It’s the easiest thing in the world to build a casino megaresort if you don’t plan on paying for it. We learned that from Sheldon Adelson, who erected The Venetian out of other people’s pockets. By dint of releasing a new rendering of failsino Bally’s Las Vegas, Chairman Soo Kim scored himself a great deal of free media last weekend. The deck chairs on the Titanic have been duly rearranged.
Continue reading Pretty Pictures and B.S.
Right off the top, let’s congratulate Genting Group and MGM Resorts International for both being tapped—unanimously—by their community advisory committees. Both now advance to Albany for the final selection round, an agony that state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D) is trying to drag into 2026. Enough already!
Continue reading MGM, Genting Advance in NYC
See that weird-looking collection of high-rises above? Yeah, it’s not happening. Freedom Plaza, the something-for-everybody, New York City megaresort proposal of Soloviev Group and Mohegan Sun, got canned today. The relevant Community Advisory Committee voted it down, 4-2. Quality-of-life concerns were cited. Not even the transparent, last-minute offer to add a thousand more affordable-housing units to Freedom Plaza swayed votes. The CAC clearly saw it for the desperation (and stalling) tactic that it was. As usual, surrogates for Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and Mayor Eric Adams (I) flouted public sentiment, pimping for an unpopular development. They’d vote for anything spelled c-a-s-i-n-o. Will anyone remember at the next election?
Continue reading Freedom Plaza Fails
“Avenir” means “the future” in French. For The Avenir casino project in New York City, the future ended two days ago. It’s done, finito, cooked, canned, vetoed. The sleek and stylish proposal, allied with Greenwood Racing (parent of mega-successful Parx Casino) got skunked 4-2 by its Community Advisory Committee. That means the Gotham casino derby is down to six contenders, who may shortly be four.
Continue reading No Future for Avenir
Then there were seven … again. In a stunning reversal of fortune, Caesars Entertainment‘s plans for a Times Square casino have been ashcanned by the relevant Community Advisory Committee. The casino proposal had bitterly divided the Broadway community and was recently panned for its hostility toward pedestrians and bus passengers. Since the latter (plus subway commuters) were supposed to constitute 75% of the customer base, the behavior of Caesars and SL Green was perverse, to say the least, not least for a casino that projected a preposterous $2.3 billion a year in gambling revenue but was polling at anemic levels. “Despite extensive outreach by the applicants, that [necessary] level of support has not materialized,” said Councilman Erik Bottcher, who cast one of the ‘no’ votes.
Continue reading Shocker in New York City
Casinos, with connivance of government, are getting away with murder in Atlantic City (and possibly elsewhere). A study by NJ Advance Media found “hazardous” (per Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks) levels of second-hand smoke in two Atlantic City casinos, which it did not name. Seven others had “unhealthy” concentrations of smoke … this included nonsmoking areas! The technical methodology has been shared.
Continue reading Killing Them Softly
Time to blow raspberries to the House Rules Committee. While permitting literally a thousand other amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, it struck down Rep. Dina Titus‘ FAIR Bet Act, which would have redressed Congress’ imposition of new taxes on gambling losses. It was supposedly not germane to national defense, despite the fact that the Pentagon purveys a large fleet of slot machines, for the purpose of clawing back what little money it pays our servicemen and -women, to the tune of $100 million a year. Hypocrisy much?
Continue reading Congress to You: Drop Dead
Whilst vigorously pretending that Everything Is Better Than Ever in Sin City, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill has been busy behind the scenes. He gone back to the LVCVA’s favorite well, R&R Partners, to spool up a new TV onslaught to rebrand Las Vegas. But wait, it’s not a campaign, fellow yokels, it’s “a recommitment to the extraordinary spirit of Las Vegas.” Somebody ought to be committed, all right …
Continue reading Jumping the Shark
What doth it profit a tribe to gain a casino but forfeit its birthright? The Dry Creek Rancheria of Pomo Indians just made a Faustian pact with Wall Street, for the sake of underwriting a Caesars Republic-branded casino near Healdsburg, California. In return for $225 million in construction financing, the tribe agreed to lease the casino until 2070 to “an affiliate” of financier Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc., which will magnanimously sublease it back to the band. Any guesses to who the friend of GLPI might be? Corporate PR simpering aside, it’s obviously going to be Caesars Entertainment at the helm for 45 years.
Continue reading Indian Givers
There’s been a serious outbreak of complacency in C-suites along the Las Vegas Strip and July’s numbers will undoubtedly reinforce it. With $749 million, the Strip hopped 5.5%, helping to spur a 4% uptick in Nevada gambling revenue last month. North Las Vegas, a market that Station Casinos rightly concluded was maxed out, jumped 8%, raking in $24.5 million. Downtown was up 3.5% to $74.5 million and the Boulder Strip ceded a point, reaching $85 million. Miscellaneous Clark County was down 3% ($166 million), strongly suggesting that the Durango Resort boom has run its course and the market is stabilizing. However, customers avoided Laughin, which tumbled 7% to $41 million.
Continue reading Strip Up, Tourism Way Down