Case Bets: St. Louis, Florida & antiques

It was the best of times … almost. Pinnacle Entertainment‘s opening of River City not only propelled a 9% increase in casino revenue in the St. Louis market, it gave the area “its busiest month ever.” While River City’s $15.9 million take was far behind market leader Ameristar Casinos ($24.2 million) that was still good enough for third place, as River City vaulted over almost everyone else — including Pinnacle’s own Lumiere Place. The fact that this was achieved in the depths of the Great Recession makes it doubly impressive.

The “almost” takes the form of the inevitable cannibalization that occurred, spread evenly across the market (although Harrah’s Entertainment‘s riverboat suffered least). This is going to be a compelling argument for any and all applicants for the state’s 13th (and final) casino license who are not in the St. Louis market: The next casino should go into a less-saturated market.

Pinnacle’s then-CEO John Giovenco and Chairman Richard Goeglein are to be congratulated for letting go of that license, rather than clinging to it simply as a means of keeping it out of play. Then again, it’s open question how much longer PNK shareholders would have tolerated running the President casino as a charity case, throwing good money after bad, simply because its license was a valuable asset that might maybe, possibly, someday have been redeployed — probably about the same time Hell froze over, if the Missouri Gaming Commission had its druthers.

One step away. After two years of argle-barge, a compact between the Seminole Tribe and the State of Florida needs only the assent of the lower house to become law. (Gov. Charlie Crist‘s signature is a fait accompli.) The latest version of the compact — now with 100% more constitutionality! — gives everybody a bit less than they wanted. Crist’s punishment for making an end run around the Lege is that the latter now gets to distribute tribal bucks at its discretion, as opposed to being mandated to put them into education.

Parimutuels with slots get a far more reasonable tax rate, down from 50% — supposedly a “poison pill” inserted by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to kill racinos in the bud, a mission nearly accomplished: Just ask Boyd Gaming. At least 17 19 parimutuels outside the Broward/Miami-Dade counties area will get a convoluted form of Class II gambling. While private-sector racinos get a more reasonable tax rate, there’s no meaningful expansion of Class III gambling in South Florida, keeping Sheldon Adelson at bay for five years at least. The Seminoles get nearly the full Class III repertory at most — but not all — of their casinos.

Unless the Florida House spits on Compact 3.0, the state is about to reap a $435 million financial windfall. As for the Seminoles, they might want to look at the next five years as borrowed time in which to build a Vegas-quality resort or two and head the Adelsons of the world off at the pass.

X-treme drama. Black-box productions at Las Vegas Little Theatre rarely disappoint and Extremities maintains that high standard.

Casino ashtrays. Care for a souvenir of the vanished Stardust, Reno‘s long-defunct Comstock or other Nevada casinos that have gone to the Great Beyond? Yr. Humble Blogger is holding a rummage sale this weekend and these beauties will be among the inventory. If you’re interested, e-mail me and I’ll “give you the 411,” as the kids say.