Cordish Gaming got the go-ahead to start building its Packer Avenue casino in Philadelphia. The news came on the same as a bulletin that should give Cordish pause, with SugarHouse casino reporting a 4% drop in slot revenues. Given the amount of gaming 
product in the greater Philadelphia market, Cordish should probably brace itself for disappointment. It remains a puzzlement why Greenwood Racing is a joint-venture partner in this project, one which is likely to dilute Parx Casino revenues. Perhaps Greenwood has subscribed to the old Gary Loveman business model of flooding a market with your product and hoping to get more money out of it than anybody else, even if you’re your own primary competitor. (A strategy that’s not working too well in Cleveland these days.)
In any event, Cordish’s $400 million Stadium Casino will flood the market with an additional 2,000 slots and 125 table games. It also still has to clear several legal hurdles, including a lawsuit alleging racism at other Cordish-owned properties. Then there are concerns about digital signage (too much) and open areas (too few). Finally, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is reviewing litigation that Greenwood shouldn’t be allowed to double-dip in the Philly market. If, worst case scenario, Greenwood has to divest there are enough spurned suitors for that last Philadelphia gaming license that surely at least one would want to buy Greenwood’s piece of the action.
* Victim of inflated expectations and a bad location, Horseshoe Baltimore suffered another disappointing month at the hands of Maryland Live. Horseshoe’s $22 million gross represented a 19% 
year/year decline, while Live ($47 million) rose 9%. The promised power of Total Rewards to lure customers away from Cordish just isn’t coming through. Horseshoe’s slot performance — $198/slot/day — was in line with desired industry averages (Live did $264/slot/day) but it got its clock cleaned at table games. It averaged $1,821.50/table game/day while Live was raking in $3,443/table/day. The ultimate losers are the Baltimore city officials who banked on Horseshoe to bring them $1 million-plus a month (it’s doing three-quarters of that) for police and infrastructure budgets.
Keno comes to Connecticut. The Nutmeg State will soon be offering keno on a statewide basis. The last hurdle was overcome when the government agreed to cut Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino in on 25% of the revenue (a much-needed boost to both tribal establishments). Of course, you can already play keno at the two casinos but the new accord minimizes the dilutive effect of offering keno all over the state.
* Those who question the social value of tribal gaming should look at the economic impact of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. It not only brings in half the tribe’s annual budget, it just paid for a brand-new hospital. You’d have to be pretty anti-tribal to begrudge the Cherokee such largesse.
