Category: Casino News

Above is what we’re reliably informed is the best reason to visit the lounge at Bally’s Atlantic City—and it’s a pretty good one. It’s an unfettered view of the Atlantic Ocean. Being a beachgazer is probably one of the better ways to amuse oneself in Atlantic City. Gosh knows, help is needed. Outdoor events have been dropping like flies. (The better to keep prospective gamblers indoors?) The biggest domino to fall was the annual air show. Reports our Boardwalk correspondent, “The stated reason is that one of the ‘prime’ acts withdrew. The surprise was that the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were never in this years show schedule.” A surprise indeed. What gives, USAF?

Gambling revenues held the line in Missouri last month, flat with last year. The $155 million tally was also 8% better than in June of 2019. At $25 million, Ameristar St. Charles continued to dominate, up 4.5%. River City edged sister property Hollywood St. Louis $21 million to $20.5 million. River City was up 4%, Hollywood 1.5%. Horseshoe St. Louis, despite its downtown presence during the height of baseball season, plunged 17% to $11 million.

Bally’s Corp. is usually a subject of fun in these pages, so let’s flip the script and congratulate the company on the 45th anniversary of Bally’s Atlantic City. Above you see the buses full of gamblers pulling up at what used to be Park Place Casino and has been through more incarnations subsequently than you can shake a stick at. In Monopoly, Park Place will set you back $350 and is one of the blue-chip properties in the game. In recent years, Bally’s picked up the erstwhile Park Place Casino from Caesars Entertainment for what seemed like only $350 and if it was ever a premium spot on the Boardwalk those days are long gone.

It was a bouncy May for casinos both on the Las Vegas Strip and locally. The former was up 3.5%, reaching gambling revenue of $742.5 million. Locals casinos hopped 5% for a haul of $277.5 million. The Strip win was particularly impressive given that baccarat was down 6.5% to $122 million. The problem wasn’t hold percentage so much as a 2% dip in action. But other table games leapt 13% to $217.5 million on wagering that was 11% higher. Strip slots saw 6.5% more coin-in, to tally $403 million (+2.5%). Locals slots were up 3% to $229.5 million on 4.5% more action. Locals table win was $48 million, a 17% gain spurred by 16.5% higher wagering.

ESPN Bet was supposed to be the salvation of Penn Entertainment. Now it is looking like its downfall. Penn’s venture into online gambling has had very mixed results. iGaming has brought with it great success. Sports betting, however, has been an unmitigated disaster. After PR and stock-price debacle Barstool Sports turned turtle, irresponsible Penn CEO Jay Snowden sold it back to Dave Portnoy for $1. (That’s not a typo.) Throwing good money after bad, Snowden doubled down with ESPN Bet. At first it looked like a potential winner. But it has lost money hand over fist, with no end to the red ink in sight.