Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on January 20, 2023September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

‘Fight’ club; New Horseshoe powers Louisiana

Having experienced buyer’s remorse on DFS site Monkey Knife Fight, and now trying to re-sell it, Bally’s Corp. finds itself with a ton of Monkey Knife Fight-branded merchandise that it must unload. After all, if it finds a pigeon, er, purchaser for the DFS brand, all rights will revert to said pigeon, leaving Bally’s with a bunch of junk it can’t move. Hence the scene above in the Bally’s Atlantic City gift shop. You can practically hear the sales pitch: “Prices like these? I must be crazy! Sale ends Sunday (maybe)!” Seriously, the acquisition of Monkey Knife Fight was symptomatic of Bally’s swing-at-everything business strategy. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Then again, Bally’s was late to the DFS party and the purchase always seemed to us like an afterthought. Now the company is hurting in the digital sphere, having expanded too much too soon, and Monkey Knife Fight is being flung overboard to trim the ship. Good luck finding takers. Maybe Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim can drop by Bally’sAtlantic City (the casino that quality forgot) and pick up sportswear that reads, “I bought Monkey Knife Fight and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

Posted on January 19, 2023September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 2 Comments

Pennsylvania soft; Gray Lady panics; Smooth criminal

Gambling revenues in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania slipped just a bit last month, as 2022 continued to go out mostly quietly. The $298 million haul was 1% off December 2021’s pace. While there was some softening of the market, we attribute that to continued saturation, as more mini-casinos continue to come on line. The biggest winner was Parx Casino with $48.5 million, but it was 5.5% down, which we chalk up to its (utterly praiseworthy) smoking ban. Close behind was Wind Creek Bethlehem, reporting $42 million and up 3%. Rivers Pittsburgh was third with $31.5 million, a 2% gain. Its immediate rivals also fared well, with Meadows Hollywood flat at $14 million and Pittsburgh Live hopping 5% to $10 million.

Posted on January 18, 2023September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Solid finish in Atlantic City; Tough love elsewhere

Casinos closed out 2022 up 2% in December in Atlantic City. Before any gaming bosses start wringing their hands over higher costs, let it be known that this is 3% better than December 2019, before the latest collective-bargaining agreement. The monthly gross was $215.5 million. For the entire year, it was an apex in Boardwalk history, thanks to i-gaming and sports-betting contributions. This did not pass unnoticed by Americans for Nonsmokers Rights. “Imagine how much more revenue the casinos would have generated if the awful stench of dangerous secondhand smoke didn’t keep a meaningful number of guests from walking through their doors,” acidly remarked ANR President Cynthia Hallett. She added, “In-person visitation has recovered to pre-pandemic levels. So what’s the excuse now for the casinos? This revenue report should give legislators yet another green light to advance bipartisan bills that more than half of all senators and assembly members are co-sponsoring to close the casino smoking loophole.”

Posted on January 17, 2023August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 18 Comments

It’s Not Like That

In addition to being posted on www.bobdancer.com, these weekly blogs are also posted on www.gamblingwithanedge.com, where there is a forum for reader discussion. Recently, a man who posts as “Boris from Switzerland” wrote (slightly edited): Change of subject: Why has Boyd stopped offering multipliers to everybody, and why did they clean out their casino floors by removing their 99.50% and higher games? This is something I don’t like at all.

While I’m not a big fan of Boyd and the gambling decisions they have made, Boris has misstated what they are actually doing.

Posted on January 17, 2023September 26, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Massachusetts jumps; Bally’s sags; Century flees

Defying a larger trend, Massachusetts closed out 2022 with strength, its casino revenues up 8% to $103 million. The big dog, Encore Boston Harbor, leapt 10% to a boffo $68.5 million, beating Wall Street expectations. MGM Springfield‘s gain was more modest, 1% that pushed it to $22.5 million for the month. Plainridge Park jumped 11.5% and grossed $12 million, continuing to manifest a recovery against the inroads made by nearby Encore.

