“Twenty-five years ago Caesars [Entertainment] was the premier name internationally but they dropped the ball,” said C.G. Anderson Partners analyst Greg Bousquette of the company that must find 
a way to become relevant after spending years snarled in debt, then in bankruptcy. Answerable to its creditors as a consequence of the bankruptcy restructuring, Caesars CEO Mark Frissora will have to convince them of such things as the sustainability of the South Korea market and the wisdom of placing a big bet on Japan. “Las Vegas resort operators like Caesars may have to cut hotel rates and spend more on security and marketing to draw customers back,” said Reuters, citing unnamed market analysts, alluding to the mass shooting at Mandalay Bay and to Caesars’ heavy exposure on the Las Vegas Strip.
Frissora pointed to the company’s $2 billion of cash on hand and to unspecified branding arrangements as positive auguries for the future. One of the challenges facing Frissora is to find new revenue sources to compensate for short-sighted predecessor Gary Loveman‘s decision to prematurely exit the Singapore sweepstakes and pass on Macao altogether. The market will be expecting less timidity from Frissora, who now has a chance to start with a clean slate.
* Seneca Gaming Corp. CEO Holly Gagnon must have caused Global Gaming Expo attendees to clutch at their pacemakers when she said “sometimes breaking even is OK. It’s about a profitability over a lifetime, and it’s important to invest in the brand.” What?!? Not squeeze every last dime out of our customers? Heresy! By way of example, Gagnon said, “We hosted a KISS concert, and there were 5,000 customers. There was great value to it even if it didn’t show in the short term investment.” There is no indication of how many casino executives had to be defibrillated after hearing those words.
In other G2E news, Neil Bluhm‘s SugarHouse casino in Philadelphia, while taking a “slow and measured approach” to electronic table games, has some interesting metrics. Slightly over half of ETG players are 40 or younger. And 35% of the total ETG player base weren’t previously loyalty-club members. So maybe the deployment of ETGs — especially for low-limit games — may be a better mousetrap.
* Bruce Defik‘s Colorado-based Mile High Dice has filed an “agreement of sale” in New Jersey, claiming to have purchased Revel. As usual, Glenn Straub is playing dumb, saying that not only is there no sale in place but he’s never heard of Defik’s company. I suspect there’s a lot more going on with Straub than meets the eye.
* What price expanded gambling in Cedar Rapids? That’s the question posed via a pair of studies, as three rival casino proposals jostle for position. White Sand Gaming and Marquette Advisors were both tasked with studying the 
market, particularly with how much revenue growth would be achieved by cannibalizing the business of rival casinos. Hardest hit, in any scenario, would be Riverside Casino & Golf Resort. The White Sand study found that proponents of new casinos were engaging in the Penn National Effect, exaggerating revenue projections by as much as 42%, depending on the scenario, while the Marquette one hewed closely to the official numbers and sometimes exceeded them.
The good news for previously rejected Cedar Crossing on the River is that its cannibalization rate has been lowered from 73% 
to 45%, per the Marquette study. The report was less kind to Wild Rose Cedar Rapids and Cedar Crossing Central, which were shown to be relying on 56% cannibalized revenue. Cedar Crossing proponents were quick to dismiss the White Sand report as an “outlier” since it didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. It projected that, respectively, Cedar Crossing on the River, Cedar Crossing Central and Wild Rose Cedar Rapids would be reliant on 89%, 92% and 56% cannibalized revenue.
There is a vast chasm between Marquette’s and White Sand’s predictions of new-revenue generation: $42 million vs. $6 
million for Cedar Crossing on the River, $25 million vs. $3 million for Cedar Crossing Central, and $23 million vs. $5 million for Wild Rose Cedar Rapids. If Iowa gaming regulators put more stock in the Marquette study, they’ll probably approve a new casino for Cedar Rapids (most likely $165 million Cedar Crossing on the River, because it’s the costliest). If they believe White Sand’s conclusion, it’s Game Over for all applicants.
