Bowing to reality, Macao‘s government will accede to Las Vegas Sands‘ desire — and rather desperate need — for 5,000 additional guest workers in order to complete long-delayed Venetian Oriental (left). Even with an infusion of Mainland laborers, the megaresort’s opening will have to be delayed again. What was to have been an autumn 2011 launch will now be a July 1, 2012 opening (probably exceedingly “soft” and protracted, if Sands holds to form). Even if it bumps its workforce to 6,300 or so, Sands will still be almost 5,000 short of the number of bodies it maintains it needs for the final push. So give this round to CEO Sheldon Adelson and expect further renegotiations as the Cotai Strip™ lurches forward.
The Macanese government’s five-month clampdown on migrant workers was always at odds with its stated desire for accelerated completion of sundry un-started and half-finished casino projects. (It will also speed up some of the government’s own construction enterprises.) Having made the painful fish/cut-bait decision, city hall is certain to encounter backlash from its own constituents. Such is the consequence of trying to be all things to all people — but it also enables boss man Fernando Chui to use Adelson as a human shield while governmental projects get fast-tracked, too.
Just in the nick of time, table games revenue has rescued long-underperforming Sands Bethlehem, which couldn’t even stay current on its loans … until now. Sands’ 89 tables produced a 21% higher gross in the first week of October alone, pushing it into the #2 spot statewide. Players at Harrah’s Chester (-24%) appear to have defected en masse to SugarHouse in downtown Philadelphia. If so, it will give Harrah’s Entertainment that much more incentive to bring the comatose Foxwoods riverfront project back to life, even if that means abandoning the Chester racino to its fate.
Table-game play also seems to have finally given Pittsburgh burghers reason to prefer Rivers Casino (+34%) to Meadows Racetrack & Casino (-11%), which traded the fourth and fifth spots. Because of cost overruns (aka, “investing more than expected”), both Rivers and Sands have a ways to go before they’re out of the woods. But their table-enhanced performance suddenly makes them look far less like bankruptcy and fire-sale candidates, respectively.
No fight in these dogs. The Nevada gubernatorial race hasn’t merited an S&G mention because former Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Brian Sandoval and his Democratic opponent, Rory Reid, have made it a stultifying, substance-free nonevent. To judge from their careful parsings (and, in Reid’s case, frequent vacillations), both would probably take the path of least resistance in the budget crunch and accede to another hike in the gaming tax. You’ll never alienate too many voters with that one, I’m afraid. Anyway, Sandoval’s sitting atop a 15-point lead, rendering further discussion moot.
