Category: Casino News

Former casino overlord Donald Trump is monopolizing the headlines today but let’s not let him have all the fun. There’s plenty of other gaming-related news today. First and foremost, in the same week that Nashville has seen the latest in an endless series of mass shootings, our attention is drawn back to the Mandalay Bay Massacre, one of the worst. Seemingly every news outlet in the country has gotten ahold of the FBI report on shooter Stephen Paddock. Even though Paddock cased possible shooting sites from San Francisco to Boston, the G-men put down his Las Vegas outburst to a fit of pique. (Kudos to the Wall Street Journal for getting the feds to give up the goods.) A witness told G-Men that “was not treating Paddock well because a player of his status should have been in a higher floor in a penthouse suite.” Yup, that’ll really cause people to go postal. Happens every day.

Our East Coast correspondent had a good experience at Ocean Casino Resort last weekend. It started with no line at the “Prime” players-club check-in … although it was a quite a different (and worse) story if you fell into a lower player tier. Ocean rewards guests who “go green” (i.e., opt out of maid service) with a $20 F&B credit. “So our Saturday morning breakfast sandwiches were a few cents short of free. When we checked out, our balance due was $0.26 total. The employee asked if he should use ‘comps’ for the balance, but I paid cash.” Incidentally, Bart Blatstein holds several vacant lots in Ocean’s vicinty, but has announced no plans for them.

Don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Tilman Fertitta to break ground on what will probably be a Post Oak Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The mogul is keeping his powder dry, or as Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas summarized him, “No firm start date has been set, and management is willing to wait for clarity on economic conditions.” That could be a long wait. Already Fertitta’s high-end-dining business is softening, though Tilman expects his Joe Sixpack customers to be most affected by any economic downturn. And if you were wondering whether Tilman would expend any of his considerable political capital on behalf of Texas casino legalization, the answer appears to be no. Fertitta kept mum on the subject, beyond saying that Texas tribal casinos wouldn’t hurt his Lake Charles business, which hardly comes as a shocking analysis.

Don’t look now, Las Vegas but we may have another failsino on our hands. Construction has ground to a total halt on Dream, the south-Strip resort project that looked like a sure thing not so long ago. Developer Bill Shopoff is as much as $30 million in hock, stalling work on Dream. Shopoff is evidently renegotiating with his principal lender, for reasons undisclosed. (Cost overruns?) With a budgetary cap of $575 million, Dream has been proceeding so far from cash on hand, leaving it $400 million-plus short of the finish line. That’d require a “bridge loan” big enough to span Long Island Sound.

Gambling revenues inched upward in New Jersey, plus 1% statewide, mainly driven by Internet casinos (+9%). In Atlantic City, slot winnings rose 3.5% to ($159 million) on 4% more coin-in but tables slipped 4.5% to $54 million as wagering dipped 1%. The comp-sweating Golden Nugget tumbled 14% to $11 million, tightening its stranglehold on last place, well behind Bally’s Atlantic City ($12 million and an impressive +14%) and Resorts Atlantic City ($12.5 million, -2%). Borgata put even more distance between itself and the competition, up 9% to $57.5 million. Hard Rock Atlantic City was flat and way back at $37.5 million. Ocean Casino Resort slid 11.5% to $26 million. Does the Illitch Family still fantasize about having the top casino in A.C.? That leaves the Caesars Entertainment triumvirate, led by Harrah’s Resort‘s $21.5 million (+8%), lagged by Caesars Atlantic City ($19 million, +1.5%) and the Tropicana Atlantic City with $17 million, flat in February.