{"id":841872,"date":"2023-01-06T08:51:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T16:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=32154"},"modified":"2023-09-26T14:55:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T22:55:18","slug":"maryland-sags-dustup-at-red-rock-sands-big-ny-play-the-dangers-of-fanatic-ism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/maryland-sags-dustup-at-red-rock-sands-big-ny-play-the-dangers-of-fanatic-ism\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland sags; Dustup at Red Rock; Sands’ big NY play; The dangers of Fanatic-ism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Whilst 2022 may have come in like a lion for casinos, it’s going out like a lamb, despite an extra weekend day last month. Revenues in Maryland<\/strong> dipped 4.5% to $165 million statewide in December, still 11% better than the comparable period in 2019 (i.e., Just Before the Shyte Hit the Fan). Two casinos gained traction: Hollywood Perryville<\/strong> was up 1.5% to $7 million and Ocean Downs<\/strong> galloped 7% to $7 million. Everyone else was revenue-negative, even MGM National Harbor<\/strong>, down 7% to $69.5 million. Maryland Live<\/strong> ceded 4.5% but stayed close at $60 million. Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> was 1.5% down for its usual $17 million, seemingly the hard ceiling for this snakebitten property. Rocky Gap Resort<\/strong> slipped 4% to $5 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

If you’re visiting Red Rock Resort<\/strong>, there’s a thing or two you might want to know about Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ<\/strong>. The food may be outstanding<\/a>, for all we know, but there is something untoward about “Lucille.” Namely, she never existed, although a fictive (and nauseatingly cornpone<\/a>) biography graced the corporate Web site until it was allegedly scrubbed in 2020. That’s insufficient penance from Long Beach<\/strong>-based Hofman Hospitality Group<\/strong>, at least as far as the Culinary Union<\/strong> is concerned. Its beef with Hofman seems to center upon the Lucille’s moniker itself, which it deems racially insensitive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queries Culinary spokeswoman Bethany Khan<\/strong>, \u201cWho is Lucille Buchanan<\/strong>? Are Lucille\u2019s Smokehouse Barb-B-Que and its owners proud of their branding strategy? Lucille\u2019s Smokehouse invented a fictional Black woman from the South as the main persona for their brand and they have never explained why.\u201d The Culinary tries to tie this in with its ongoing blood feud with Station Casinos<\/strong>, which has the whitest, male-est corporate board<\/a>\u2014and executive team\u2014in gaming (according to that leftist rag The Wall Street Journal<\/em>) and there might be something to that. (Namely, insensitivity.) Regardless, the Lucille’s brand should probably go away\u2014quietly and soon … and definitely not<\/em> be exported to Station’s new Durango Casino<\/strong> resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We’ve been waiting for Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> to get off its duff regarding downstate casinos in New York<\/strong> and it has done so, looking beyond the Five Boroughs to Nassau County<\/strong>. Nothing is official yet but the Nassau Hub<\/strong>, which includes Nassau Memorial Coliseum<\/strong>, is said to be on Sands’ wish list. An alternative site is UBS Arena<\/strong>. Both would fulfill Sands’ need for some kind of major-event center, its signature. Casino.org<\/em> describes the “tangible benefits<\/a>” of the area thusly: “Not only would an integrated resort project there avoid bringing more traffic congestion to Manhattan<\/strong>, but Nassau County is the second-most populous county in New York after New York City<\/strong>. Additionally, Long Island<\/strong> is a short drive to the Kennedy<\/strong> and LaGuardia<\/strong> airports.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We like it. If MGM Resorts International<\/strong> and Genting Group<\/strong> are juiced into two of the three urban licenses (as they should be) we think Sands would give New York City the third destination property it’s seeking. Still, we believe the momentum is with Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s bid for Times Square<\/strong>, so Sands CEO Rob Goldstein<\/strong> had better get cracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fanatics<\/strong> is trying (with more dollars than sense<\/a>) to rush into the sports-betting marketplace in as many states simultaneously as possible. It’s a strategy that we regard as bordering on delusional<\/a>, especially when so many of the punters have already pledged fealty to first-mover providers. This is not a case of the tortoise and the hare (a rather seamy tortoise<\/a> at that). And Fanatics’ intention to plunge pell-mell into Massachusetts<\/strong> is raising some regulatory eyebrows<\/a>. Fanatics, an apparel company, has the rather crude strategy of using its clothing database to monetize BetFanatics<\/strong>, its putative online-gaming brand. Of course, this has the inherent danger of marketing to the underaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Commissioner Eileen O’Brien<\/strong> said, \u201cIt’s pretty aggressive in the pitch. That kind of runs counter to the [responsible-gaming] sense for me. And so I have a concern about wanting to see more specifics.\u201d Fanatics Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Alex Smith<\/strong> put the onus on consumers, saying, \u201cSo customers that don’t want to see the gaming ads can opt-out easily.\u201d Not good enough? (No.) Smith added, “we think there are really exciting opportunities to work with third-party technology providers that can help us identify and eliminate direct marketing to known minors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BetFanatics’ license would be tied to\u2014wouldn’t you know it?\u2014risk-friendly Penn Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Plainridge Park<\/strong> racino. (We knew it would be Penn even before we turned the page.) Maryland and Ohio have already green-lit BetFanatics but Massachusetts tends to regard sports-betting licenses with more deliberation, although it finally caved and gave classless Barstool Sports<\/strong> one. So while there may be some fretting over the BetFanatics business model, we expect it to get eventual regulatory assent\u2014followed relatively quickly by a free-market collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of Ohio<\/strong> (and sports betting), OSB providers in the state continue to trip over their shoelaces. Joining DraftKings<\/strong> in the penalty box\u2014for a second time<\/a>\u2014are BetMGM<\/strong> and Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong>. The trio has flunked the test of “clearly and conspicuously” displaying problem-gambling-help verbiage in their advertising. Also, disingenuous and slightly illegal verbiage about “free” bets or “risk-free” ones continues to manifest itself<\/a>, even though the supposedly “free” money is contingent to placing risk-inherent bets with those same providers. This is the kind of monkeyshines that give the gaming industry a bad name and needs to be cleaned up, stat. Maybe a $150,000 fine will get the message across. As Ohio Casino Control Commission<\/strong> Executive Director Matthew Schuler<\/strong> warned, \u201cThe Commission takes responsible gambling seriously\u2014and expects the industry to value the same.\u201d We agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst 2022 may have come in like a lion for casinos, it’s going out like a lamb, despite an extra weekend day last month. Revenues in Maryland dipped 4.5% to $165 million statewide in December, still 11% better than the comparable period in 2019 (i.e., Just Before the Shyte Hit the Fan). Two casinos gained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1728],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}