Murphy waffles; llinois’ surge; Mega-Jottings

If there is ever another, updated edition of Theodore Sorensen‘s Profiles in Courage, rest assured that there will not be a chapter devoted to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). That august statesman is too busy hiding under the furniture, at least when the issue of smoking in casinos arises. Although Murphy has said that if a bill (emphasis on “if”) to close the smoking loophole lands on his desk, he’ll sign it. But his continued inaction makes it just as clear that he’s not going to lift a finger to do anything to move the issue forward.

In case there were any doubts about this, Murphy took to the Garden State’s airwaves to delineate his profile in cowardice. On his Ask Governor Murphy radio show, Murphy punted the legislative ball back to state Sen. Joe Vitale (D). The waffling guv was confronted with the smoking issue and said, “I’ve always said, if a bill gets to me, I will sign it. I’ve always said that … There’s another very large UNITE Here, Local 54, which is on the other side of this. So, this is not only one union. So anyway, Joe Vitale, who’s a dear friend, will get mad at me if I say that there are legitimate concerns about the commercial viability of Atlantic City, and I don’t want him to be mad at me. I continue to believe that. But if a bill gets to my desk, I will sign it.”

Did you get that? Despite “legitimate concerns about the commercial viability” of the Boardwalk, Murphy will sign “a bill” that gets to his desk. It sounds to us like he’s laying the groundwork for inking the bullshit ‘compromise’ that would actually expand smoking in Atlantic City casinos and enshrine it for all time by creating smoking cells for table games. Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects fired back that the spineless guv “refuses to do anything proactively to advance a bill that would save our lives. Instead, he’s buying the sky-will-fall scare tactics that have been refuted time and time again … When will we matter enough for the Governor to act to ensure this bill reaches his desk? Even most Local 54 rank and file members agree with us.”

The Newark Star-Ledger opined fire as well, publishing a blistering editorial that called the CEASE lawsuit against Murphy “a compulsory step.” The broadside is worth reading in full. It quoted “dear friend” Vitale to the effect that “There is no level of acceptable poison and ventilation systems have been scientifically debunked as junk … I’d like to know which casino owners are good with swimming in the non-peeing end of the pool.” Touché!

Big Gaming, meanwhile, has taken workers hostage to the fiction that there would be casino closures and “thousands” of layoffs if its beloved carinogens were banned. These are the same oligarchs who pretend to live and die by market forces, but are currently clamoring for New Jersey lawmakers to protect them from same. In the meantime, “thousands of AC pit clerks, cocktail servers, and custodians have no such opt-out privilege, so they will continue to breathe poison, which is just their tough luck.” We agree with the Star-Ledger as it concludes “when lives are at stake, benign indifference is not an option.” Unfortunately, we cannot fully concur with that sentiment, at least to the extent that the indifference appears to be anything but benign.

Casino revenues shot up 16% in Illinois last month, reaching $152 million. Unfortunately, when one compares them to winnings from before the recent wave of casino openings, they’re 6% down on a same-store basis. Bally’s Casino in downtown Chicago was jogging along with $11 million, good enough for fourth place in the Land of Lincoln. Far and away the biggest surge was enjoyed by The Temporary at American Place in Waukegan, rocketing 34% to $10 million. Hard Rock Rockford jumped 13% to reach $6.5 million. Other moves were more incremental. Hollywood Joliet inched up to $9 million, while Grand Victoria ($13.5 million) and Rivers Des Plaines ($48 million) were flat. Harrah’s Joliet jumped past Bally’s, up 8% to $12 million, while outmoded Hollywood Aurora slipped 4% to $8.5 million.

Further downstate, both Argosy Belle ($3 million) and DraftKings Casino Queen ($8 million) were up 6%. Par-A-Dice dropped 2%, also to $6 million, and Bally’s Quad Cities ran into -3% adversity for $5.5 million. Harrah’s Metropolis was down 3% to $5 million, whilst newbies Walker’s Bluff and Golden Nugget Danville made $3.5 million and $3 million respectively.

One state over, gambling winnings continued to be propped up by Hard Rock Northern Indiana, as the Hoosier State was 1% down from last year, albeit 3% up from pre-Covid (and pre-Hard Rock) 2019. Indiana casinos grossed $218 million, with another $39.5 million chipped in from sports betting operators. Although Hard Rock was up 8% (to a state-leading $43 million), gaming analysts contribute to blame Bally’s in Chicago for the ongoing downfall of Horseshoe Hammond (-14%, $25.5 million) and Ameristar East Chicago (-6%, $17 million), a verdict that smacks of magical thinking to us. Blue Chip was insulated from same-state competition, up 3% to $12 million. (Note that even the hard-hit casinos were outperforming Bally’s.)

Small was beautiful downstate, where Rising Star leapt 12.5% ($4 million) and Belterra Resort 10% ($8 million). To these might be added French Lick Resort, up 7% to $7.5 million. Suffering the adverse effects of slots in Kentucky were Hollywood Lawrenceburg (-5%, $13.5 million) and Caesars Southern Indiana (-4%, $23 million) but not Bally’s Evansville (+2%, $16.5 million), on the comeback trail. Results were mixed for the two Indianapolis racinos. Harrah’s Hoosier Park was flat for $19 million, while Horseshoe Indianapolis‘ $29.5 million was a 2% slippage.

Jottings: Some 7,400 conventioneers descended upon Anaheim last week for the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention. There was plenty of talk of the delights and dangers of AI, as well as FanDuel CEO Amy Howe issuing a mea culpa for trying to ride roughshod over tribes in California in order to get legalized sports betting … If Virginia is going to have legitimization of the black-market slots that were recently outlawed and removed, let it be on a short lease. Kudos to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) for shortening the tether provided by the Lege, introducing additional restrictions on the devices … Gambling regulations for online play have been promulgated in the Dominican Republic. Operators told to get the hell of out of Dodge include Bet365, William Hill and 888Sport … Churchill Downs opened Indiana‘s newest casino last Friday. Imaginatively and evocatively named Terre Haute Casino Resort, the $290 million property offers 1,000 slots and 36 table games, prompting wannabe gamblers to jam the nearby highway … A cybersecurity “incident” closed Swinomish Casino in Washington State for days on end. Said one former employee, “The only time I remember the casino ever emptying was when someone mistakenly pulled the fire alarm.” … If you’re a South Korea gambler, there’s only one game in the country: Kangwon Land. So much is it enjoying its domestic monopoly that it’s splurging $1.3 billion on a tripling of the resort’s size … The NCAA championship game between the University of Iowa and the University of South Carolina set records for a women’s sporting event. DraftKings exec Johnny Avello called the numbers “astronomical” and he’s been around long enough to have some perspective on it.