Count on Illinois to disappoint in an otherwise balmy August. True, it grossed a not-shabby $108 million but it was 8.5% down from 2o19, as business slipped 10% from July’s level. (We don’t want to say the gaming recovery is waning but it does appear to have peaked, judging by regional trends.) The preponderance of revenue came from northern Illinois and nearly half of that purely from Rivers Casino Des Plaines, which won $41.5 million, defying the odds to rise 10%. From there it was way down to Grand Victoria‘s $13.5 million (-6%) and Harrah’s Joliet‘s $13 million (-14%). Hollywood Aurora grossed $9 million (-12%) and Empress Joliet brought in $7 million, plunging 29%. Mid-state, Jumer’s Casino Rock Island, in its first month as a Bally’s Corp. property, plummeted 35% to $4 million—Bally’s CEO George Papanier will have his hands full—while Par-A-Dice slid 15.5% to $5 million.
In the southern tier, DraftKings Casino Queen was down 18% to $7 million while Argosy Belle tumbled 23.5% to $3 million. Harrah’s Metropolis slid 21% to $5 million. Mandatory mask-wearing was reimposed on Aug. 30, so we’ll have to wait and see if that put a damper on this month’s results. In the meantime, slot routes continue to spread, dimming the prospects of casinos new and old alike. Sports betting hit a lull in July, with $369 million in handle and some worry that the state’s in-person registration requirement could dampen a football-season rebound. Said PlayUSA‘s Joe Boozell, “Because in-person registration was reinstated in April at the beginning of the slow season in sports betting, the industry has skirted the most severe effects of the state rule. But there will be no hiding from it during football season.”
Still, the Land of Lincoln was third in the nation in betting volume and garnered $37 million in revenue, thanks in part to a steep 10% hold. Due to strong play by the Chicago White Sox, baseball led betting volume with $127 million, while the NBA Finals ginned up another $42.5 million. Tennis ($44 million) and soccer ($34 million) were other major contributors. Betting on the Tokyo Olympics was a dud. FanDuel led in revenue with $15.5 million, followed by DraftKings with $9.5 million (despite being tops in handle). BetRivers took in $6 million, PointsBet/Hawthorne Race Course made almost $3 million, Barstool Sports generated $2 million while everyone else scrapped over chicken feed and FanDuel-less Par-A-Dice lost money.
In the Wall Street Journal, Roger Cohen whines that betting on football isn’t fun anymore. He tries to blame it on the major leagues which, it is true, have been monumental hypocrites on the issue. As soon as they saw an opportunity to make money off wagering they were all in. But the fun, Cohen argues, ended when sports betting became a legal, regulated industry. Better to be placing bets with bookies in barber shops, he contends. We’re not making this up. We don’t know whether to be more aghast at Cohen’s naïveté or the WSJ‘s seeming endorsement of illegal activity. “When ESPN began flashing real-time odds like soybean future prices on CNBC, sports gambling became mainstream, too legit. I had to quit,” moans Cohen. At least he admits he won’t be missed. What’s scary is he works as a behavioral health counselor. His patients should flee him in droves.
We have a winner in the bidding for William Hill‘s international holdings and it’s 888. The online-betting giant will acquire, among other things, 1,400 Hill-branded betting shops for $3 billion. That’s not as big a payday for Caesars Entertainment as it looks. According to an SEC filing this morning, after debts are retired Caesars will net ‘only’ $1.2 billion on the transaction. Hey, a billion here, a billion there and CEO Tom Reeg will have that daunting debt load pared down to manageable proportions (we hope). This might not be the end of the buying and selling, as 888 is rumored to be considering flipping the William Hill physical assets to concentrate on the Internet assets. (888 CEO Itai Pazner is playing it cool.) A venerable name in the business, William Hill (born in 1934) extends 888’s reach into Spain, Italy and Scandinavia. Despite a history of overpaying for assets and its former association with Caesars, Apollo Management came up short in the bidding. A dunce cap goes to whoever at Apollo wouldn’t pony up more than $3 billion for the William Hill empire but is prepared to pay $5 billion for a single Las Vegas Strip casino.
The sometimes quarrelsome marriage between Dubai World and MGM Resorts International is ending in an amicable divorce. It leaves progeny in the form of CityCenter. MGM took something of a bath on $4 billion Aria recently, liquidating it and Vdara in a package deal of $3.9 billion. (Waldorf Astoria got the former Mandarin Oriental for a fire-sale $214 million.) During CityCenter’s construction, Dubai World and MGM were so at loggerheads that the project came within hours of bankruptcy, and then-Sens. Harry Reid (D) and Mike Ensign (R) were moved to intercede.
At the Nevada regulatory proceeding that dissolved the bonds of matrimony, Dubai World attorney Jeff Silver was at pains to sweep old bickerings under the rug. “Dubai World honored their commitment and created jobs for individuals on this major construction project that changed the nature of Las Vegas … It was a massive undertaking, to the credit of MGM and their planners. Dubai World wasn’t afraid of major projects and have done a number of them on their own in Dubai and elsewhere. They considered it to be a wonderful opportunity.” And probably the last one Dubai World will pursue in gaming. “I think that is fairly unlikely,” said Infinity World prexy William Grounds. “I don’t see them making further gaming investments, particularly in brick-and-mortar in the U.S. at this stage. It’s not on their radar. They are looking at more investments in emerging markets like Africa and places like that.” So long, Las Vegas and don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt.
Hard Rock Lake Tahoe wasted no time in getting back to gambling as soon as the area’s evacuation order was rescinded on Tuesday. Montbleu followed a day later, while Caesars charted a more prudent course, reopening its casino floors in slow stages starting Wednesday evening. Hard Rock, run by Paragon Gaming, justified its haste thusly: “The decision to open tonight was in part to help their team members return to normalcy and simply get them back to their daily routines.” Montbleu engaged in an interesting tactic, jacking up room rates 250% to discourage lookio-lous. (Anybody who booked at those prices will get a refund.) Displaced employees could stay on-property for free while first responders had to pay $60/night. Considering they were saving Bally Corp.’s ‘bleu’ ass, they could and should have been comped.
A “behavior health counselor” given a pulpit by The Wall Street Journal on sports betting should be sounding alarms about what easy access will do to those of us with addiction issues. Instead we apparently get a musing about how nice it was when your bookie sent mercenary thugs to collect from you, the absurd Murdoch pay wall prevents me from gleaning more… Sports Betting is going to destroy a certain amount of lives, but nobody involved wants to air that out, they want you to think it’s golden.
I was out in Vegas for a couple of days and the Hawaiian Marketplace outdoor shopping mall (across the Strip from CityCenter) had a couple of CBD shops along with other stores and kiosks. I walked by during the day and not much was happening but at night the potheads were smoking marijuana and having fun. I “highly” doubt the potheads hanging out bought the CBD marijuana from the Hawaiian Marketplace and instead purchased really good marijuana at Planet 13 Marijuana Dispensary which is located just west of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.