Dateline: AUGUSTA, Georgia. The brunt of Hurricane Helene fell upon this city and disabled S&G HQ. As a consequence, we are without power through next Sunday and this is being written from the office of Mrs. S&G. Since our reactions to the federal, state and civic non-response to Helene are well-nigh unprintable, we shall skip to the heart of the matter …
Continue reading Las Vegas melts in August heat
As you may have noticed, there hasn’t been any S&G so far this week. That’s because an assignment for Orlando Magazine has taken us to Virginia for four days. We haven’t seen a lick of gambling but have viewed much else. Our base of operations momentarily is Lexington, “the Valhalla of the South.” They have long memories down here, although it’s become a pretty liberal place by now. But tradition dies hard at Virginia Military Institute, where “rats” are encouraged to rat out other rats, lest they be “boned” by “dykes.” (Yes, that’s all standard-issue VMI lingo.)
Continue reading On the road
Station Casinos executives traveled to New York CIty recently for two days of meetings with Deutsche Bank analysts. Lead boffin Carlo Santarelli concluded afterward that Station was “being a relative winner” but that a “choppy” third quarter was complicating matters. He nonetheless maintained a “Buy” rating on Station stock and a $65 per share price target. Shares of Station (which trades as Red Rock Resorts) were $54.22 per share at the time.
Continue reading Durango, California power Station
It has been revealed who the Daddy Warbucks behind the latest anti-gambling campaign in Missouri is … and it’s Caesars Entertainment. Yes, the Roman Empire has been sleeping with the enemy. Indeed, with $4 million of skin in this game, Caesars is the enemy. Last week, the company was exposed as the deep pockets behind ad campaigns which seek to defeat sports betting in the November election. If there’s going to be sports wagering in the Show-Me State, voters will have to pass it. The Lege is hopelessly dysfunctional on the issue, having deadlocked time and again. However …
Continue reading Sodomy at Caesars
Even as casino barons moan gloom and doom, and rend their garments, Atlantic City has another good month. August saw gambling halls up 5% from last year and 3% higher than in 2019. The overall gross was $294 million, boosted by slots (+5%) and table games (+4%) alike. Shocklingly (not), Borgata was out front with $74 million, up 1.5%. Its staying power is truly remarkable. Hard Rock Atlantic City climbed 9% to $55.5 million and Ocean Casino Resort leapt 11.5% to $44 million. So the top tier was really kicking ass.
Continue reading Atlantic City and other good news
God bless the New Jersey Republican Party. It is stepping up where Democrats in the Assembly have failed (or at least proven spineless). This week, the GOP’s caucus announced—without equivocation—that it would provide the votes to get smoking in Atlantic City casinos banned. Already 13 GOPers have signed onto the proposed ban. Now, if the Dems can just force a vote, the revocation of Atlantic City’s smelly special status will be over and done.
Continue reading Smoking & mirrors
Casinos in the Midwest are showing some resilience. In Illinois, they were up 1.5% in August, That’s impressive but the real headline is that they did 8% less on a same-store basis, showing that all the new gambling capacity has not yet been absorbed. Pictured above is the new design for Bally’s Chicago. It’s that thing in the lower middle that looks like a computer printer. Its progenitor, Bally’s Casino in downtown Chicago, did $10.5 million last month, not overwhelming but good enough for fourth place in the state. Or is that good?
Continue reading State of the Union
Uncle Sam just came down like a ton of bricks on Wynn Resorts. Making history in a way it would prefer not to, Wynn has agreed to pay the largest fine ever leveled on a casino company. It will have to cough up $130,131,645 to settle an extensive money-laundering case that brought together the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS and the DEA. Amazingly, the federal probe flew completely under the radar until early this morning, perhaps because we were all distracted by the ongoing scandal at Resorts World Las Vegas. Whatever the case, Wynn got clotheslined hard for its risk-friendly business stratagems.
Continue reading Rotten to the Wynncore
That credibility-challenged, glacially paced casino project in Norfolk suddenly has 100% more viability. This morning it was announced that Boyd Gaming was stepping in to save the Pamunkey Tribe‘s bacon. After five years of rearranging the deck chairs, the Pamunkey are no closer to breaking ground on their Virginia pleasure palace—until today. True, the city council could still queer the pitch, but what are the chances it would balk at a deal that finally gets the casino built after so much tribal hemming and hawing. As Mayor Kenny Alexander said, “Bringing in Boyd—someone with the ability and the wherewithal and experience and more importantly the financial strength to build a world-class casino resort hotel—is exactly what we need.” True that.
Continue reading Boyd to the rescue; A.C.’s dog days
Catastrophic baccarat results (-66.5%) put Las Vegas Strip gambling revenues on ice last month. Although $727.5 million was wagered on the volatile game, casinos won only $64 million. That’s a measly 9% hold and a big comedown from the $190 million won in July 2023. Baccarat is the house’s Achilles heel and July 2024 was an example of how big swings at the tables can help ruin a quarter. Overall, Strip casinos took home $709 million last month, a 15% plunge year/year. Other table games were actually decent, up a point at $226.5 million despite 14% less wagering. Slot machines were a wash at $419 million, but coin-in was down 4%.
Continue reading Strip catches July chill, locals hot