Visit the Tropicana Las Vegas while yet you can. Why? Because Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim is seriously weighing the possibility of “knocking it down and starting over.” Yes, Kim would rebrand the place as Bally’s Las Vegas and then blow it up. Possibly. Mind you, Bally’s doesn’t own the physical assets of the Trop but is renting them from Gaming & Leisure Properties, which would have to sign off on such a radical move. Also, how long could Bally’s afford to pay rent on a site that isn’t generating a cent of cash flow, post-implosion? We’ll leave aside the small matter that Bally’s has never built anything remotely on the scale of a Las Vegas Strip megaresort, which is one of the strikes against it in Chicago presently.
All that being said, we don’t blame Kim for mulling the nuclear option. We’re fond of the Trop. It was the second casino we ever visited in Las Vegas, even if it was rather dowdy back then (1998) due to Aztar Corp.’s absentee ownership. It’s been through its ups (Alex Yemenidjian) and downs (Columbia Sussex) over the ensuing decades, more down than up, frankly. Yemenidjian tried to market the Trop as the “South Beach” of the Strip and later Penn National Gaming tried to peddle it as … well, Penn could never seem to figure the place out and skulked from the Strip in defeat. The old gal wears her years well (better than the Sahara did) but she is 65 and the point has been reached where the value of the underlying land far exceeds what can be extracted from the resort that sits atop it. So if Soo Kim pushes a TNT plunger on the Trop we’ll be sad but won’t hold it against him.
Data on the first 16 days of online sports betting in New York State is out and it was a success, to say the least. Revenue was an impressive $91 million, accelerating week over week, and a tax bonanza for Gov. Kathy Hochul (D). Handle was a staggering $1.2 billion, with hold just under 8%. The handle leader was a surprise: Caesars Sportsbook with $487.5 million. FanDuel was second, but well back at $360 million, followed by DraftKings‘ $265.5 million. BetMGM made a poor showing ($40.5 million), exceeding only Rush Street Interactive‘s $22 million. When it came to actual revenue, Caesars was easily tops with $42 million, while FanDuel and DraftKings were closely bunched together, $24 million and $22 million respectively. BetMGM posted $2.5 million and Rush Street eked out $1 million. We could have winners and losers in the Empire State sooner than we thought.
Although Richmond voters said an Urban One casino was spinach and to hell with it, local politicians are trying to cram it down their throats, pushing for a second referendum. (Voting irregularities are the excuse of preference.) We like casinos, it goes without saying, but when the people have spoken that should be it. End of story. State legislators of both parties evidently feel the same, as they’re backing a bill that would take a Richmond casino off the table for five years. Some of the solons are not-unconflicted, as they’d like to see a casino in nearby Petersburg. But sometimes you do the right thing for the wrong reason, as seems to be the case here.
Meanwhile, Richmond Mayor LeVar Stoney (D) is trying to buy support for Urban One by promising constituents a two-cent reduction in real estate taxes if they’ll just give him that damned casino. As state Sen. Joe Morrissey (D) said, “now they want a do-over and essentially it says ‘well, we lost, let’s have a do-over.’ And if they lose again, how about another do-over and another one. That’s not how the democratic process works.”
Jottings: Gaming revenues in Nevada hit an all-time record in 2021, as is all over the news wires this morning. But convention attendance remains only a shadow of its former self (40,000 at Consumer Electronics Show, or less than 25% of average) which could make for tough row to hoe in 2022, especially if discretionary spending on gambling returns to normal levels. Cheer up, Vegas. You could be Laughlin (33% less visitation than in 2019) … Mobile sports wagering is still a radical idea in Nevada but state regulators are looking for ways to make it easier to bet on tykes playing video games. Esports is an attractive field because “Sportsbook operators see the potential in attracting younger audiences to make esports wagers.” Get ’em while they’re young … Casino workers from Atlantic City are urging New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to actually support anti-smoking legislation instead of just promising to sign it. The Casino Association of New Jersey is pushing back, pleading economic hardship … Casino legalization is an election-year issue in Texas. However, politicians in the Lone Star State are so backward that “barring a budget crisis of epic proportions over the next four years, all signs today are that casino gambling legislation remains dead on arrival in Austin,” gloomily opined Rice University‘s Mark P. Jones.
