Bally’s: Oops, they did it again

Your favorite screwups, and ours, Bally’s Corp. just stepped in it again. Or rather, their legislative lackeys in Rhode Island did. Bally’s has never actually been caught kicking the ball onto the fairway … but it has a remarkable ability to convince lawmakers to do that wrong thing. This time, a bill was snuck into legislation. It would double the credit lines that Bally’s Twin Rivers-branded casinos could offer players, to $100,000 apiece. “Obviously we’re not interested in extending lines of credit to those individuals who would not be able to pay it back,” a Bally’s spokeswoman unconvincingly assured solons. Why not? Casinos do it all the time. Las Vegas is littered with the corpses of dishonored markers, often ones from players that casinos beg to return and inflict pain upon them again. It’s Big Gaming’s favorite codependent-abusive relationship.

Both the state’s nominal gaming regulator, the Rhode Island Lottery, and the Problem Gambling Council appear to have been caught flat-footed by the legislative subterfuge, as neither appeared at the relevant hearing. Although the deadline for introducing new bills was two months, somehow senate President Dominick Ruggerio (D) was able to miraculously get the Bally’s Bailout Bill, as we’ll call it, onto the docket. “The bill was introduced at the request of Bally’s, to keep them on par with competition from casinos in Massachusetts,” said a Ruggerio flunky.

So Bally’s is dictating legislation now? (When you pump $430 million a year into state coffers, lawmakers roll over and play dead.) This is the second time this session that competition from the Bay State has been used to spook solons into doing Bally’s bidding. The first was an attempt to close the loophole that allows Twin River casinos to become breeding grounds for the ills of secondhand smoke. That little deviation was supposed to add 30% to Bally’s revenues. (A figure we don’t buy.) How much more revenue is supposedly derived from high rollers?

This must be the biggest whale sighting off Rhode Island in decades. Bally’s and its confederates are so overeager for a bailout, that an amendment which “seeks to give the state’s Department of Business Regulation the power to change the terms in the latest version of the state’s current operating agreement with Bally’s without having to ask legislative approval” was slipped into the bill draft without being marked as a change, on a flimsy excuse. Virtually the only solid argument Bally’s has been able to muster on its behalf is that Massachusetts casinos offer unlimited credit and, in theory, so do Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. Then again, how many whales are beaching themselves at Bally’s two podunk joints in Rhode Island? Is this a solution to a real problem?

Even Bally’s admits high-roller play is an amenity for a “very, very limited amount of players.” Indeed, the company couldn’t even answer how many players qualify for a mere $50K in credit. The move appears to have been prompted by declines in table play at Lincoln and Tiverton, though a correlation to fleeing high rollers is more supposed than proven. The bill contains a couple of other provisions to lighten the BALY tax burden but for now the subterfuge behind it is getting all the attention.

Just when it looked as though casino receipts in Louisiana had bottomed out, they dove lower still. Last month’s gross of $184 million put them down 8% year/year and 6% lower than in 2019. A bright spot were sports betting winnings, which shot up 81% to $40 million. Handle was $283 million (+38%) and hold a taut 15%. Amongst casinos, bright spots were much harder to find, save for Queen Casino in Baton Rouge, where win shot up 75% to $8 million. L’Auberge Baton Rouge fell to $14.5 million, a 10.5% drop, while irrelevant Belle of Baton Rouge sank 43.5% to a mere half-million dollars. In Lake Charles, the newish Horseshoe Lake Charles is already a spent force, down 23.5% to $7 million. Market preeminence seesawed to Golden Nugget, down 5.5% to a still-robust $24.5 million. Principal rival L’Auberge du Lac plummeted 12.5% to $23.5 million, while Delta Downs did a respectable $13.5 million, off 8%.

Despite a 9.5% drop, Harrah’s New Orleans maintained area supremacy with $19 million, while Boomtown New Orleans was flat at $10 million. Fair Grounds plunged 18% to $3 million and Treasure Chest dipped a point to $7 million. Two outlying Boyd Gaming properties were modestly down, with Amelia Belle off 2% to $3 million and Evangeline Downs recording $6 million and -3%. Shreveport/Bossier City saw two revenue-positive casinos: Sam’s Town ($3 million, +5%) and Louisiana Downs ($4 million, +4%). Horseshoe Bossier City got slammed, -27% to $8.5 million, while leader Margaritaville did $15 million (-14.5%) as both name brands suffered. Bally’s Shreveport slid 9% down to $8.5 million and Boomtown Bossier dipped 4% to $4 million. Better times can’t come too soon to the Pelican State.

Jottings: Pulling out all the stops for Memorial Day Weekend is Resorts Atlantic City, which is promising a beach ball drop presided over by Kelsey Grammer. As our Boardwalk correspondent tell us, “He must live nearby and it seems he doesn’t have much to do.” Indeed … Hard Rock International seriously believes—or would have us believe—that displaced employees of The Mirage are just itching to move to Atlantic City or Bristol, Virginia in large numbers. That and $80 million in severance are Hard Rock’s exit strategy as it prepares to shut down The Mirage until 2027 … Speaking of Hard Rock, it pushed back hard against a spurious claim by Star Entertainment that the tribal gaming giant was looking to buy out the Australian one. Star shares leapt 20 percent anyway.