Yesterday, Elliott Management announced that it owns 5% of Boyd Gaming. Shares of the company, which had closed just under $12, opened at $14. But is this a vote of confidence in Boyd? According to Seeking Alpha, “Elliott has a long track record of mounting activist campaigns in which it calls for a company to make big changes and/or put itself up for sale.” And there was Boyd, just last week, talking about expansion into Japan. Now the heavily leveraged company may have to fight off Elliott instead.
Boyd’s online gambling revenues at Borgata (and those of rival Atlantic City casinos) should see an uptick this month. The State of New Jersey has “eased the parameters” of geolocation along the state line, thinning the buffer. Said the Division of Gaming Enforcement‘s Kerry Langan, “We have worked with the geolocation vendors and casinos to enhance the technology to make it more accurate and reliable, and to reduce false negatives.” And if a few non-Garden State players slip through the ‘Net … ? There seems to be tacit agreement not to lose sleep over that.
Remember those ‘2341’ keys that the Peppermill casino in Reno used to spy on its competitors’ slot machines. They’re ubiquitous among the industry and easily obtained through the mail, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal found when it purchased two. Howard Stutz has an excellent investigative piece separating 2341 fact from fiction. Considering the omnipresence of the keys, it’s a mild surprise that other operators haven’t been found doing Peppermill-style sneak-and-peek surveillance.
If you want crappy slot paytables, go to Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Keystone State slots pay out 89.9 cents on the dollar, while West Virginia ones return only 89.8 cents. Rivers Casino was the tightest of the Pennsylvania casinos surveyed. According to Spectrum Gaming Group‘s East Coast Slot Report, New York State VLTs were relatively generous, returning 93.4 cents. The puts to shame Atlantic City’s 91.1-cent average. Non-Strip casinos in Nevada were the best value, paying back 93.5 cents. With a liberal 92.7-cent payout, it’s surprising that Florida casinos don’t appeal to more players. Those numbers and those of other ‘loose’ states could get pulled down as electronic table games (considered relatively loose) are supplanted by the real deal.
Congratulations to Boomtown Casino & Hotel, celebrating 50 years in business. Current owners M1 Gaming inherited the property from Pinnacle Entertainment in “horrific” condition (with revenues to match) and have put $20 million into spiffing it up. Boomtown began life humbly enough as Bob & Effie’s Truck Stop. It was later owned, for 20 years, by Reno Mayor Bob Cashell. M1 CEO Dean DiLullo deduced that improving the food product was Job One to increasing customer loyalty. He also swapped out the slot floor in favor of multi-game machines and emphasized retro music acts. Colors and materials were chosen to create “a subliminal message of comfort,” according to one Boomtown exec. Unfortunately for Tropicana Entertainment, M1’s decision to stick to its Boomtown knitting means a sale of Laughlin’s River Palms Casino Resort to M1 has gone on indefinite hold.
Elsewhere in the area, ownership has changed at the Horizon Casino Resort, which had been leased by slumlord-like Columbia Sussex. The new owners are something called Nev One LLC, run by Jon and David Park. They’re closing April 1 for (much needed, I’ve heard) renovations, with a reopening date and other particulars still to be announced.
Kudos to the Neon Museum for exceeding visitor projections in its first year — and by a comfortable margin. I’ve been there twice and if you haven’t put it on your ‘to do’ list you’re missing out on a very entertaining hour of sightseeing.
