Bally’s Atlantic City and Golden Nugget traditionally jockey for last place in Atlantic City monthly gaming grosses. Indeed, a midweek visit to Bally’s by our East Coast correspondent found the place practically deserted (and in need of more capex $$). But he went back last weekend and found a “decent number of people.” It surely did not hurt that Bally’s—seen above—was being ‘george’ with promotions (reversing an A.C. trend), crossing customers’ palms with everything from $50 gift cards to 32-inch LCD TV sets. Room rates that start at $19/night and whiskey-tasting promos can’t be harmful, either. Concurrently, at the Nugget, business was also moderate, perhaps having settled down after a big chicken-wing dining promo. Nonetheless, the Nugget (below) “had a much more vibrant vibe than Bally’s.” We hope the mayor’s office in Chicago is taking a look at Bally’s A.C., since there’s a serious chance it could pick Soo Kim‘s underachieving company over Hard Rock International and Rush Street Gaming, improbable as that may seem.
Meanwhile, over at Ocean Casino Resort, new CEO Bill Callahan made a rash promise. “Our ultimate goal in the next few years is to become the No. 1 casino in the market,” he told Wayne Parry. That’s a lofty target on a short timeline. To put it into context, in December Ocean was third in the market with $26 million, lagging Hard Rock Atlantic City at $35.5 million and way behind Borgata‘s $54 million. We don’t know if the Illitch family put Callahan up to his precipitate vow as the price for getting Terry Glebocki‘s old job or whether it was his own idea but he’s asking a lot not just of his employees but of the property itself. Presently, there are two groups of casinos on the Boardwalk. There’s Borgata, Hard Rock and Ocean. Then there’s Everybody Else (yes, even you, Caesars Entertainment). Ocean is going to have a tough enough time matching Hard Rock’s mojo and superior brand equity. Why try to paint a target on Borgata’s back. What purpose does this serve?
Callahan himself is a Borgata refugee (one of many in the Atlantic City casino scene) and a desire to get even with a former employer may be clouding his judgment. He also kicked dirt in Glebocki’s face, saying, “This is a $2.5 billion asset, and it was being run like a $110 million property. When we got here [in 2020], the place was like, ‘How do we not spend money and just get through and not close?’” If you’re going to catch Borgata, you’d better have more up your sleeve than 463 additional rooms and suites, and a new sports book. Callahan talks big but now he’s got to back it up.
Nominations for the Academy Awards are out and the big snub went not to (as we expected) National Board of Review enthusiasm Licorice Pizza but to Ridley Scott‘s House of Gucci, which got one minor acknowledgment. The wind is in the sails of Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog, with 12 nominations. While DraftKings still has overdue Will Smith (King Richard) well out in front for Best Actor at -300, both Dog‘s forbidding Benedict Cumberbatch at +300 and Andrew Garfield (tick, tick … BOOM!) at +500 are making a race of it. ActionNews has Best Picture a two-horse derby between Power of the Dog (61%) and Kenneth Branagh‘s genre-bending Belfast (36%), with only spicy-as-mayonnaise West Side Story having an outside chance at 15%.
The odds service also overwhelmingly favors Smith (75%), Campion (88%) and sees Dog‘s Kodi Smit-McPhee a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor at 75%. Best Actress is much narrower, with Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) enjoying a 45.5% plurality over erstwhile favorite Kristen Stewart (Spencer, 36%). Academy fave Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) is back at 18% and Jessica Chastain‘s uncanny inhabitation of Tammy Faye Bakker is at 16%. If you missed The Eyes of Tammy Faye stream it as soon as you can. Best Supporting Actress is handed on a salver to West Side Story‘s Ariana DeBose (75%), with only Dog‘s Kirsten Dunst (29%) visible over the horizon.
Licorice Pizza will beat the NBR jinx in Best Original Screenplay at 64%, ActionNews figures, seriously challenged only by Belfast (36%). Best Adapted Screenplay really ought to go to Dune (9%) if only because the book is such a bitch to bring to the screen—it took three tries to get it right—but will all but certainly go to Campion for Power of the Dog (88%). Don’t feel too sorry for Dune, as it’s tipped for Best Cinematography (64%) and for editing (64%), as well as production design (69%), Best Original Score (87%), etc., etc. The only impending injustice seems to be that Billie Eilish‘s wimpy, emo “No Time to Die” is a cinch for Best Song (69.5%), with just Lin-Manuel Miranda (Encanto) a potential savior at 33%. The biggest lock of all is Drive My Car for Best International Film, at an insuperable 91%.
Gold Derby also rushed out with Oscar odds but they are basically worthless as they tell us to “watch out for” people who were not even nominated. We’ll check back in a few weeks and see how the oddsmakers’ tea leaves have shifted. There’s still plenty of time for the seemingly inevitable to get derailed, as when all the momentum appeared behind Sam Mendes‘ 1917, only to get blindsided by Parasite in the upset to end all upsets. Stay tuned.
Quote of the Day: “We were the guinea pigs on what happened in the rest of the continent, and a lot of that stuff is still around. We have high suicide rates and high unemployment. Hopefully we can address this now that our land is in trust and bring the people back home to our community.”—Mashpee Wampanoag Chairman Brian Weeden on the future of his tribe, which may or may not include a casino.
I think your assessment of AC is spot on. In fairness to Terry Glebocki, I am almost certain that she did what the Oceans owner, who took over ownership by default, was to preserve as asset and find a buyer. In that regard, not only did she preserve it, she improved it, substantially increased cash flow and made it attractive to a buyer; and Luxor gets the benefit of not having to operate it anymore.
Bill is a seasoned executive and was the head of Player Development at the Borgata so he knows how to bring in big money players. Revel/Ocean was never actually completed (it even has a stub of another 2,000 room tower that was never built). It needs more high roller amenities, it needs more rooms (the original tower was never even completed) and its fortunes should improve even more. I hope he is the guy that gets them there, but the Borgata has such amazing brand identity (and network of top tier MGM resorts) that is is going to be extremely difficult to topple.
Hard Rock will need to keep investing in their facility. If feels good now, but it could use more attractions to keep relevant over time. If HR spends more $ pursuing casinos at the Meadowlands and NYC, it will not be able to keep it position in the AC market on brand alone.