Category: Casino News

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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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Election Special

It’s always too soon to celebrate the demise of smoking in Atlantic City. However, clean-air advocates (and customers) have reason to feel guardedly optimistic today. Ally Mikie Sherrill (D, pictured) smoked status-quo champion Jack Ciattrelli (R), 56% to 43%. Despite character flaws and serious bread-and-butter concerns by voters, Sherrill prevailed. It was predicted to be a nail-biter and ended up a laugher.

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Best of the Rest

“Solid” was Wall Street‘s consensus on 3Q25 at Station Casinos. The company came in slightly under Deutsche Bank‘s targets but analyst Steven Pizzella still seemed pleased. Revenue was $486.5 million and Station was noted to have weathered construction upheavals at several properties, as it upgrades its product. Restaurant business was good, with F&B revenues hopping 2.5%. Thanks to room disruption at Green Valley Ranch, hotel revenues sagged 8%. And, for the first time, we heard that debility on the Las Vegas Strip might start dampening locals-casino results.

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Out Like a Lamb

Barry Jonas called it. His report on MGM Resorts International‘s 3Q25 earnings was headlined “The Summer the Strip Turned Pretty … Bad.” Ouch. But true. He kept a “Buy” rating on the stock but shaved a dollar off his price target, now $47/share. Jonas reported that MGM is leaning on high-end business, hoping for stabilization in 4Q and growth next year. Is CEO Bill Hornbuckle seeing the same indicators we are? Because the latest “Beige Book” for the Upper Midwest was pretty dire. If the rest of the U.S. is suffering comparably, MGM is going to feel the pain.

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