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.
Gamblers bypassed Laughlin en masse, causing its casinos to plunge 21.5% to $37 million. Downtown Las Vegas may have reaped a small benefit (although we doubt it), up 1.5% to $75 million. North Las Vegas is faring well despite losing two Station Casinos properties, up 2% to $24.5 million. The Boulder Strip suffered a 5.5% thwack but still grossed $85 million, while miscellaneous Clark County, juiced by Durango Resort, jumped 12% to $160 million. Utah-facing Mesquite leapt 8.5% to $16 million, while similarly positioned Wendover also benefited, up 6% to $23 million. Reno slipped a point to $65 million, Sparks was up 2% to $15 million and Lake Tahoe slid 9.5% to $17.5 million. On balance, a darn good month … unless you’re Laughlin.
Does somebody have a sick sense of humor at Bally’s Atlantic City? The carpeting in its high-limit slot room mirrors (unwittingly?) our country’s bitter, partisan, cultural and religious divide, half red, half blue and both wholly incompatible by design. In other Bally’s news, below you see the sand sculptures made to commemorate the casino’s upcoming 45th anniversary. Congratulations on the endurance.
Meanwhile, the Golden Nugget may have a serious problem that even a new media push starring Neil Patrick Harris may not be able to remedy. Below you see the turnout for a Saturday-night chicken dinner at the Nugget. It’s a sea of gray and blue hair, which hints at the casino’s inability to gain traction in the market. It’s an aged facility and one of the smaller ones in the market, too.
Speaking of a lack of traction, there’s more than a hint that Bart Blatstein‘s much-admired water park is in fiscal trouble. Liens filed with Atlantic County total about $7 million in allegedly unpaid bills. Eight creditors are besieging Blatstein, including park developer WhiteWater West, owed $2,182,739. Then there’s Capital Concrete ($884,009), Orlando-based Rico Rock ($252K), as well as lawsuit plaintiff Park Interior Plantscape ($1,766,683). The latter is also claiming $30K in debts from “ongoing maintenance.” Plantscape must be very masochistic to keep up maintenance on a property that hasn’t paid it. In other news, Atlantic City has (belatedly?) discovered that 7,000 landlords need to have their properties inspected for lead-based paint. The mind reels. And the deadline? July 22. Good luck with that, city fathers!
Not far away, outside Philadelphia, there’s been a flurry of activity surrounding Parx Casino. The property made headlines recently for something it didn’t do: build a planned hotel. If the Keystone State’s richest casino can’t afford to build a hotel, who can? Parx punted on the question of the upscale, luxury-oriented hotel it had promised, opting to buy the nearby Inn at Fox Lane for an undisclosed price. (Property records show a certain IHM Bensalem entity purchasing it for just under $14 million.) Today brings reports that Parx is also gobbling up other parcels of property near the racino, keeping hoteliers’ hopes alive. In the meantime, The Inn (167 rooms) is slated to be renovated and upgraded over the coming year, including conversion of the top floor into 16 suites. A high-roller haven, perhaps?