The Great American Gambling Craze isn’t abating, although Las Vegas Strip revenues slipped 3% in March, down to $724.5 million. This was paradoxical, as it came in a month in which airline passenger loads into and out of Las Vegas grew 25% year/year, buoyed by two Taylor Swift concerts and March Madness. Part of the problem was bad luck by the house. Baccarat win plunged 50% despite on 5% less wagering as the man saw relatively little ($63 million) of the $604.5 million that was bet. Other table games revenue was actually up 7% to $239 million, while slots did well also, hopping 6.5% to $422 million. Still, the baccarat bath was sufficient to pull Strip table revenues from 7% up to 14% down.
Locals play, however, was anemic. Slot revenues were $224.5 million, a 4% underperformance, while table game winnings (by the house) nudged 2% higher, to $45 million. Downtown was up a percentage point, to $87.5 million while the Boulder Strip tumbled 11% to $86 million. North Las Vegas slipped 1% to $27 million, Laughlin dipped 2.5% to $48.5 million and miscellaneous Clark County was up 2% to $156.5 million. Utah-fed Mesquite grossed $19 million (+3%) and similar Wendover was up a percentage point to $23 million and change, giving one cause to cautiously optimistic for Nevada gambling. Not so Reno, which fell 7% to $55 million while Lake Tahoe plunged 34% to $17 million. Sparks continued on a winning streak, hopping 5% to $15.5 million, allowing us to close on a positive note.
Atlantic City or—more specifically—Hard Rock Atlantic City has a crime problem. Maybe this is just coincidental with Joe Lupo‘s departure to reinvent The Mirage or the new regime is slacking off, either way it bodes ill for the Boardwalk’s No. 2 casino. Our Atlantic City correspondent came strolling up to the Hard Rock only to find two police SUVs parked out front, then got a window seat at a restaurant to enjoy the spectacle. It gets worse. “A player told us the next day that some persons knocked down an elderly woman in order to steal her purse, then kicked her when she was on the ground. This was in front of Hard Rock Casino.” Also: “Another player told us his young relative, who just won $11,000 at Resorts Atlantic City had a gun put to his head to rob him, on the Boardwalk outside of Resorts Casino, which is next to Hard Rock.”
To add insult to PR injury, service at Hard Rock’s Council Oak restaurant fell to two-star quality. “Twice I had to send the octopus appetizer back because you needed a steak knife to cut it and then the asparagus was cold (we also spoke with Betty the manager at the time, due to the poor food quality).” Hard Rock, police thyself!
Speaking of image problems in A.C., the Atlantic Club (formerly The ACH, the Atlantic City Hilton, etc. ad infinitum) has been sitting idle since 2014, when it was dumped by Caesars Entertainment. Its newest owners have found (to their surprise, if not ours) that its condition “was worse than expected.” Shocking. There’s a reason Colosseo Development Group got that pile for a mere $13.5 million. “We had the plan to go in and modernize the furniture and the fixtures. But when we got in there, the systems didn’t work. It was really, really bad,” said Colosseo boss Rocco Sebastiani. That put paid to his plan to reopen the Atlantic Club as an 800-room, non-casino hotel. Not only was the hotel severely water-damaged, its façade was falling down into the street. Shades of Trump Plaza! But Sebastiani didn’t let the discourage him. He’s hard a work reinventing the place as a combo condo building and boutique hotel. The old gal’s taken so much abuse over the years, particularly at the hands of Tom Barrack, that we’re hoping she sees a brighter future.
The Lege in Tennessee is taking a step forward and a big step back. (No we’re not talking about the Tennessee Three fiasco or Cameron Sexton‘s per diem scam.) It has abolished the 10% mandatory hold in the Volunteer State’s sports-betting regime, which gives one cause to hope that players will get a fair shake. However, the state will now tax operators on the basis of handle, not revenue. This is a terrible idea, especially as there is rarely correspondence between whose handle is the greatest and who garners the most revenue. Also, the amount of handle that boils down to revenue is relatively miniscule. Our off-the-cuff reaction is that operators will now be over-taxed and less willing to be George with promotions, due to the higher cost of doing business. Two percent of handle is a lot of moolah, after all. Sources disagree, however, on whether it will be more or less under the new regimen.
This is still bipartisan stupidity, as the bill passed out of the state Senate unanimously and had only seven “Nay” votes in the House. Gov. Bill Lee (R) still has a chance to veto it, but it would be an empty gesture. If there’s a silver lining to all this dumbassery, it’s that operators will no longer have to pay the rapacious major leagues for the use of official data for in-play or prop bets. That’s small consolation but we’ll take it. As for sports betting in other states, odds for expansion look grim as the clock winds down on the legislative season. In Minnesota, for example, the state Senate was too busy debating whether or not the state should underwrite alleged sorcerers, ghosts and devil worshipers. 30 senators out of 64 voted “Aye.”
Jottings: Despite having overseen $200 million in capex at Caesars Atlantic City, including a new pool complex, General Manager Joe Lodise is out. Rush Street Gaming has been quick to snap him up, naming Lodise GM of Rivers Schenectady, where he started on Sunday. It’s not a lateral move but Rivers could use the brainpower … Golden Nugget Danville, in Illinois, is hankering to open its $100 million property. The casino will feature 500 slots and 14 table games, pending regulatory approval, which can be a big hangup. Just ask Full House Resorts … Wind Creek Hospitality is out and the Washoe Tribe is in at Nevada’s obscure Wa She Shu Casino. The seven-year-old tribal property in Gardnerville had been operated by Wind Creek since 2016 … Log another participant into New Jersey‘s crowded Internet-casino market. Kindred Group has been approved to operate using the Unibet brand. It seems awfully late in the Garden State game but it’s a free market … In the most devastating cyber attack on a casino yet, hackers were able to force Canada‘s 14 Gateway Casinos to close all operations for over a week and only reopen them on a gradual basis. There is no indication whether or not Gateway paid the ransom demanded by its assailants … Rivers Portsmouth is the laudable recipient of two Green Globes, which recognize its sustainability practices. The casino was hailed for its water-thrifty design and its landscaping, which created more green space. More than 40 American casinos have received Green Globe certification … Hotel bookings in Macao over Golden Week (May 1-7) are expected to exceed 98,000. At least 17 hotels are sold out, partly due to a labor shortage that has crimped room inventory.
As for the former Atlantic Club, hope the buyers of the “condo-tel” units don’t need mortgages, as Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac won’t finance them.