Posted on January 16, 2023September 18, 2023 by David Mckee — 2 Comments

The tax that ate Las Vegas; Dr. King misremembered

A horrible idea for the taxpayer, the economy and for gaming in particular has been resurrected in Congress. Yes, it’s the “national sales tax,” which would lay a double-digit impost on all goods and services, and which only could be rebated to us if we fill out onerous, monthly paperwork—much more burdensome than dealing with the IRS once a year. As formerly championed by disgraced ex-lawmaker Steve King, the root of the bill is the “strong father” model of government, in which the sales tax would be intended to A) make people resent government itself and B) curb consumer spending. An especially odious carve-out in the 2004 iteration of the bill—and this bears close watching—is that all businesses would qualify for tax refunds … except casinos and gambling-related businesses, which would get nothing. It’s a dagger aimed straight at the heart of the Big, Bad Casinos.

Posted on January 13, 2023August 29, 2023 by 888 Casino — 8 Comments

When Is It Quittin’ Time?

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

A.C. says: When should you quit playing during a gambling session? Most advice revolves around the monetary consideration, focusing on protecting a big win or limiting losses. The advice in this article is related to that, but really boils down to using common sense. It advocates paying attention to what you know is the logical thing to do, whether based on your current results or simply maximizing the experience. It sounds a little bit like a cop-out, but because of several points made in this article, there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules for stopping. That’s okay; relying on common sense is good advice for all levels of player. However, there’s a fairly solid rule of thumb for expert players who know how to play with an advantage, e.g., by counting cards in blackjack or playing a video poker progressive that’s above breakeven. Assuming you’re adequately bankrolled, you should stop when the game conditions deteriorate or when you’re too tired to play accurately. For pros, the paramount consideration for deciding when to stop is almost always whether or not the game continues to be beatable, not how much has been won or lost, especially after a small amount of play.

Posted on January 13, 2023September 26, 2023 by David Mckee — 1 Comment

Indiana dims; Sands: Make mine Nassau; Mega-Jottings

Gaming revenues dipped last month in Indiana, achieving $204 million, a 3.5% year/year decline. Hard Rock Northern Indiana ($34 million, +4%) continues to ransack its competitors. Horseshoe Hammond was closest, grossing $26 million but down 13.5%, while Ameristar East Chicago tumbled 13.5% to $16.5 million and Blue Chip (above) slipped 10.5% to $10.5 million. Caesars Entertainment‘s two Hoosier State racinos headed in opposite directions. Horseshoe Indianapolis was up 2% to $28.5 million, while Harrah’s Hoosier Downs was down 6.5% to a still-healthy $20 million. Defying the downward trend was Bally’s Evansville, jumping 9.5% to $15.5 million, while Belterra Resort was flat at $8 million and French Lick Resort was also level at $7 million. Caesars Southern Indiana was also steady at $21 million, while Hollywood Lawrenceburg slid 11% to $13.5 million. Rising Sun didn’t rise: -8% to $4 million.

Posted on January 11, 2023September 26, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Atlantic City focus

Since we’re heavily occupied today with “Question of the Day” submissions, Sports Betting Operator features, a CDC Gaming Reports story and Casino Life page proofs, we’ll turn most of the S&G space over to our East Coast bureau, who has a variety of reports …

Above is the Bally’s Atlantic City slot floor, seen last Monday. Yes, the casino was open. Below is their ‘high limit slot’ room, with one customer seen cashing out a ticket.

Posted on January 10, 2023August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 15 Comments

It’s Not Good News

Not so long ago, I received an email from Anthony Curtis directing my attention to https://acresmanufacturing.com/optimal-poker-analyzer/ . It’s an advertisement for a product that casinos can use to evaluate the accuracy of the video poker players at their casino.

Generally speaking, casinos want to reward players based on their true worth to the casino — that is, pay losing players a lot to keep losing, pay good players a little but not too much, and find and eliminate winning players. Also generally speaking, strong players want to disguise what they’re doing so they can keep their welcome and continue to gather their profits.

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