Talks are resuming, albeit with an apparent lack of urgency, between the Culinary Union and the Big Three of the Las Vegas Strip. True, MGM Resorts International sits down with the Culinary on Monday. But Caesars Entertainment doesn’t meet with the union until a week from today—and Wynn Resorts not until Oct. 30. Wall Street thought the labor negotiations would be resolved by now. It thought wrong. Golden Entertainment execs look damned prescient for predicting a mid-November resolution. It will take the oncoming prospect of the Las Vegas Grand Prix to focus everyone’s minds—and maybe not even then. Yesterday, someone predicted on X that Formula One spectators would be greeted by the sight of picketing. We replied that it was too close to the truth to be funny. It would certainly get Big Gaming’s attention in a grave way.

Last month saw a slight decline in Atlantic City casino revenues, down 2% to $246.5 million. Before we break out the crying towels, note that this is 10% better than the casinos were doing at the same point in 2019. Meanwhile, Internet gambling (+21%) and sports betting (+13%) marched upward. Only two casinos, however, were revenue-positive. Ocean Casino Resort leapt a whopping 29% to $39.5 million and Hard Rock Atlantic City gained 7% to gross $47 million. Borgata retained its top spot with $54 million but plunged 13%, a worrisome number. Despite a much-vaunted spate of renovations, the Caesars Entertainment threesome is settling into second-class status, perhaps the consequence of trying to hang onto too much gambling inventory. The trio was all bunched closely together, led by Harrah’s Resort‘s $22 million (-4%), followed by Caesars Atlantic City (-4.5%) and Tropicana Atlantic City (-8%), both around $21.5 million.

Gone are the capering jesters of the 2023 Global Gaming Expo, dispersed for another year until they reconvene to shake their cap and bells. One of the benefits (aside from the obvious economic ones) of having 25,000 gaming professionals descend upon Las Vegas was that it gave Wall Street analysts a chance to chat up the big boys in person. One such was Deutsche Bank boffin Carlo Santarelli, who managed to meet with at least six major companies. We break down his reports as follows …