Before we go any further, bravo, bravo, arcibravo to Hard Rock International to laying some serious bread on its salaried workers. As of now, the base salary for non-tipped employees at Hard Rock casinos goes from $18/hour to $21. Hard Rock didn’t have to do it, it just did, which makes it all the more laudable. True, as some are suggesting, there’s some enlightened self-interest involved: Why work for the competition if you can go to Hard Rock and make significantly more? But that doesn’t diminish Hard Rock’s generosity, summed up by CEO Jim Allen as follows: “We looked at all the starting salaries of all our line employees, certainly recognizing the economic conditions that have been going on … We’re trying to find the highest quality employees, thanking them for their efforts and recognizing that with compensation.”
Indeed, regardless of the economic challenges facing the U.S. consumer, the gaming industry is making out like a bandit. Allen’s $100 million, 10,000-employee largesse shows that Big Gaming can afford to share the wealth. The Associated Press‘ Wayne Parry quantifies just how major a deal this is: “In some cases, workers will be getting an immediate raise of 60%. The raises apply to 95 job classifications, including cooks, housekeepers, front desk clerks, security workers and cage cashiers.” That’s definitely spreading it around. Now that Hard Rock has led by example, who’s next?
At the other end of the spectrum, “Most people/entities do an engineering study before they purchase a property, not after.” However, ‘most people’ would not include Bally’s Corp., whose steel braces in the Bally’s Atlantic City parking garage have now been extended to the pedestrian bridge. What happened? Well, Bally’s (the company) obviously couldn’t believe the super-cheap price at which Bally’s (the casino) was being shopped by Caesars Entertainment and probably didn’t perform due diligence on the gift horse’s mouth. Soo Kim‘s company has a propensity to go off half-cocked, so an overhasty appraisal in Atlantic City would come as no surprise.
Our East Coast correspondent reports that “Bally’s is getting worse, not better.” The VIP lounge is only open weekends and valet parking was closed Sunday through Thursday—on Labor Day weekend. “When we showed up for the ‘Prince tribute show’ on Sunday, we were told ‘we have no such show for today’ We didn’t have the mailer with us, but the person at the host desk said: ‘We’ll buy you dinner if you can prove we sent that to you.’ I found the mailer, so they owe us dinner.” Is anybody in Chicago paying attention to this slow-motion farce? It certainly continues to undermine Bally’s Windy City pretensions.
Casinos in Indiana grossed $200 million, trundling along well above pre-pandemic strata but slipped 1.5% from last year. Even so, Hard Rock Northern Indiana continued to grow its business, up 8% to $33 million. Horseshoe Hammond did its considerable best to compete, banking $29 million but falling 12%. Worse off was Ameristar East Chicago, walloped 22% to $17 million, while Blue Chip slipped 7% to $11 million. (Had Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot [D] really wanted to build a better mousetrap for tourists, she would have gone with Hard Rock but the fix was in for Bally’s.)
Speaking of Bally’s, its Evansville casino was one of those that defied the downward trend, rising 8% to $14.5 million. French Lick Resort also had an unwontedly good month, up 9% to $7 million. Gainers also included Belterra Resort, up 6.5% to $7.5 million and Caesars Southern Indiana, leaping 12% to $21.5 million (and soon to be even more attractive, thanks to the coming of Gordon Ramsay Steak). Caesars had uncharacteristically mixed results at its racinos. Harrah’s Hoosier Park slipped 4% to $20 million while Horseshoe Indianapolis hopped 4% to $28 million. Less fortunate were Hollywood Lawrenceburg, off 5% to $13 million, and Rising Star, down 7% to a market-lagging $3.5 million.
Sports betting yielded $25.5 million on handle of $238 million. Although DraftKings led in handle share, FanDuel again made the most of its investment, leading with $8 million in revenue to DraftKings’ $7 million. Also worthy of note were BetMGM ($3.5 million) and Barstool Sports ($1 million).
In Arizona, four operators control 94% of market share, according to JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. That being the case, how much longer can the other 14 hang in there? July saw $22 million in revenue on $290 million of handle. Again, FanDuel was out front with $9 million, followed by BetMGM’s $5.5 million, DraftKings’ $3 million and Caesars’ $2.5 million. Promotional spending is rationalizing a bit, with only $7 million going back out to acquire customers. Barstool and WynnBet refrained from a promo-spending spree while BetRivers was one of the most open-handed (not that it did them a lot of good). Arizona, by the way, incentivizes george promo outlays by making 20% of them tax-deductible for a two-year period. Nice if you can get it. BetMGM opened its State Farm Stadium sports book last weekend. The amenities include a greensward for concerts, although we can’t much imagine al fresco concertizing in Glendale, where it’s hotter than the hinges of Hell.
We didn’t think the nasty Georgia governor’s race would hinge upon sports betting but guess again. Candidate Stacey Abrams (D) is railing against Gov. Brian Kemp (R) for his non-stance on the issue. Kemp is being disingenuous by saying it’s up to the electorate. Ultimately, it will be a ballot-initiative issue but to get there, sports betting has to clear both the Lege and the governor’s desk—and Kemp is anti-gambling (though he doesn’t dare mess with the popular and lucrative Georgia Lottery), even if he’s currently feigning neutrality. Given the amount of professional and collegiate sports in Georgia, we don’t understand why the state doesn’t have sports betting, and wish Kemp would stop hiding under his desk and have the debate. Even so, he was preferable to his GOP primary opponent, who managed to be both pro-gaming and corrupt.
Jottings: It’s a Hard Rock International kind of day. The company has been green-lit for construction on its Rockford permanent casino. The Clock Tower Resort will be razed to make room for the $310 million casino … More trouble for Entain. The half-owner of BetMGM is being investigated in Australia “to assess whether it was complying with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.” It’s not just because Australia is the Wild Wild West of gambling. Entain was zapped with a $19 million fine in the United Kingdom for “completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures.” Maybe Entain’s woes will enable MGM Resorts International to buy all of BetMGM at a markdown. We can always hope … Henderson‘s renascence continues. A 22-story mixed-use development, The Waterfalls, has been announced for downtown, even if the Las Vegas Review-Journal is guardedly skeptical … Harbor Park Stadium in Norfolk will soon have 300 fewer parking spaces. That’s where the Pamunkey Tribe‘s temporary casino is going to go. It’s not official yet. The Pamunkey wanted to put the temporary in the stadium but city officials changed the street address of Harbor Park to get around that (the casino license was site-specific).
Quote of the Day: “The only lasting truth is change.”–Octavia Butler