Damp November in Nevada; Dirty dealings in Illinois

Could the good times be coming to an end for Las Vegas? The Strip was down 3% last month but, worse still, locals revenue was off by 4%. The prior-year comparison was difficult (+6.5%) but not impossible, while December looks more promising in that respect. Strip casinos won $518 million, but slot win was flat ($278 million) and baccarat dove 23% on 31.5% less wagering. Non-baccarat table win was up 4%, so that was a bright spot. Locals won big at the slots, with casinos taking home 8% less on 1.5% lower coin-in. A favorable calendar (one extra weekend day) didn’t do anything to help the casinos. (Incidentally, isn’t Park MGM—photo by Greg Askins—the butt-ugliest thing you’ve ever seen in gaming?)

Downtown was down 6% to $52 million, while North Las Vegas tumbled 15% to $19 million. The Boulder Strip slid 9% to $58 million, miscellaneous Clark County gained 1.5% to $105 million and Laughlin slipped 2% to $41 million. Snowbirds fled Lake Tahoe, which fell 19% to $14 million. Nearby Reno was down 1% to $50 million, while while Elko gained 7% to $27 million and Carson Valley was off 2% to $9 million. But I wouldn’t worry yet. Wendover, the Silver State’s most reliable economic harbinger was up 9% to $19 million.

* Illinois slot-route operator Rick Heidner is back in the news—and not in a good way. The Illinois Gaming Board is taking action to pull Heidner’s gaming license after more hanky-panky turned up. Faced with the loss of 44 routes leased from Laredo Hospitality Ventures, Heidner offered a $5 million “illegal inducement” to preserve the status quo. Heidner offered to buy Laredo’s restaurants at a $5 million markup. Trouble is, you can’t own the establishments in which your slot machines are hosted. It’s the law.  Being afflicted with stupidity as well as avarice, Heidner left a paper trail in the form of a series of text messages.

The none-too-smart Heidner sent a spokesman out to declare, “In November 2018, Rick discussed assembling a group to make a legitimate purchase offer to Laredo. Rick would not have had any personal or financial interest in the proposed transaction.” Except that he was the point man on the deal—and his slots would stay in place. Heidner is painting himself as the victim of “an orchestrated smear campaign” set up by a competitor who wants the slot routes for himself. Now he’s facing two counts of violating the Video Gaming Act, one for “giving anything of value to an establishment as an incentive or inducement to locate [slots] in that establishment.” The other is similar in language. You may remember Heidner as the individual whose purchase of Tinley Park for a racino was blocked by no less an authority than Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D, pictured). He’s also mobbed up and implicated in Illinois’ favorite sport, political corruption. Heidner is a shady character and the Land of Lincoln would be well rid of him.

* Sex robots are a particularly creepy concept. Remember Pris (Darryl Hannah), the ‘pleasure model’ in Blade Runner? It is, as director Ridley Scott put it, “a totally fascist concept. I don’t even want to talk about it.” Well, sex robots are here and they’ll be on display in Las Vegas at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which is migrating to the Hard Rock Hotel this January. It’s the most popular trade show in Vegas, the ‘trade’ in this case being porn. Hey, it’s a big business so I guess we have to respect that. As for those sex robots, they’re powered by artificial intelligence and could be classified as “mammals” within a few years. Scary. It’s something for the person who has lots of money but still can’t get a date. (Think Harvey Weinstein.)

* Phil Ruffin‘s $823 million purchase of Circus Circus is a done deal. The Nevada Gaming Commission signed off on the acquisition, which will retain Circus Circus’ bargain-friendly status, bring bingo back to the Strip and see a redo of the hotel rooms. Ruffin is getting offers for the 37-acre Rock in Rio festival grounds but won’t sell because that’s the linchpin of the whole deal. Ruffin is one of the true entrepreneurs in gaming and whatever he does is bound to be exciting.

* New York State hasn’t banked much money yet from sports betting or marijuana sales but already counties are lobbying hard to spend it on road repairs (Pot for Potholes?). “New York state must step up and meet the backlog of pavement deterioration, which we witness every day as drivers are dodging potholes on subpar roadways and suffering damage to our vehicles,” said Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley Executive Director John Cooney. Between cannabis and sports wagering, the Empire State expects to net $400 million. That would make a nice little nest egg for infrastructure work. Despite declining fuel efficiency of cars and SUVs, the New York gas tax is sacrosanct and shan’t be raised.

* Cats was projected to bring in $12 million during its opening weekend. It made a kitten-sized $6.5 million. But we’re not yet out of danger: Universal Pictures rushed a new, ‘improved’ version into theaters and it will be eligible for Oscar consideration, meaning that Jennifer Hudson‘s infamous digital snot could win a visual-effects statuette. Oh, the humanity.