Fueled by a record July at Reid International Airport, casinos on the Las Vegas Strip surged 8% in July, hitting $835 million. This was the highest single-month haul on the Strip ever, surpassing December 2022 by $20 million. Slot win ($420.5 million) was up 7.5% on an equal surge in coin-in. However, the luck of the house did not carry over to non-baccarat table games, which saw a 9% plunge in revenue, despite a heavier volume of wagering. Fortunately for the casinos, baccarat win rocketed over 40% to $56 million, even though betting was down 1%. The casinos recorded some of their best-ever hold at the game: 24%. Higher holds were also exclusively responsible for an upsurge in locals-derived revenue, up 6% despite 1% lower wagering.
Downtown leapt 9% to $65 million, while North Las Vegas flagged 2% to $24 million. The Boulder Strip burgeoned 9% to $79.5 million and miscellaneous Clark County was up 6% to $144 million. Laughlin also jumped, up 9.5% to $47 million. Reno was up 4% to $72 million and Legends Bay Marina continued to set off Sparks, vaulting 20% to $17 million. A concerning trend was manifested by three drive-in markets, all of them down. Wendover slipped 4% to $23 million, Mesquite dipped 7% to $13 million and Lake Tahoe receded 3% to $31 million at a time when business should have been at flood tide. We’ll keep an eye on this.
When the ill-starred Playboy Casino in Atlantic City closed, all its chips should have been destroyed. But they weren’t. Some $875K worth were secreted out of state, sealed inside a concrete slab and buried near Hernando, Mississippi. There, they lay undisturbed … until a 2008 infrastructure project accidentally unearthed them. Green Duck Manufacturing, which should have shredded the chips, claims ignorance of how they wound up in Mississippi mud instead. A free-for-all among residents of Hernando (including the mayor) ensued, like something out of a movie, and the second-hand chip market was soon flooded by Playboy chips, depressing resale prices. As the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement tries to belatedly close out the Playboy account, its job is being complicated by determining whether any attempted chip redemptions involve the buried treasure. And the Playboy Casino itself? It became the Atlantis and later Trump Worlds Fair, before the ineptitude of Trump Entertainment Resorts saw it closed and demolished. Sic transit gloria Trump. New Jersey regulators have just removed a deed restriction on the Playboy/Atlantis/Worlds Fair site, meaning a new casino can go up … if anyone wants to try. Not very likely, Boardwalk economics being what they are.
D’ya remember the Mashpee Wampanoags of Massachusetts and their on-again/off-again (more off than on) First Light Casino project? Probably not. Well, it’s back although tribal leadership is keeping mum about it. Despite being several hundred million dollars out of pocket on the quixotic casino crusade, Genting is reportedly continuing to play a losing hand, insisting that it’s still all in on First Light. What Mashpee higher-ups will say is that, in spite of their massive arrearage to Genting, they’re on a “financially solid pathway” to casino consummation. Tribal CFO Jim Erenzo has engaged in some loose talk about a “temporary project” that would prove lucrative. Sounds like a euphemism for “casino,” doesn’t it?
To recap the Mashpee Wamp soap opera, in 2016 the Barack Obama administration took 321 acres into trust for the tribe. Ergo, First Light Casino. Enter casino magnate Neil Bluhm, using nearby Taunton as a stalking horse. He launched a lawsuit on behalf of his billion-dollar gambling hall ambitions and stalled the Wampanoags. U.S. District Judge William Young ruled that, not having been recognized until 2007, the Mashpee Wamps were ineligible for reservation status. The Donald Trump administration quickly piled on, disestablishing the tribe and its land-into-trust grant. Two years ago, District Judge Paul Friedman said Young had engaged in “an abuse of discretion, and [ruled] contrary to law.” The Joseph Biden administration then reinstated the tribe and its rez.
Which is where we stand now. The casino project has been a tar baby for the tribe, having landed disgraced chief Cedric Cromwell in the calaboose. The current administration had seemed to move on from First Light. What prompted the tribe’s recent reversal remains to be seen. Maybe it’s a hedge against a second Trump administration, a dash to get that casino before the 2024 election. Good luck to them.
Quote of the Day: “Never invite actual players to have control of a panel at a gaming conference, for they will muddle the narrative with a dose of the actual player perspective.”—Richard Schuetz, reporting on Big Gaming’s absence from Bet Bash, a player-driven convention.