Harbor led with $66 million, up 22%, while Maryland Live, not to be outdone, grossed $59.5 million, a 29% leap. Hollywood Perryville jumped 30% to $8 million and Ocean Downs galloped 15% ahead to $6.5 million. Out west, Rocky Gap Resort hopped 27% to $5.5 million.
While on the subject of drive-in markets like Maryland, analyst Carlo Santarelli reported that “Traffic trend [comparisons], from a year-over-year perspective, in February, on a per-day basis, were stronger across the board in drive to markets, relative to January, given impacts from weather in certain markets that impacted January and moderated in February, as well as varying COVID related issues that impacted the January/February periods in 2021.” That said, he cautioned that there would be a “more mixed” gambling revenue picture from February, with one market heating up and three cooling off from 2019. Santarelli forecasts that the Las Vegas Strip will rocket 69% over last year, while locals will lose 12% more than in February 2020. Louisiana should re-heat, gaining 33% from 2020, Ohio will be up 22.5%, Missouri 21% and Indiana a whopping 42%.
We’re probably as sick as anybody of looking at the unfinished exterior of Fontainebleau. Fortunately, Casino.org was vouchsafed some renderings of the interior, as well as the much-ballyhooed pool deck and the porte cochere, which looks Space Age as all get out. Reporter Scott Roeben is more bowled over by the hotel rooms and meeting space than we are, but chalk it up by being jaded from covering this stuff for over two decades. If Jeffrey Soffer pulls this off, he will have one of the handsomer resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, even if the design lacks the inspiration of Encore, still our high-water mark for imaginative realization. If the F-blue escalators look familiar it’s because you can see the originals at the Downtown Grand, thanks to the everything-must-go sale Carl Icahn held when he took over F-blue.
If you’re looking to get un-jaded about Las Vegas, take a tour of off-Strip Sin City, starting at the ever-evolving Neon Museum (check out our interview with Executive Director Aaron Berger in a forthcoming issue of Casino Life). Its newest filip is Brilliant, an installation by visual artist Craig Winslow that employs cutting-edge projection technology to make defunct signage sparkle again. We’re not familiar with Omega Mart but we obviously should be, but we can vouch for the Golden Tiki and of course the Mob Museum, the Vegas museum to end them all. Calling it “a breezy bit of pop history” is definitely an injustice. And no visit to the Strip is complete without stopping by the new digs of the Pinball Hall of Fame, the most fun you can have in Vegas while simultaneously getting top value for your dollar.
And finally, for those of you who have gotten familiar with seeing the Scientific Games logo in this space, we introduce the company’s new look, under its re-minted Light & Wonder moniker. It sounds very George Lucas and sets a high bar for the company’s new products to clear. However, the company is now solely focused on gaming and while dropping the lottery division didn’t entirely make sense to us, getting out of sports betting now appears prescient. BetMGM has just been approved for Illinois, for instance. Is it too little, too late?
I would add Red Rock Canyon and Valley Of Fire to the list of Las Vegas attractions away from the strip and downtown, both are fabulous. If you gamble all day and night you end up losing and diluting the experience. We make sure on every trip to Las Vegas to get around, do things, breath clean air, get away from the resorts.