In hopes of having online sports betting operational in time for the Super Bowl, Empire State gaming regulators announced their picks for the state’s nine OSB license applications late yesterday. Winners were BetMGM (just as Bill Hornbuckle predicted), DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars Sportsbook, Bally’s, Resorts World, PointsBet, WynnBet and Rush Street Interactive. Each will have to partner with a brick-and-mortar casino and pay 51% of gross gaming revenue in taxes, plus $25 million upfront, making the real winner New York State. Forbes calculates it will see a $493 million windfall by 2025. Losers were led by Barstool Sports, which missed the brass ring, a bitter pill for Penn National Gaming to swallow. Could Barstool’s brash image have been a problem? Others out in the cold are bet365 (which rashly tweeted “I will own New York”), theScore, Fanatics and FoxBet.
In actuality, there are only two licenses but they are structured in such a way as to allow for a number of strange bedfellows. As Forbes explains, “One group applied under Kambi Group includes Rush Street Interactive, Caesars Sportsbook, Wynn Interactive, Resorts World, and PointsBet. The other group that won a license applied under FanDuel includes Bally’s, BetMGM, and DraftKings.” Considering that BetMGM and DraftKings were very recently at daggers drawn over Entain, this should be very interesting. There are plenty (20 million) of players to go around and the market, at maturity, is expected to generate $1 billion in handle per year. Since the regulations require that the OSB operations be hosted by the four upstate commercial casinos, it’s a badly needed, $5 million windfall for the likes of Resorts World Catskills.
But before anyone starts counting their money, there remains the problem of the underlying legality of what New York is trying to do. DFS has already been ruled unconstitutional in the state and its constitution was never amended to permit sports betting. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) simply made an end-run around it, with the connivance of the Lege. As one judge pointed out, “You’re arguing that I cannot place a bet on whether the Buffalo Bills win their next game, but I can place a bet on whether or not their lead receiver Stefon Diggs catches the ball 10 times or six times.” Legal expert I. Nelson Rose has fisked the Empire State constitution and reports back that it expressly bans “book-making, or any other kind of gambling,” which would appear to settle the matter and not in a good way.
Rose adds that the Lege’s slim reed of hope lies with the courts agreeing with their classification of sports betting as “casino gambling.” As he concludes, just imagine how much money would be spent by New Jersey adversaries of New York State OSB. It’s not an imminent threat but it’s not an idle one either.
If we reported gaming revenues with comic-book graphics, Ohio‘s October would be a “Kaboom!” Casino winnings of $193 million were 22% over 2019’s. Slots-only MGM Northfield Park led the state with $24 million, up 11%. Jack Cleveland (+28%) and Hollywood Columbus (+16.5%) were tied at $21.5 million, while Hard Rock Cincinnati (+14%) and Scioto Downs (+27.5%) were deadlocked at $19.5 million apiece. Hollywood Toledo brought in $19 million, a 16.5% gain. Close behind was Miami Valley Gaming, up 29% to $18.5 million. Other racinos all did well: Even little Belterra Park leapt 17.5% to $8 million. Jack Thistledown garnered $16.5 million (a whopping 39% vault), Hollywood Mahoning Valley grossed $13.5 million (+23%) and Hollywood Dayton closed out the Buckeye State with $12.5 million, a 25% surge.
Despite a mask mandate and with the benefit of two extra weekend days, Illinois managed a 2% gain over 2019 to $109 million, a massive achievement for the state’s casinos. Rivers Casino Des Plaines jumped 26.5% to $44 million, vanquishing every other casino. Only Caesars Entertainment also posted a gain: 5.5% at Grand Victoria ($13 million). The remainder of the industry could be separate into Not So Bad and Pretty Bad. In the former group would go Hollywood Aurora ($9 million, -4%), Harrah’s Joliet ($12 million, -7%), Par-A-Dice ($5.5 million, -4%) and Harrah’s Metropolis. Then there’s Empress Joliet ($8 million, -13%), Argosy Belle ($2.5 million, -28%), DraftKings Casinos Queen ($6 million, -28%) and Bally’s Quad Cities ($4 million, -19%). Considering that the real stinkers are in the St. Louis market, we expect to see good things out of Missouri (where the customers have presumably fled) when those numbers are revealed.
One bright spot for Illinois, albeit from September, was sports betting handle of $597 million. Fueled by their online presence, DraftKings (41%), FanDuel (27%) and BetRivers (15%) dominated market share, while Barstool (8%) and PointsBet (7.5%) kicked sand in Caesars’ face (1.5%).
Laura mercy! Maryland Live outperformed MGM National Harbor last month. The Cordish Gaming casino grossed an epic $61 million in a 28% gain over 2019. MGM was second with $56 million, an inexplicable 7% decline. It could be worse. One could be Horseshoe Baltimore, down 10% to a pallid $17 million. Elsewhere Ocean Downs was up 15% to $8 million, Hollywood Perryville sped 31% upward to $7.5 million and Rocky Gap Resort hopped 22% to $6 million. While Horseshoe seems condemned to perpetually underperform, what’s MGM’s excuse, especially with that extra weekend? Across the border in West Virginia, statewide gaming revenues lagged 2019 by 4%, which isn’t so bad by recent standards. Numbers at Hollywood Charles Town Races were on par with the state at large.
Jottings: We could write at least a paragraph on the silly, proposed, $5 billion Moon Resort, which has neither financing nor a Las Vegas Strip location. But if Instagram posts were dollars it’d be flush … Scarlet Pearl Casino (pictured) is bringing cryptocurrency to Mississippi gaming. CEO LuAnn Pappas is installing a bitcoin ATM on her casino floor, which draws a younger clientele than some of its bigger-name rivals … German lottery operator Lottoland has become the first gaming company to enlist in the Climate Pledge, created by Amazon and Global Optimism. Lottoland promises it has become carbon-neutral. Your turn, MGM … Taking time out from screwing around in Japan, Canadian private equity firm Clairvest has purchased the Delaware Park racino. Operational expertise will be provided by Rubico Gaming, led by Caesars veteran Thomas Benninger. The racino has been kicking about the market for a year with a $6.5 million asking price … Although the Caldor wildfire never got closer than five miles of Lake Tahoe, casino owners are doing damage control—on public perceptions. ” You would have thought Tahoe had burned to the ground and the lake was going to have an environmental impact for years to come,” said local tourism booster Eric Barbaro. But snow came early this new and holiday bookings, happily, are on the upswing … When we profiled Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment for Casino Life, MGE was loath to discuss its Hellenikon project in Greece. Now we know why. The Mohegan have exited the megaresort, leaving it without a casino developer, although we’re sure Hard Rock International will be happy to step back in … The Mohegan’s arch rival, Foxwoods Resort Casino, is on the verge of opening its San Juan, Puerto Rico branch. It won’t be a large casino but it will be a feather in Foxwoods’ cap.
Quote of the Day: “It’s not being spent on blowing things up in Afghanistan.”—Full House Resorts CEO Dan Lee on the just-passed infrastructure bill, which he believes will indirectly fatten Full House’s casino coffers.
For Delaware Park’s $ 6.5 Million price, I don’t think the golf course is included.
No, the golf course is definitely not changing hands.