Atlantic City hops; NV regulators take a dive; Vagina monologue

November was a metaphorically warm month for Atlantic City, whose casino revenues grew 4% from last year, reaching $214.5 million. Spoiler alert, Borgata was way out front with $55 million, leaping 14%. Hard Rock Atlantic City dimmed 5% to a still-impressive $35.5 million and Ocean Casino Resort (pictured) jumped 9% to get uncomfortably close to second place at $31 million. Harrah’s Resort faded 6% but still led the Caesars Entertainment threesome with $21 million. Caesars Atlantic City banked $19 million, a 16.5% surge, while Tropicana Atlantic City climbed 2% to a hair over $19 million. Among the have-nots, Resorts Atlantic City fared best, climbing 3% to $12.5 million. Golden Nugget ceded 5% to hit $11 million and Bally’s Atlantic City sank 10% to land in last place with a symmetrical $10 million. Yup, those Chicago revenue projections sure look on the money. (Not.)

Internet gambling scared up $146 million, vaulting 25% as stay-home players favored BetMGM ($44 million). Runners-up were a fast-closing DraftKings ($43 million), FanDuel ($15 million) and Caesars ($11 million). Considering the Roman Empire’s preponderance on the Boardwalk, it’s surprising that doesn’t translate into better online brand equity in the Garden State. As for sports betting, FanDuel fared best with $43 million, besting DraftKings ($16 million), BetMGM ($8 million), Caesars Sportsbook ($2.5 million) and Barstool Sports ($2.5 million). Total win was $80.5 million on handle of $1.1 billion.

Louisiana continues to slip, down 2% from last year and way down (-11%) from 2019. John “Mattress Mack” McIngvale cleaned out the sports books, which made only $25 million off of handle of $268.5 million. Although casino visitation was up 2%, players pulled back on spending (-4%), hence the slight declivity. At least it was better than the -6% revenue drop modeled by Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli, to whom we are indebted for these numbers. Top casino in the state was L’Auberge du Lac, down 6.5% but still good for $27 million, slipping almost even with Golden Nugget Lake Charles and its $26.5 million (+8.5%). Delta Downs rounded out the Lake Charles market with $11.5 million (-11%), while a new Horseshoe-branded property debuted earlier this month. The first bettor? Mattress Mack.

The most dismal fate belonged to superannuated Belle of Baton Rouge, which plummeted 25% into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. No one in Baton Rouge had a good month, with L’Auberge Baton Rouge falling 14% to $16 million and Hollywood Baton Rouge taking a 16% spill to $6 million. New Orleans was dominated of course by Harrah’s New Orleans, up 83.5% (yes, really) to $23 million. Second was Boomtown New Orleans, tumbling 22% to $10 million, while Treasure Chest toppled 25.5% to $6.5 million. Fair Grounds gained 6.5% to $3 million. Throw in outlying Amelia Belle‘s $2.5 million (-25%) and Evangeline Downs‘ $5.5 million (-5.5%) and Boyd Gaming had a rough go of it last month. In Shreveport/Bossier City, the palm went to Boomtown Bossier, flat at $4 million. Everyone else lost traction. Market leader Margaritaville ceded 6% to $15.5 million. Horseshoe Bossier City slid 10.5% to $12 million. Rounding out the picture were Sam’s Town ($3 million, -1.5%), Bally’s Shreveport ($8 million, -6.5%) and Louisiana Downs ($3 million, -14%).

We very seriously doubt that New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has time to read these pages but at least she did what we urged when she vetoed an absurd bill that would allow violent felons to work in Empire State casinos. (Rush Street Gaming is the parent of this terrible idea.) “Employees of a gaming facility are engaged in sensitive jobs and handle large amounts of money,” Hochul said, quite reasonably. She probably should have added that New Yorkers deserve to feel physically safe in casinos, where the bill would have permitted convicted rapists and killers to be employed. Felon-friendly state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D) and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (D) may try this trick again but Hochul deserves props to for flying in the face of heavy legislative pressure.

