Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on February 22, 2023September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Caesars hedges on NYC; Buyer’s remorse in Ohio

Although he currently has the frontrunner for a Manhattan casino, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg is waffling a bit. Potentially ceding momentum to deep-pocketed rivals like Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands, Reeg said Caesars wouldn’t get into an “arms race,” spending heavily on its Times Square project. Trouble is, if Caesars looks like it’s trying to get something major for little capital input, it risks losing the game. Reeg is playing a similar gambit in Texas, where he openly covets a megaresort but isn’t lifting a finger to get the enabling legislation passed by the Lege. It’s fish or cut bait time and Reeg looks like someone who’d prefer not to fish.

Posted on February 21, 2023August 29, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 8 Comments

How Do I Figure?

I received the following email. It requires more analysis than I normally do without charge for strangers, but since I can get a column out of it, why not?

Posted on February 20, 2023September 26, 2023 by David Mckee — 1 Comment

How the mighty have fallen; Pennsylvania saturated

Pity poor fellow Kelsey Grammer. The superb actor (Boss) and Shakespearean leading man has been reduced to tending bar at an Atlantic City casino. And not some prestigious Boardwalk gambling hall but last-place Golden Nugget. As our East Coast correspondent, who adeptly spotted this ad, puts it: “Guess he didn’t save enough money for retirement, and/or he has a really bad agent that can’t get him better gigs at casinos.” True that.

Posted on February 17, 2023September 18, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Atlantic City leaps; DraftKings beats The Street

Gambling revenues in Atlantic City defied the cold last month, surging 15% to $212 million. Borgata, naturally, led the market with $58.5 million, a 20.5% vault. Next up was Hard Rock Atlantic City with $36 million, a 3.5% nudge, followed by Ocean Casino Resort‘s $30.5 million, a moonshot of 26.5%. The Caesars Entertainment threesome all gained–indeed, nobody in town was revenue-negative. Harrah’s Resort was up front with $20 million, a 16% gain. Then came Caesars Atlantic City with $17 million, up 5%, and Tropicana Atlantic City‘s $16 million, a 12% jump. The remaining three were all bunched at the rear, with Bally’s Atlantic City doing $11.5 million (a 31.5% catapult … management must be finally gaining traction), and Golden Nugget and Resorts Atlantic City fighting for last place with $11 million (+5.5% and +20% respectively). All in all, a very encouraging report.

Posted on February 15, 2023August 29, 2023 by 888 Casino — 5 Comments

5 Easy Video Poker Tips That Every Casino Player Should Know

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: This article was written by Bob Dancer. Nuff said with regard to its accuracy. It was written in 2016, but the information is timeless, with the exception of the recommendation for using the Video Poker for Winners software, which is no longer available; other tutoring products are, however. These are just five basic tips, but they’re important and there are some good nuggets included, e.g., when to keep two pair in Deuces Wild. These concepts are taken much further in Dancer’s book, Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner.

Posted on February 15, 2023September 14, 2023 by David Mckee — 5 Comments

Sports betting bungle; Smoke gets in their ears

Good going, MGM Springfield. It has become the third Massachusetts casino to ‘fess up to taking illegal wagers in the opening days of lawful sports betting. Did the Bay State go live too soon? It’s looking that way, as regulators say they’ll be learning to “set the goalposts” on what is and isn’t permitted, a tacit admission that they got caught with their pants down. Look, this isn’t rocket science and none of three bungling companies is a novice to sports wagering, making this all the more inexcusable. Putting a ‘pause’ on the March 10 launch of mobile betting seems only sensible while the Massachusetts Gaming Commission gets its act together.

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 11 Comments

A Different Sort of Promotion

Bonnie and I took a trip to Reno and played at the ROW, the threesome of connected casinos (Eldorado, Silver Legacy, and Circus Circus) that are now part of the Caesars system. I’d played there previously but this was Bonnie’s first trip.

When we swiped our cards at the kiosk at the start of our visit, we discovered that we each received 20,000 bonus drawing tickets for a drawing coming up in several weeks, and a 20x ticket multiplier for all of our play that day. Every day we were there, we got another 20x multiplier. When we departed Reno, we each had several hundred thousand drawing tickets. I’ve never had so many drawing tickets in my life!

Posted on February 14, 2023September 18, 2023 by David Mckee — 1 Comment

Massachusetts booms; Know your enemy

January was very, very good for Massachusetts casinos, which raked in $97 million, pretty darn good for a state with only three gambling halls and a 17.5% leap over last year. The biggest overachiever was Plainridge Park, vaulting 24% to $12 million. Scarcely to be outdone, MGM Springfield jumped 23% to $23 million, mainly on the strength of strong slot winnings (+28%), while tables were up 4%. The big dog, Encore Boston Harbor ‘only’ hopped 15% to $62 million, driven by a 23% increase in slot winnings, whilst table win was 6% higher.

Posted on February 13, 2023September 26, 2023 by David Mckee — Leave a comment

Big Bally’s shakeup; Smoking swatted; Mega-Jottings

Back on Jan. 25, we wrote that Bally’s Corp. CEO Lee Fenton was “possibly laying the groundwork for his own exit,” when he said, The pandemic boosted our business and we continued to hire at full pelt. I now can see that we may have over-hired in some areas and I take full responsibility for that.” This coincided with the sacking of 15% of Bally’s staff, followed today by Fenton falling on his sword. Although he’s technically CEO until March 31, Fenton wasn’t even allowed a voice in the official press release, his role being usurped by CEO-to-be Robeson Reeves. The latter comes from the company’s interactive side, which is where the problems are concentrated. Brick-and-mortar prexy George Papanier‘s job is safe.

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Dave Kamsler — Leave a comment

A Trip to Las Vegas for Raiders Game Day

[Editor’s Note: This post is written by Dapper Dave Kamsler, a Las Vegas and football aficionado extraordinaire.]

One of my favorite times of year to come to Vegas has always been during football season. Coming from the East Coast, it’s so much fun to roll out of bed on Sunday mornings and have games start at 10 a.m., then for Monday Night Football to start at the much more reasonable hour of 5:30 — perfect for having dinner at a sports bar while watching the game.

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