It’s here … and it’s an eyesore. Fontainebleau Las Vegas opens tonight, after 18 years in the making and untold billions in costs, plus more revolving owners than you could shake a stick at (if you’re into shaking sticks). The cost for Las Vegas‘ newest, fugliest resort is $3.7 billion. We don’t believe it. Resorts World Las Vegas cost $4.3 billion, Aria $4 billion and F-blue is bigger than either of them. Also, costs were running away when Jeffrey Soffer first pulled the plug on F-blue in 2009. Since that time, Carl Icahn stripped it for parts and Lord only knows how much Soffer has simply written off the balance sheet. We wish it every success, so long as we’re not obligated to praise its clunky architecture or accept at face value its preposterous budgetary figure. Enjoy the opening, dear readers, and report back to us if you have any Kate Beckinsale sightings.
What made casino execs in the fair city of Detroit so quick to come to the bargaining table after their workforces struck? November’s revenues provide the (expected) answer. Casino takings cratered 24% from last year and 39% from 2019. The threesome collected $76 million. MGM Grand Detroit got slammed with a 34% plunge, making a feeble (for MGM) $30.5 million. Hollywood Greektown was fairly undimmed, down 11% for $21 million, leaving $24.5 million for MotorCity, for which no comparison was available. Let that be a lesson to you, industry.
Modest revenue contraction was the order of the day in the Midwest, as the industry continues to cool from a red-hot 2022. Casinos in Indiana dipped 3% to $186 million last month, down 9% from 2019. At $37 million, Hard Rock Northern Indiana still managed to dwarf the competition, up 4.5%. It put a hurt on nearby Horseshoe Hammond ($21 million, -11%) and Ameristar East Chicago ($13 million, -2.5%), while Blue Chip was chipped 3% down to $10 million. While Horseshoe and Ameristar may have been affected by new Bally’s Casino in Chicago, Hard Rock clearly wasn’t, further discrediting Lori Lightfoot‘s arguments about the economic impact of downtown Windy City gambling.
Finishing a distant statewide second to Hard Rock was Horseshoe Indianapolis ($24 million, -3%), while fellow racino Harrah’s Hoosier Park grossed $15 for -6%. Revenue-positive casinos were Bally’s Evansville ($14 million, +1%), French Lick Resort ($6.5 million, +3%) and always-impressive Caesars Southern Indiana ($20 million, +2%). Less fortunate were Belterra Resort ($7 million, -4%), Rising Star ($6.5 million, -3.5%) and Hollywood Lawrenceburg ($12.5 million, -2%).
Despite a 14% improvement in handle, to $514 million, sports betting didn’t deliver, as $31 million in revenue represented a 23% dropoff. Customers played lucky, with hold a dismal 6%. DraftKings made $10 million, closely followed by FanDuel‘s $9.5 million. Newcomer ESPN Bet made an impressive third-place debut with $2.5 million (impressive because of the ranking and due to having only two weeks to achieve it). BetMGM segued it with $2 million and Caesars Sportsbook with $1 million. BetRivers and Fanatics were left gasping for air.
Things were better in Missouri, no matter how you slice it. Although casino revenues dimmed 1.5% they were 2% higher than in 2019. Poor luck at the tables (-11.5%) was largely to blame for any decline. In the St. Louis area, Ameristar St. Charles ($22 million, -9%), is clinging to its statewide lead even as Hollywood St. Louis eats into its supremacy ($20 million, +10%). River City slipped 3% to $20 million while Horseshoe St. Louis recouped a bit, up 1% to $12 million. Despite being in fourth place in its market, Bally’s Kansas City continues to gobble up share, rising 10% to $11.5 million. Market leader Ameristar Kansas City ceded 3% to $15 million, Argosy Kansas City dropped 7% to $12.5 million and Harrah’s North Kansas City plummeted 10% to $13 million. Outstate, Isle of Capri Boonville was preeminent with $7 million (-3.5%) but Century Cape Girardeau rose 2.5% to $5 million. Century Caruthersville leapt 16% to $3.5 million, a tribue to the power of reinvestment in your product.
Where there’s smoke, there’s the New Jersey Lege. In an attempt to bolster the courage of feckless lawmakers, UAW President Shawn Fain urged them to screw their courage to the sticking place and ban smoking in Atlantic City casinos. Currently the relevant bill is stymied in committee. Fain, who recently wrung huge concessions from Big Three automakers, told solons the UAW would “monitor and track” their votes on the smoking issue. Some fainthearted lawmakers want to fall back on a “compromise” involving Phillip Morris-branded smoking dens, one whose details Big Gaming has not deigned to disclose.
Fain’s threats are not idle ones. “Thousands of UAW members work as table game dealers at the Caesars, Bally’s, and Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City, and are exposed on a daily basis to the toxic harms of secondhand smoking,” he wrote. He deemed the proposed smoking pits “preposterous” and rightly so. As for the status quo, The Associated Press noted that current smoking areas “are not contiguous, and are scattered widely throughout the premises.” This makes the current 75/25 ratio between smoke-free and smoky gambling meaningless.
Further ramping up the anti-smoking pressure, Americans for Nonsmokers Rights released a 500-respondent poll which showed that 74% of casino patrons in New Jersey and Pennsylvania would be more likely to visit a smoke-free property. 26% were less likely to do so—and expect some shameless casino execs to argue that’s where the real money is. “These data indicate that not only will Atlantic City not lose its customer base, but tourism could actually increase if casinos were smoke-free,” said Jill Normington of polling firm Normington Petts. Added CEASE leader Lamont White, “This poll backs up what we routinely hear from customers at the tables—they don’t come to smoke, they come to gamble.” From his lips to legislators’ ears, we keenly hope.
Who guards the guards? That’s the $500,000 question after Rep. Michael Guest (R) bought a half-million in stock, including shares in a Swedish company specializing in online gambling. In addition to speculating on Internet casinos, Guest violated the STOCK Act twice over, according to Finbold.com. What makes this especially piquant is that Guest chairs the House Ethics Committee, where ethics are apparently in short supply. At least he won’t lack for company: Three other committee members are also guilty of STOCK Act violations, per Finbold.
Did you say ‘ethics’? Unable to stay out of the frying pan, Crown Resorts is back under scrutiny, from the Victorian Gambling & Casino Control Commission. It seems the CEO Ciaran Carruthers, who was supposed to be the new broom at Crown, overruled the security staff by allowing drunken guests on property. Some would say, What’s a casino without drunks? But we are not so cynical. Crown may have also allowed a minor onto the casino floor. When Blackstone Group took over Crown it was supposed to be the end of such shenanigans, which supposedly went out with the ancien regime. Well, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Quote of the Day: “[Vladimir] Putin thinks the West is dissolute and will come apart on its own.”—Matthew Kaminski.