Boyd downsizes on Boulder Strip; Freeman leaves AGA

Some of you may have wondered what Boyd Gaming was doing by owning two side-by-side casinos on the Boulder Strip — adding Eastside Cannery to Sam’s Town. The marketplace may have had some confusion, too. After all, locals do not ‘graze’ from casino to casino the way tourists on the Las Vegas Strip do. Anyway, Boyd has eliminated certain redundancies (or created what Wall Street calls ‘synergies’) at the two rival siblings. Sam’s Town has shuttered its bingo room — Eastside Cannery’s is much nicer anyway — as well as Big Mess BBQ. Cannery loses The Deli and its Carve buffet. Also, the race book has been closed, although you can still place sports wagers. “Future plans for the spaces have not been determined,” quoth Boyd.

* Geoff Freeman‘s tenure as president of the American Gaming Association has proven to be a brief — albeit eventful — one. The AGA prexy has accepted the presidency of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. I’d be surprised if this offer hadn’t been on the table awhile and Freeman was just waiting out the Supreme Court‘s overturning of the Bradley Act. If you thought the representing the gaming industry was playing with the big boys, Freeman will now be fronting a $2.1 trillion business sector. Freeman’s AGA tenure expires at the end of July, long enough for the executive committee to find a replacement (please God, don’t let it be Steve Wynn) and short enough to enable him to duck the issue of online gambling, which is coming to the forefront again.

In enumerating Freeman’s accomplishments, Tim Wilmott lists “preventing an IRS effort to decrease the slot tax threshold [and] protecting resort fees from a federal government effort to eliminate them in their entirety.” Customers will thank Freeman for the former and blow him a raspberry for the latter. Hopefully, whoever succeeds Freeman will continue his active engagement with federal and state governments, as well as his dismantling of the wall between private-sector and tribal casinos. The industry is that much stronger when it presents a united front.

* Yesterday the Culinary Union released a formal statement regarding its accord with MGM Resorts International. “This contract includes the strongest and most comprehensive immigration, sexual harassment, and safety language in the history of any union in the United States,” said Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline. While the Culinary was loath to provide contractual specifics, Argüello-Kline did say that “We are proud to protect immigrants who have Temporary Protected Status and Dreamers … The historic new agreement also has the strongest economic package ever negotiated with the highest wage increases and healthcare and pension benefits for workers.”

Added Mandalay Bay waiter Victor Chicas, “Strengthening owners and successorship language in this contract was important to me because I know I will be protected as companies restructure ownership,” so we know that there was some ‘give’ from MGM on that front. “We understand that the best service, hospitality, and entertainment are provided by people, especially by those who feel valued and respected,” said MGM COO Corey Sanders, joining in the Kumbaya effort. The one-two punch of Caesars and MGM labor pacts increases the pressure on 16 other casinos to reach terms, if only to avoid losing business to the competition should an impasse lead to a strike.