Fertitta moves on Lake Charles; Sexism triumphs at Boyd; Rhythm City blues

Earlier today, Pinnacle Entertainment announced that it had agreed with Golden Nugget to sell Ameristar Casinos‘ unfinished Lake Charles project at cost ($214 million and climbing). As Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli noted, “We view this as a firm positive given expectations for a haircut to expenditures to date.” Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta (pictured) has a long history of paying top dollar (read: overpaying) for acquisitions but, once he’s closed the deal, he turns his new toy into one of the best properties in the market. So Pinnacle can feel good now but had better expect very fierce competition later. There’s also a Texan symmetry in the deal: Houston, where Fertitta is headquartered, is the supreme feeder market for Lake Charles, so it’s almost as good for Tilman as if Texas were to legalize casinos.

The Ameristar takeover should close on time (the end of next month). Although Pinnacle has yet to find buyers for its Lumiere Place and Four Seasons hotel in St. Louis, the Missouri Gaming Commission has okayed the deal. The MGC was viewed as the likeliest obstacle, but they were surely placated by Pinnacle’s announcement that it is but weeks from announcing a sale. In the meantime, Federal Trade Commission-approved managers will act as “monitors” of the Lake Charles and St. Louis properties. In other Pinnacle news, its Ohio racino remains on track (so to speak) to open by next summer. River Downs will set Pinnacle back $209 million but, given Ohio’s disappointing yield to date, Pinnacle’s probably getting a bargain.

Score one for male chauvinism. In a ruling straight from the Pleistocene Era of jurisprudence, Borgata has won a summary judgment that it can monitor the body fat of its “Borgata Babes,” even if it creates deleterious effects on their health. Casinos treating their female employees like cattle is nothing new but you’d think we’d start to move beyond it at some point. (In fairness, it should be noted that male servers are held to comparable standards.)  “Courts have held that employers are allowed to rely upon stereotypical notions of how men and women should appear,” recounts The Press of Atlantic City, implying that ex-Caesars Entertainment sugar pusher Paula Deen would be perfectly in her rights to make her employees dress like Aunt Jemima.

Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson did utter some pro forma tut-tuts about the male-chauvinist piggery of Boyd Gaming‘s policy. “From the court’s perspective, the term ‘babe’ is at best undignified and at worst degrading,” he penned. “Regardless, there are people in our society who view ‘babe’ as playful flattery … To the chagrin of those in our society hoping to leave sexual stereotypes behind, some of those people are female.” Well, I’m sure that makes everybody involved feel 100% better, your honor.

NIMBY time? A $110 million, 900-slot casino development virtually in the backyard of several half-million houses in Davenport? It’s difficult to see this Rhythm City project going forward without a lot of hostility and resistance from nearby homeowners, whose property values will probably tank if the casino is built.

“Getting vertical.” It’s not a new sexual euphemism (well, it might be) but it’s how Horseshoe Baltimore General Manager Chad Barnhill describes breaking ground and laying rebar for the new ‘Shoe. The inception of construction also means that potential shareholders of Caesars Growth Properties are buying into more than just a bunch of renderings on an easel.