Nevada regulators stuck to the script last Friday, with the Nevada Gaming Commission numbly voting to approve MGM Resorts International‘s sale of The Mirage‘s operations to Hard Rock International. So little homework was done by the NGC membership that testimony was largely a rerun of the previous week’s Nevada Gaming Control Board hearing. (The Mirage deal closes today.) There was more talk expended on the damn, doomed volcano than on Hard Rock’s recent defiance of federal law. A Seminole Tribe lottery-cheating scandal also got swept under the nearest rug. The NGC knew what it had to do: Don’t ask any pesky questions and make sure the fix is in. Perhaps the most emetic quote came from NGC Chairwoman Jennifer Tagliatti, who chirped of the guitar hotel, “Six hundred feet, 700 feet, whatever it ends up to be, the building is going to be very cool. I really love it.” (She actually gets paid to say shyte like that.) Expect renovation of The Mirage into Hard Rock form to finish in late 2025.

Yesterday’s Las Vegas Raiders win over the vapor-locked New England Patriots was so meaningless it didn’t even make the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But what the Raiders took away from the Pats—the football and the winning touchdown along with it—they gave to sports bettors. The books got cleaned out as the Silver & Black nabbed both the victory and the cover, clobbering Station Casinos, MGM, Westgate Las Vegas and South Point, all of whom favored New England. The R-J story on the upset bets contains a delicious diss of Indianapolis Colts QB Matt Ryan, too. (Ryan puts up great fantasy stats because that’s all he is—a fantasy.) The rest of the Raiders’ season is academic … but it might be fun.

In a week that saw a former president of the United States hawking $99 non-fungible tokens of himself, it’s hard to find a weirder news story. But we did. (Or rather, so did one of our most faithful readers.) Only in Vegas, as they say. Whoever next went down on Baltimore‘s own Sarah Richards would have received a $12,000 surprise in the form of a Patek Philippe watch purloined from an unnamed Sin City hotel guest last June and hidden in Ms. Richards’ palace of pleasure.

Richards, who is currently out on bail, apparently roofied her pickup and slipped his watch into her mons veneris, along with a capsule of white powder (all of which were eventually carted away in a biohazard bag). Las Vegas Metro‘s finest ‘wanded’ Richards for metal objects and the meter experienced orgasm when it was waved over her vaginal area. As a clitoral consequence of her coochie caper, Richards faces charges of theft over $100,000 in value, residential burglary, grand larceny of $100,000 or more, administering drugs to aid in commission of a felony, and grand larceny between $5,000 to $25,000. That’s a heckuva lot of trouble to go to snatch a timepiece.

Jottings: Congratulations to Las Vegas Sands for being the one and only casino firm to make the Drucker Institute‘s honor roll of the 250 best-managed companies. Sands landed in the #180 spot and was ranked highly for such metrics as customer satisfaction, social responsibility, financial strength. No other gaming company placed any higher than #564 (Penn Entertainment) … Bingo has been absent from Milwaukee‘s Potowatomi Hotel & Casino for almost three years—until this New Year’s Eve, when the drought ends. Covid-19 concerns led to the banishment of the game, which gave the Potowatomi property its original name … Macao‘s six concessionaires formally renewed their casino licenses last Friday. Only $1.3 billion of a mandated $14.8 billion in new investment will be allowed to go toward gaming facilities … Sports betting in Brazil is in peril. Outgoing prexy and gambling opponent Jair Bolsonaro has refused to sign regulations governing wagering … Rush Street Gaming will break the tape in Virginia with the Cavalier State’s first permanent casino, to open January 15 in Portsmouth (which eschewed a temporary gambling hall). 57 table games and 1,448 slots will be on tap … Bossier City needs another casino like it needs a hole in the head but Foundation Games is going to try. It will spend $200 million to reinvent the former Diamond Jacks as a land-based facility … Cost creep continues at Queen of Terre Haute. Another $30 million has been tacked onto the budget. Out is a rooftop pool, in is a new restaurant and the overall tab for Churchill Downs is now $290 million … La Concha Resort in Puerto Rico now has a BetMGM sports book. Not that there’s big money to be made down there … Generation Z can pretty much bugger off from Mount Airy Resort. The property, which recently brought back smoking, has 86’d anyone under 21 from its facilities … Expect the Missouri Lege to put the “stale” in stalemate when it reconsiders sports betting, starting Jan. 4. State Sen. Denny Hoskins (R) wants a video lottery, not sports wagering. No dice, say casinos.