Score one victory each for Harrah’s Entertainment and Penn National Gaming in the first round of casino concessions awarded in Kansas today (with Round 2 to follow in a month). But there’s really only one winner …
…. and it’s Harrah’s, which got the Sumner County contract and, with it, the Wichita market. Penn National must settle for the concession prize of Cherokee County.
Big deal. Penn had no competitors for that market and — keeping that in mind — two of the seven state arbiters voted against Penn. Perhaps that’s because Penn had previously sulked that it might pull out of Cherokee County if it didn’t get the Sumner concession as well. Announcing that it was going to scale back its Cherokee County investment and dribble it onto the market in piecemeal fashion (fearful of a nearby tribal casino) probably didn’t endear Penn to the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board, either.
Even today, Penn’s spokesman was still threatening that the company might not go through with the casino Kansas just handed it. That’s unbecoming conduct from one of the few cash-rich casino companies at the moment.
Small wonder Penn’s Sumner proposal garnered only one vote of support. Which isn’t to imply Harrah’s gets the Wichita market out of spite or default. (There was, after all, a third contender.) Board members were impressed by the proposed amenities in Harrah’s $535 million-560 million proposal and by the site’s proximity to Wichita.
Probably the most attractive criterion was that the state’s first-year revenue projections for Harrah’s, while lower than the company’s own, were the highest for any of the three proposals — 48% more than those for Penn and 44% higher than for Marvel Gaming.
Marvel, which has local ties, particularly to the Binion family, says it’s keeping its powder dry. No wonder: If Penn decides to take its ball and go home, Marvel (which got two votes to Harrah’s four) appears to have made a good enough impression on the review board that it could make a strong run at Cherokee County, if the opportunity arose — and the cost of entry would be a great deal lower there.
View the complete set of proposals here.
Recommendation for the weekend: The new suspense drama from Claude Lelouch, Roman de Gare.
Karaoke fans, rejoice! As reported here, earlier (and now official), a singalong version of Mamma Mia! opens on Aug. 29. Presumably smarting from hearing Dark Knight this and Dark Knight that, Universal Studios‘ press release gets in some passive-aggressive jabs on behalf of its $330 million-grossing musical, noting “is now the highest grossing film of 2008 in the U.K., Austria, Greece, Hungary, Norway and Sweden.” And, just to get one more dig in: “The film still has more than 35 territories in which to open.” Meow!!!
False alarm: If you got an e-mail alert about a Philadelphia-related S&G posting, but couldn’t find it, it’s temporarily on hold, pending some new wrinkles in the story. Then there are latest Illinois/Iowa/Missouri/Indiana revenue comparisons and … and … and …
