Gambling revenues held the line in Missouri last month, flat with last year. The $155 million tally was also 8% better than in June of 2019. At $25 million, Ameristar St. Charles continued to dominate, up 4.5%. River City edged sister property Hollywood St. Louis $21 million to $20.5 million. River City was up 4%, Hollywood 1.5%. Horseshoe St. Louis, despite its downtown presence during the height of baseball season, plunged 17% to $11 million.
Continue reading Missouri, Motown & cretins
Casinos in the Land of Lincoln had something to celebrate last month, as they actually improved same-store results by 3%, although they still lagged 3% behind 2019 figures. (Blame it on the thermonuclear proliferation of slot routes). The overall haul was $138 million. The bulk of this was logged in the northern tier of the state, where Bally’s Casino (above) in Chicago pulled in $10.5 million, about par for its course. Despite being down a point, Rivers Des Plaines grossed $44 million and is staving off new competition rather impressively. Speaking of which, The Temporary at American Place vaulted 33% to $9 million.
Continue reading Short takes: Illinois, Maryland and sleaze
Bally’s Corp. is usually a subject of fun in these pages, so let’s flip the script and congratulate the company on the 45th anniversary of Bally’s Atlantic City. Above you see the buses full of gamblers pulling up at what used to be Park Place Casino and has been through more incarnations subsequently than you can shake a stick at. In Monopoly, Park Place will set you back $350 and is one of the blue-chip properties in the game. In recent years, Bally’s picked up the erstwhile Park Place Casino from Caesars Entertainment for what seemed like only $350 and if it was ever a premium spot on the Boardwalk those days are long gone.
Continue reading Bally’s 45th; Buckeye State bonanza
Hope may spring eternal for Bally’s Corp. in Virginia. The enterprising Virginia Mercury has been like a bloodhound on the tainted casino-award process for Petersburg and has dug up fresh dirt. We’ve already detailed the shakedown of Petersburg by state Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D). She made it pretty clear that, for reasons unknown, she wanted the casino concession awarded to Bally’s before any allocation was made by the Lege. Petersburg civic leaders, it is now known, caved to Aird’s extortionate demand. A damning letter penned by City Manager March Altman, but never sent to Bally’s, states that it had been tabbed as the preferred casino operator.
Continue reading Small-time crooks
It was a bouncy May for casinos both on the Las Vegas Strip and locally. The former was up 3.5%, reaching gambling revenue of $742.5 million. Locals casinos hopped 5% for a haul of $277.5 million. The Strip win was particularly impressive given that baccarat was down 6.5% to $122 million. The problem wasn’t hold percentage so much as a 2% dip in action. But other table games leapt 13% to $217.5 million on wagering that was 11% higher. Strip slots saw 6.5% more coin-in, to tally $403 million (+2.5%). Locals slots were up 3% to $229.5 million on 4.5% more action. Locals table win was $48 million, a 17% gain spurred by 16.5% higher wagering.
Continue reading Merry May for Strip, locals; Boardwalk blotter
Have you heard about the big election-betting scandal? No, not here, you silly! In Great Britain, where the story’s been gathering more legs than a centipede. It seems that someone at 10 Downing Street shared the date (in advance of its announcement) of the July parliamentary election. And shared it rather indiscreetly. At first one, then two and now four (and counting) Conservative Party officials have been caught with their hands in the insider-tip jar.
Continue reading Mad dogs and betting Englishmen
ESPN Bet was supposed to be the salvation of Penn Entertainment. Now it is looking like its downfall. Penn’s venture into online gambling has had very mixed results. iGaming has brought with it great success. Sports betting, however, has been an unmitigated disaster. After PR and stock-price debacle Barstool Sports turned turtle, irresponsible Penn CEO Jay Snowden sold it back to Dave Portnoy for $1. (That’s not a typo.) Throwing good money after bad, Snowden doubled down with ESPN Bet. At first it looked like a potential winner. But it has lost money hand over fist, with no end to the red ink in sight.
Continue reading An empire falls
By choosing to do nothing regarding the Seminole Tribe‘s controversial compact with Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court did A Very Big Thing indeed. The high court declined to re-hear West Flagler Associates‘ challenge to the compact, effectively putting it into law. Subplots to this mean that both Jeffrey Soffer and Donald Trump can proceed with their Miami-area casino plans, which are juiced in by the compact. But both men have much bigger fish to fry right now. All attention will instead be on the Seminoles and what they do with their USDA-approved monopoly on iGaming and online sports betting (OSB) in the Sunshine State.
Continue reading A Supreme stumble
Casinos on the Boardwalk enjoyed a 5% bounce last month, recording $239 million in winnings. That’s 7% above 2019 numbers despite Covid-19 having ineradicably changed players’ habits—and Big Gaming was only to happy to cash in with OSB and Internet casinos, never mind what they say today. Four casinos were revenue-negative and three of them had one other thing in common: They are all owned by Caesars Entertainment. The Roman Empire really needs to look to its laurels in Atlantic City because it clearly has a problem there.
Continue reading Atlantic City rebounds
That promised megaresort in Chicago is disappearing like a mirage. This week, Windy City Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) met with the editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times and expressed doubts that $1.7 billion Bally’s Chicago will ever get built. It’s already lost the support of the pro-casino Chicago Tribune … and now Hizzoner appears to be slinking away. Said the mayor, “I know our team is working with ownership to figure it out like we figured out some of the other things that I’ve inherited. It just has to make absolute sense … I think that one’s still to be determined, to be perfectly frank with you.”
Continue reading The perils of Bally’s