Joseph “Tomato King” Procacci‘s casino bid in Philadelphia is fast 
becoming the clown car at the circus. Every time he opens its door, a zillion putty-nosed faces come tumbling out. His newest gambit has been to announce a vast theme park, with everything from water sports to ziplines, with golf, dining and shopping thrown in, too. It’s a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything, from the looks of it. He does remember that he’s applying for a casino, right? (You have to look hard to find the hotel which presumably anchors the development.)
The something-for-everything proposal is described as being on a “family friendly mission,” which really make you wonder. It’s like the Tomato King wanted to build an amusement park and tacked on a casino as an afterthought. So-called LoSo Entertainment Center (not too catchy, IMO) would take 10 years to build and add $432 million to the casino tab. City officials might flip for Procacci’s notion, since they want whichever casino they approve to provide extraneous economic stimulus to the surrounding area. It’s debatable whether that’s what casinos do but the Tomato King’s certainly determined to make a three-ring circus of the process.
Trump Plaza may be stinking up the Boardwalk with its abysmal financial performance. But that doesn’t mean it will be allowed to cut the hours it provides tables games, regulators ruled. The latter can always cite the “first-class facility” rule to hold Trump Plaza‘s feet to the fire, although I doubt it’s been first class for some years now.
There was meager but welcome good news out of Connecticut. Slot revenues were microscopically up at Foxwoods Resorts Casino and down at Mohegan Sun by their lowest amount in a year. It’s not much of a recovery but we’ll take it. Resorts World New York (+19% year/year) is blamed for the lack of a stronger comeback, while Mohegan Sun continues to grow its customer base at Foxwoods’ expense.
