At the risk of mocking the handicapped, we have to pick on Bally’s Corp. again this week. Our Atlantic City correspondent visited Bally’s Atlantic City and had the valet-area door opened for him by someone who promptly hit him up for money as a “disabled veteran.” The panhandling didn’t stop there: Bally’s is now reduced to hitting up its customer database for potential investors in $1.7 billion Bally’s Chicago. (Remember, just $250 gets you in a share.) There’s a catch: To be an “accredited investor” you need to be female or BIPOC (“In general …”). So that’s going to cut down on the investor pool a teensy bit.
Anyway, Mrs. Correspondent tried to check in at the VIP desk, only to be informed, “Haven’t you heard, this VIP check-in is now only for persons that have a suite reserved for them?” When told that Mrs. C did have a suite reserved, the fallback line was “one of the regular employees ‘stole’ our reserved room.” WTF? Dinner at the Legacy Lounge was deemed “barely tolerable.” Aforesaid lounge has gone from being closed Mondays and Tuesday to being only open on weekends. And forget about having Sunday brunch: Now the lounge doesn’t open until 3 p.m., by which point most of the customers must be on their way back home and brunch is a moot point.
Same with “gift time,” moved from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Since checkout is at 11 a.m., you have to kick around for four hours solely to pick up your gift. Nice message you’re sending your players, Bally’s. (BTW, Sunday’s gift was a mini-drone; our friends opted to go home early and watch the Philadelphia Eagles‘ Snow Bowl instead—a wise choice.)
Turning to another casino company where the customer almost matters, anyone remember the steakhouse at forlorn Harrah’s Philadelphia? It used to have one in the wayback. And now it will again, starting Jan. 31 with the opening of T&T Backroom. It’s even listed on Open Table, the better to help you plan a trip. Then again, judging from the recent headlong flight of players from Harrah’s to Valley Forge Casino Resort and points north, it may be too little, too late.
Turning back to Bally’s, they sure know how to put people in a gambling mood: Last Friday’s ‘entertainment’ at Bally’s Dover was a sermon by Rev. John G. Moore Sr. Given the perpetual hostility between the churchy set and Big Gaming, it’s an odd rapprochement, to say the least. Anyway, you could spend Friday morning thumping your Bible with the Rev. Moore. Then again, you’d have to ditch work in order to do so, as the hosannas were to start at 11 a.m., when most people are at their jobs and inveterate gamblers are only just getting out of (or into) bed.
Returning to the Boardwalk: Things are not looking good at Borgata, where the departure of prexy Travis Lunn coincided with a new, cheeseparing regime for whom no cost cut is unimaginable (except perhaps their own salaries). Our man dined at the Amphora Club Lounge and says it has been “‘dumbed down’ to an unacceptable quality level. When my wife got food, another woman said to her ‘it’s all crap.’ She was correct. The ‘prime rib’ was past its prime, overcooked as usual. The sliced pork could not be cut with a table knife! The things that were edible was cocktail shrimp and fried shrimp. Myself and others waited 10 minutes for more fried shrimp to be be put on the small buffet.“
The dining was said to be much better at Ocean Casino Resort‘s Avilla Player Club Lounge. “Their prime rib was a nice red color, and their pork was easily cut.” Previously, Borgata lounge food was superior to Ocean’s. Not anymore. Is this how to treat your core customers?
Atlantic City mover and shaker Bart Blatstein made bank early this month with a $4 million-plus grant from the New Jersey Economic Authority to further upgrade his Showboat. Some 18,000 more feet of arcades will be added, as well as a 10-lane bowling alley (too bad the place didn’t keep the original one). More F&B will be added, ditto private party room and (a really good idea here) an open-air entrance on the Boardwalk.
Some, however, chafe at the handout to a millionaire. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Blatstein owns a manse at 1914-16 Rittenhouse Square that cost him $4 million back in 2013. It has 10,558 square feet of indoor space and a commercial kitchen above the garage. The property has been reassessed for $6 million. That’s just the beginning of Blatstein’s holdings. With his wife Jill, Blatstein owns a four-acre suburban spread, four houses in Margate, New Jersey, and four more on Philly’s S. Gladstone Ave. You can pick up three of them for $1.5 million apiece and the fourth is a $950K bargain property. Beyond that, per Philadelphia Magazine, Blatstein owns or owned 100 parcels in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of the City of Brotherly Love. So you can understand why readers might be irked by this latest governmental exercise in them that has, gets.
Before momentarily closing the book on Atlantic City, let it be known that scandal-plagued Mayor Marty Small (D) has an electoral challenger in former Unite-Here prez Robert McDevitt. We haven’t always been fans of McDevitt and don’t endorse candidates. That being said, almost anyone would be an improvement on Small, whose administration has lurched from embarrassment to mortification to indictment and back again. If Atlantic Citizens find themselves saddled with four more years of Small’s ineptitude, they will have no one to blame but themselves.
Gambling revenues continue to level off, albeit at a high altitude. Massachusetts casinos were flat in December with 2023, grossing $102 million … but 29% higher than in 2019. No cause for alarm, then. Encore Boston Harbor was 1% off the pace but led the Bay State with $65 million. Soaring 43% above 2019, Plainridge Park also hopped 7% to $14.5 million. MGM Springfield however, did not have a great month, dipping 4% to $22.5 million. Another bad month at the tables at MGM (-18.5%) was solely to blame for the declivity. Sports betting was anemic, as revenue dipped 2% and hold was a thin 7.5%. Revenue was $59 million on handle of an unlucky $777 million. (Not so unlucky for bettors, of course.) ESPN Bet got walloped and then some, plunging 71% to $1 million, as BetMGM leapt 32% to $4 million. Statewide leader was Beantown progeny DraftKings with $30.5 million. FanDuel had to be content with $19.5 million, whilst upstart Fanatics banked $2.5 million to Caesars Sportsbook‘s $1 million. Not a good day for the Roman Empire.
Speaking of sports betting (and iGaming), winnings in Michigan took a fearful tumble in December, plummeting 67% to $20 million. After some incredibly George promotions were subtracted, books were left with a paltry $300,000. For all of them. Aw gosh darn, don’t you just hate it when the players clean up like that? Hold was a dreadful 3.5% on handle of $598 million. After promos were subtracted, only DraftKings and Caesars Sportsbook finished in the black. For the record, before promotions were deducted the leader was FanDuel with a feeble $7 million, followed by DraftKings ($6 million), BetMGM ($3 million), Fanatics ($1.5 million) and Caesars ($1 million). Not even the combined grosses of ESPN Bet and BetRivers reached the $1 million cutoff point.
By contrast, iGaming was boffo, yielding $244 million, a 34% jump from 2023. BetMGM ($65 million) outpaced FanDuel ($60.5 million), to say nothing of DraftKIngs ($52.5 million). Also-rans were Caesars Palace Online ($19 million), BetRivers ($16 million) and Hollywood Casino ($5.5 million) … although one can never get over the weirdness of legacy operators like Caesars Entertainment and Penn Entertainment getting spanked at traditional casino games (or their online equivalents) by a couple of DFS purveyors.