Fall of the Packer empire; Culinary Union’s kabuki theatre

The house that the late Kerry Packer built continues to go from bad to worse to downright awful under the all-thumbs leadership of heir James Packer. During the first half of this year Crown Resorts lost $191 million (on a 33% revenue decline), not to mention getting its Sydney casino license shelved, sparking a flurry of other investigations. Now Oaktree Capital is abandoning its $2.3 billion attempt to buy out Packer’s share, which is a dire turn of events, as authorities will continue to frown upon Crown as long as the younger Packer is around to screw things up. As Reuters put it, “The loss, which Crown had already flagged, and the failure of the Oaktree deal show the extent to which its future is being shaped by regulatory scrutiny as it struggles to rebuild its image amid multiple Royal Commission enquiries.”

Crown board members are starting to look stupid for passing over a $6.5 billion buyout bid from Blackstone Group—not that they look very smart for having overseen money laundering in Perth and Melbourne, and other malfeasances. Macquarie Securities analysts pinned their hopes for Crown on the opening of the Sydney casino but they’re whistling past the graveyard.

Pettiness marked the Culinary Union‘s latest skirmish with Station Casinos. It used the stalking horse of (genuine) traffic concerns to go all-in against Durango Station. C’mon, folks. We know what your real agenda is: If you don’t think Station is going to create good-paying jobs just say so. None of this pussyfooting. The traffic issue at hand is potential access to Durango Station via Maule Avenue. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t a mite fretful about hellbent gamblers speeding past a public playground to get some action at Durango Station, but we’re also not convinced that a compromise can’t be effected that placates neighborhood worries (rather than those of the Culinary). The Spring Valley Town Advisory Board turned a deaf ear to the union and voted in favor of the casino project.

Jottings: Courting backlash, sports betting providers are spending large on advertising last month. Leading the way was Caesars Entertainment, which placed 146 spots which garnered 408 million impressions, far ahead of BetMGM (64 million) and FoxBet (54.5 million) … The NFL, not coincidentally, has released its full roster of OSB providers who can take out national TV spots during pigskin season. They are FoxBet, WynnBet, PointsBet and BetMGM, along with the already-blessed Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel. Too bad for Barstool Sports and everybody else left out in the cold. They’ll have to settle for local-TV time … Last but far from least, Resorts World Las Vegas is a hit, a palpable hit. The numbers are in and they show the megaresort raking in $15 million in its first six days and $4 million in cash flow. Occupancy was 71% at $239/night on average. The latter number is the important one because it measures return on investment. Resorts World has a long way to go to recoup its $4.3 billion cost but $650K ROI per day is a helluva good place to start. When fully matured, Resorts World LV is projected to return investment at a 7% pace, meaning it should break even sometime around 2035.