Author: David Mckee

At the risk of mocking the handicapped, we have to pick on Bally’s Corp. again this week. Our Atlantic City correspondent visited Bally’s Atlantic City and had the valet-area door opened for him by someone who promptly hit him up for money as a “disabled veteran.” The panhandling didn’t stop there: Bally’s is now reduced to hitting up its customer database for potential investors in $1.7 billion Bally’s Chicago. (Remember, just $250 gets you in a share.) There’s a catch: To be an “accredited investor” you need to be female or BIPOC (“In general …”). So that’s going to cut down on the investor pool a teensy bit.

There are two ways of looking at last month’s gambling grosses out of Atlantic City. One is that business is good, remaining at the stellar level of 2023 (if no higher, admittedly). Two, that business is extraordinary, being 11% higher than in 2019. Of course, Big Gaming will break out its crying towel and try to spin the numbers are a sign that the sky is falling, but don’t buy it. Boardwalk casinos grossed $232 million, ever so slightly ahead of iGaming, which brought in $228 million. This has prompted some pundits to instantly proclaim the demise of brick-and-mortar gambling in New Jersey, but let’s not get carried away.

A second running of the Las Vegas Grand Prix has come and gone, without moving the needle on the Las Vegas Strip. In fact, baccarat play was dreadful. Casino takings fell 18%, as players wagered 8.5% less on the game. Wasn’t Formula One supposed to bring in the whales? Guess again. The one Strip growth area was a low-roller one: slot play. Coin-in was up 5.5%. But Lady Luck was with the players, who made the casinos pay in the form of a 2.5% decline in one-armed bandit income. Table game revenues also suffered, down 5% on 9% less wagering.

A casino a threat to our national security? No, we are NOT talking about the Tesla cybertruck explosion at Trump International on the Las Vegas Strip. Why? First off, Trump LV is not a casino. Secondly, the latest spin is that it was all an accident. (We guess that the driver ‘accidentally’ shot himself in the head, too.) Enough of that. No, the pressing safety concern involves a Virginia hamlet of which you’ve probably never heard: the heretofore obscure Tysons Corner.

Las Vegas has its very own Ebenezer Scrooge this year and his name is Virgin Las Vegas President Cliff Atkinson. With his Canadian private equity overlords, he going full Ebenezer on the many Bob Cratchits who toil for him. He’s begrudging them their lump of coal by offering paltry raises which would put them in a literally substandard position vis-a-vis their Las Vegas Strip brethren. Small wonder Atkinson talks about repositioning Virgin LV as a locals casino: He wants to spend Sam’s Town money for a Strip-adjacent resort. Perhaps Cliff got knocked on the head and woke up thinking he was operating Casino Royale. He’s certainly in the running to be Margaret Elardi‘s spiritual heir.