Category: Casino News

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A Tale of Two Atlantic Citys

It was the best of times … for Borgata, Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Casino Resort. It was the worst of times for everyone else. Borgata takings rocketed 25% to $72 million, outpacing everyone else. Hard Rock Atlantic City was up 2% to $45 million and Ocean Casino leapt 14.5% to $39 million. The only other casino to hold its own was Harrah’s Resort, flat at $18.5 million. Caesars Atlantic City plunged 24% to $12.5 million and Tropicana Atlantic City fell 4.5% to $16 million. In other words, it took Caesars Entertainment three casinos to make slightly more than Hard Rock did.

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Much Ado About Nothing

We’ve been giving this story a wide berth but … someone perspicacious in the White House press corps noticed the yawning chasm between the symbolism of Donald Trump making a stump speech at Mount Airy Resort and the fact of his having signed into law an onerous tax increase on gamblers. The latter was part of a budget enacted in haste, to be repented at leasure. (To be crystal clear, the gambling-tax hike was the evil handiwork of GOP Sen. Mike Crapo.) As might be expected, Fox Business tried to spin the presidential response as a major policy shift. The truth is more mundane.

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In the Bleak Midwinter

Casinos in Illinois nudged up a point last month, garnering $155 million. Take away underachieving Fairmount Park ($1.5 million) and they were flat with November 2024. Newfangled Hollywood Joliet continued to tear up the marketplace, vaulting 51% to $11 million. Three casinos in Chicagoland were reeling—and we’re not referring to their slot machines. Market leader Rivers Des Plaines got walloped 13.5%, spiraling down to $37.5 million. Bally’s Casino downtown didn’t have a chance to gloat, also getting clocked 13.5% to $8.5 million. Even so, Bally’s Corp. and Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. remain (delusionally?) convinced that $2 billion Bally’s Chicago will be a barnburner.

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It’s About Time!

“Casino security” is a bad joke or, at best, a contradiction in terms. The Paul Blarts who patrol casino floors aren’t there to protect you: Their remit is to keep the sacrosanct slot machines safe. God forbid you should need help in a perilous casino situation because you ain’t getting any. Not from Big Gaming. Case in point, the gay-bashing incident at MGM Grand Detroit last summer, where security guards stood idly by as casino patrons were assaulted. Maybe it’s not “aiding and abetting” but it sure looks like “depraved indifference.” Thank goodness nobody got shot.

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NYC: Everybody Wins?

All three New York City casino proposals were tapped in the penultimate round of selection for Empire State benediction. That means Genting Group, Bally’s Corp. and Hard Rock International each grasped the brass ring. Now comes the hard part: Finding financing. We’re talking about an aggregate $18 billion in casino capitalization—not money that’s going to be found under Steve Cohen‘s couch cushions. Oh, and there’s one major hiccup for Genting.

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Strip Gets Rescued

Vegas remains resilient; NFL reverses field

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers. We, of course, are primarily thankful for you. And Big Gaming is thankful too … not for us but for baccarat, which saved its bacon last month on the Las Vegas Strip. Visitation sank 4.5% but Strip casino revenue jumped 8%, driven in large part by a 69% catapult in baccarat winnings. (Things might have been worse still had convention attendance not spiked 8%, even though room rates still sagged 6%.) The house cleaned up at high-roller-friendly baccarat and at the tables in general (vaulting 25%) but not at the slots, which slipped 2% despite 3% higher coin-in. Table wagering was up 5% and baccarat players bet 9% bigger. Bottom line, fewer people may be coming to Sin City but the ones who do are betting more—and losing it, too.

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Vegas Regulators Expose Themselves

Was the circus in town last week? Because the Nevada Gaming Commission sure put on a clown show. They handed out a nominal, $7.8 million fine to Caesars Entertainment for flouting anti-money laundering laws. The Roman Empire looked the other way for at least five years while illegal bookie Mathew Bowyer (author of the Shohei Ohtani scandal) gambled at Caesars’ casinos. Amazingly, no one seems to have laughed when Caesars CEO Tom Reeg said, “We never sacrifice compliance for revenue,” even though he clearly did. Reeg followed that howler up with, “There is no customer that’s worth illegitimate profits.” Well, there was at least one.

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Bally’s Stands Alone?

Wouldn’t it be the apex of irony if unfunded Bally’s New York were the only New York City casino project left standing when all’s said and done? It would go from iffy in the extreme to $4 billion investment magnet overnight and Chairman Soo Kim will be gloating all the way to the bank. It’s not such a fantastic scenario (although one wouldn’t have believed it two months ago) now that Metropolitan Park is embattled and Resorts World New York City is having second thoughts.

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GLPI Speaks

It was recently our pleasure to interview Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. President Brandon Moore at length for a forthcoming issue of Casino Life Magazine. Indeed, Moore was interviewed at such length that we wound up with 4,700-plus words of transcript! As a service to S&G readers and a coming-attractions trailer for the print interview, here are outtakes from our conversation. But we don’t here address the rampaging elephant in the room that is Bally’s Corp.—we have to save something for the printed version!

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Midwest flexes, ESPN Bet folds

Illinois casinos were booming in October, up 21% … or 7.5% once second-place Wind Creek Southland and last-place Fairmont Park were subtracted to make an apples-to-apples comparison. The headline for J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Politzer was the loss of the novelty factor at Hollywood Joliet, which has trended downward from August through October. Darn, the sheen came off that casino fast. Normally we don’t put much stock in sequential comparisons, but still … dang! We had hoped for better.

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