A natural disaster on the East Coast is fast becoming an industry-wide problem, its effects felt as far afield as Iowa, I kid you not. In light of the total havoc Hurricane Sandy has wrought upon travel, particularly by air, Las Vegas will feel an extra chill in the air, too. It seems nearly frivolous to talk about casinos when people are dead and seawalls are collapsing, but this is a moment of some gravity for the casino biz, and the effects on October revenue in Atlantic City will be dire. However, operators are taking the responsible course of action, regardless of its effect upon their bottom line, although Caesars Entertainment appears to be in a bit of hurry to get the roulette wheels spinning again.
The pleasant surprise was that, despite an eight-foot storm surge that made Atlantic City seem like the second coming of Atlantis and took out a large chunk of the Boardwalk, A.C.’s casinos came through darn near unscathed, according to early reports. (As for the human toll, it could have been a lot worse when you consider that serially useless Mayor Lorenzo Langford [D] was tripping over his shoelaces.) Or maybe not …
It is rather symbolic of the downcast state of Trump Entertainment Resorts that part of lowly Trump Plaza, the leading charity case on the Boardwalk, would be physically disintegrating beneath Sandy’s fury. (The worst danger to the Golden Nugget was from a runaway yacht at the nearby marina.) Ironically, the hurricane’s arrival 
coincided with a deadline imposed upon Colony Capital to either keep the Atlantic Club up and running or call it a day. Since we’re in the very early innings of Colony’s initially promising, grind-joint repositioning of the former Atlantic City Hilton, it only makes sense to keep the doors open. Besides, there’s finally some adult supervision — that of the Division of Gaming Enforcement — of the place and Colony was strong-armed into reinvesting $24 million into the casino whose finances it ruined. Short of using Colony CEO Tom Barrack (right) as a human shield against the storm, I can’t think of a fairer solution. Besides, Barrack is only good creating damage, not preventing it.
While the State of New Jersey deployed forces to guard the gaming houses, operators like industry ambassador and Tropicana Entertainment CEO Anthony Rodio (right) began totting up lost revenue. The 
best-case scenario would be a $15 million bite, or a third of what Hurricane Irene inflicted, probably closer to $25 million-$30 million. However, analyst Michael Pollock seems to be whistling past the graveyard when he asserts that post-Sandy business will be buoyed by “pent-up demand.” Forgive me for being a spoilsport but when a hurricane of epochal proportions has just plowed through your neighborhood and perhaps — as in the case of my sister in Philadelphia — torn a big chunk off your house, allow me to suggest that gambling isn’t going to be the #1 use of your discretionary income. (Only bond analyst Barbara Cappaert appears to get this.) Cleaning up after Sandy could, however, be a darn good excuse for the industry to accelerate Atlantic City reinvention projects like Harrah’s Resort‘s planned, $134 million convention center.
Further up the coast, both Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun shut their doors and hunkered down for the storm. Regardless of whether or not Resorts World New York stayed open, I daresay it was seeing darn few customers, New Yorkers having near-Biblical problems on their doorstep. Las Vegas Sands shook its fist at Mother Nature and, in Pennsylvania, vowed that Sands Bethlehem would stay open, consequences be damned.
Speaking of Sands … CEO Sheldon Adelson and his underlings need to be a bit more 
selective in terms of which high rollers they coddle. That’s the clear moral emerging from the plea-bargaining supposedly underway involving alleged evasion of cash-reporting requirements (or what’s normally termed “money laundering”). Two individuals who’d have benefited from Sands’ purported rinse-and-spin cycle would have been convicted felon Umar Siddiqui and jailed, uh, pharmaceutical tycoon Zhenli Ye Gon. Somebody (or a bunch of somebodies) at Sands probably did just what many rival casino execs might also do: bent the rules when an especially large “whale” needed a little favor. But remember, when you take money from Sheldon, you’re taking money from everybody with whom he ever did business … just like unprotected sex, y’know?
Looking at a picture of the eastern United States in Wednesday’s newspaper, Hurricane Sandy affected states from Virginia all the way up to Maine. The estimated damage is $20 billion dollars, 50 people died and 8 million people have no power.
I watched CNN for about an hour last night and I had to change the channel because it was extremely depressing watching this catastrophe. This is just terrible.