Category: Casino News

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Uh-oh, Atlantic City

One news story today bravely tried to spin Atlantic City‘s flat May numbers as “marvelous.” Meh. Glass half-full: They weren’t off 2025’s pace. Glass half-empty: At a time when regional casinos are outperforming Las Vegas, you’d expect Atlantic City to get some love. Perhaps we are starting to see an incremental effect of Class III gambling in New York City, which is bound to skim off some of the Boardwalk’s cream. Let’s agree to say that Atlantic City is holding its own.

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Mixed Signals; Sands’ Good Deeds

It may not look like much from the outside, but new Hollywood Joliet (above) is driving the bus for Chicagoland casino grosses. It will very soon have competition from within the Penn Entertainment family, as even newer Hollywood Aurora opens this month. In fact, mega-kudos to Penn for finishing the newest casino one entire month ahead of schedule. That’s a feat unheard-of in Big Gaming, where the place usually isn’t even complete when it debuts. Let’s hope Penn has set an influential example.

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Oops, He Did It Again

The Nevada Gaming Control Board‘s resident embarrassment, George Assad, would evidently like gaming stockholders to bend over and quietly take it in the shorts. Yesterday, the ancient Assad berated a Penn Entertainment activist shareholder for having the temerity—what sauce!—to defend the value of his stock against mismanagement by CEO Jay Snowden and others. The nerve of the man! Shareholder Parag Vora, that is. You’d think shareholders had rights or something.

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Strip Surges Again, Locals Flat

Luxor Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise 5

Despite a 2% dip in visitation to Sin City, gambling receipts were up again in April. Las Vegas Strip casinos surged 6.5% to $689.5 million. Although a recent survey of gamblers (see “License to Gouge”) overwhelmingly indicated an inclination to visit Downtown, that didn’t show up in the latest data. Downtown casinos were flat at $83.5 million. North Las Vegas ticked up 3% to $25.5 million, while the Boulder Strip was flat at $90 million. Miscellaneous Clark County was also becalmed at $164.5 million.

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License to Gouge

One of the hottest casinos on the Las Vegas Strip is—believe it or not—Casino Royale. How the humble have risen! The oft-mocked, independent joint was favored by a surprising amount of Sin City customers surveyed by Truist Securities. Out of all the places to stay, 4% said the Margaret Elardi-owned gambling den was their favorite. That’s as many as were partial to Harrah’s Las Vegas, that Strip monument to Stalinist architecture. It also put Casino Royale up there with Bellagio (the choice of 6%) and Caesars Palace (7%), but well behind MGM Grand (11%). Considering that two of those properties are synonymous with price-gouging and bad customer service, you have to wonder if Vegas tourists are masochistic by nature.

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Atlantic City surges, New York stumbles

Long-awaited casinos in New York City aren’t coming out of the starting blocks well. Resorts World New York may have been overhasty in installing table games. Steve Cohen is having a hard time getting his ducks in a row at Metropolitan Park and Bally’s Corp. has no financing yet for Bally’s Bronx beyond the $500 million license fee, plus a $115 million gratuity paid to Donald Trump. Bally’s may be the lucky one, as it will have time to study its competitors’ mistakes.

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The Backlash is Here

Every weekday our routine begins with a scan of the top 150 gambling and sports betting stories on Google. It can be a depressing task, given the mounting tide of articles and opinion pieces damning Big Gaming for addicting Americans to the thrill of a legal bet. Taken in tandem with some recent legislative actions, it leads to the inescapable conclusion that a backlash against gambling isn’t coming. It’s here.

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A Friend in High Places

UFC President Dana White is finally making a useful contribution to society. The brawl baron has importuned his BFF Donald Trump to do something to reverse the recent tax imposition on gambling losses. You will recall that not only are 100% of winnings taxable, now 10% of losses are too. We can thank Sen. Mike Crapo (R) for that financial sodomization of players, snuck through a sleepy Congress. (White’s well-reasoned letter can be found here.)

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Regional Casinos Remain Potent

Casino revenues hopped 6% in April in the Free State. It was driven by a 19.5% surge in table winnings, as slots were flat. MGM National Harbor led the way with $74 million, up 8%. Horseshoe Baltimore slipped 3% to the mediocre $15 million per month that is this misbegotten casino’s destiny. Maryland Live was up 7.5% to $63 million. Ocean Downs gained 5.5% to $8 million but Hollywood Perryville ceded 4.5% to $7.5 million. Rocky Gap Resort continued to turn it around, up 7% to $4.5 million.

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