Atlantic City’s glass half-full; New Kentucky casino pitched

First, the good news: Casino-related employment in Atlantic City rose by 5,749 jobs last year, driven by Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Resort, which added 6,927 souls to the work force. The bad news? Hiring remains otherwise stagnant, with Hard Rock and Ocean Resort both trimming their work forces by about 15% as the year wore on. Economic analyst Jim Kennedy, late of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority cautioned that all the hiring has not translated into a wider economic benefit, such as housing starts or non-casino jobs. “When you hire the numbers of employees that we’ve seen at the two new casinos, there are usually secondary benefits. None of that has happened,” Kennedy told The Press of Atlantic City.

Understated Division of Gaming Enforcement Executive Director Daniel Rebuck, “We had a lot of bad years, but for the last few years we’ve been in a better position than we were three or four years ago. We just need to continue to fight the good fight to stay that way. It’s not easy.” As far as employment goes, Borgata remains the big dog in town, with 5,620, Hard Rock being a distant second with 3,750. Bringing up the rear was Resorts Atlantic City, employing 1,870. Ocean Resort’s 3.177 is disproportionate with its (poor) revenue performance, so that bears watching. For the time being, resort-industry boffin Rummy Pandit took the glass-half full perspective, saying, “The fact that we added two new properties and 6,000 new jobs, that’s a huge positive and continues to drive the market.” From your mouth to God’s ear, sir.

Meanwhile, for those New Jersey punters who prefer to gamble at a distance from Atlantic City, DraftKings has a solution. Emulating the Golden Nugget, it is adding live-dealer table games on the Resorts platform.

* Kentucky‘s slow crawl toward casinos continues. “There is no magic bullet but this is as close as we’re going to see to a magic bullet,” says Kevin Mullins, an investor in proposed Ravens Rock Casino Resort. The bullet, magic or otherwise, is aimed at Jenkins, a city hard-hit by economic troubles with 10% unemployment and a populace many of whom must commute to find work. Making matters worse, according to Mayor Todd DePriest, 60% of the Jenkins population is either untaxable or retired. So far so good. However, casino gambling remains illegal in the Bluegrass State and bordering jurisdictions with casinos are reportedly lobbying in Frankfort to keep it that way.

Raving Rock CEO Kevin Hibbitts minced no words as to what the resort’s really about. “Raven Rock can be the draw for the whole area. We want downhill biking, tree top walks, ziplines, mountain coasters, things like that, a true adventure,” said Hibbitts, whose tax-revenue projection is a realistic $1 million (and lawmakers are hard up for money this session). “But what’s going to drive it economically is the gaming floor … Kentucky is a gambling state, Kentucky is a betting state, it’s a horse racing state.” It’s also a state that’s been moving crab-like toward casino gambling through the approval of ‘instant racing’ VLT at horse tracks. Perhaps the Bluegrass State’s 12-year struggle with casinos will finally have a happy ending.

* “The Town of Aquinnah is attempting to bait the Martha’s Vineyard Commission into fighting a battle that the town has already lost.” So says Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Chief Cheryl Andrews-Maltais of municipality’s latest attempt to force extra innings, this time by sending the tribe’s Class II casino project to the MVC for approval, this despite a Supreme Court ruling that the casino could proceed. “SCOTUS was clear that the tribe has the unfettered right to develop a Class II gaming facility on tribal trust land. The town is simply trying to delay the inevitable and attempting to defray the cost of frivolous litigation by dragging the MVC into the dispute,” said Andrews-Maltais. For their part, Aquinnah city fathers wheeled out celebrity ambulance chaser Alan Dershowitz, who said a casino “would disturb the tranquility of the vineyard especially since Aquinnah is at the quiet end of the island.” As George Washington University history professor David Silverman said, Dershowitz’s clientele forked over “top dollar for houses in Aquinnah and Chilmark precisely because they did not want to live or spend the summer among the kinds of crowds associated with other parts of the island and Cape Cod.”

As for the Aquinnah Wampanoag, Silverman said their community “has been among the poorest in Massachusetts, largely because of their white neighbors’ appropriation of their land and labor, and discrimination against them in ways too numerous to count. The high stakes bingo hall is a small way for them to achieve some financial security and continue the ‘decolonizing’ process of asserting control of their own collective destiny.” We agree.

* South Dakota is looking at taking one step backward, one step forward this session. It’s both pondering banning the teaching of gender identity in many public schools but also widening Deadwood‘s casino offerings to include sports betting. Beneficiaries would also include the state’s tribal casinos. However, House Majority Leader Lee Qualm has qualms about the proposed bill, saying the increase in problem gambling would outweigh the benefits of sports betting.

While on the subject of sports betting, Greenwood Racing in Pennsylvania looks to cut in on Boyd Gaming‘s action by taking sports wagers at its Valley Forge Turf Club. Greenwood’s application contended that the OTB is ideally situated “because it is located near the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Valley Forge National Park, the King of Prussia Mall, and key suburbs, including the Philadelphia region’s Main Line,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Both Keystone State gambling regulators and the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission have to sign off on the idea.