Category: Casino News

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.

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?

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.

Better late than never, Nevada Gaming Control Board. The watchdog group is making up for lost time with regard to renegade casino Resorts World Las Vegas. Earlier this month is slammed Resorts World and parent Genting Group with a 31-page complaint for having “failed to fulfill its responsibilities as the holder of a privileged Nevada gaming license.” Genting, in turn, had been taking a see-no-evil stance towards its Las Vegas offspring, claiming that it acts entirely of its own volition. We’ll see now if that attitude washes.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas‘ former owner and a fixture of S&G, Carl Icahn has been a naughty boy. The SEC caught him using his shares in Icahn Enterprises (IEP) to cover risky personal loans. Let’s leave aside the question of why someone as fabulously wealthy as Uncle Carl is supposed to be would need personal loans. How would you like to be an investor in IEP, only to learn that its namesake’s stock was mostly pledged to various (undisclosed) lenders? Caesars Entertainment, maybe you should check up on the status of all those CZR shares that Uncle Carl is supposed to be holding. Has he pledged them to any third parties who might come calling?