Brand-new Palace; Slide at Sands

Although we’ve been talking about the $192 million Palace Station do-over for months, it’s finally on display and color us dazzled. Based on the Las Vegas Review-Journal‘s photo essay, we hardly recognize the old gal, looking frisky after her nine-figure facelift. “We’ve completely modernized Palace Station from head to toe and left no stone unturned,” Station Casinos spokeswoman Lori Nelson told the R-J. The look above is definitely a thing of the past. Only the poker room and sports book are unready. You’ll have to wait a month for those. The paper’s Richard Velotta likens the new-look Palace Station to Red Rock Resort and Green Valley Ranch rather than the Station-themed properties built in the Nineties.

Gaming capacity is up to 1,800 slots and 43 tables. There’s now a swanky pool area and the new restaurants have a decidedly upscale look (although we don’t expect Palace Station to forget its constituency and suddenly become a clip joint). Indeed two of the four new eateries are Asian-themed, so Palace Station definitely knows who its customer is — and remains.

* Resorts World Catskills appears to be making some serious inroads on Sands Bethlehem, whose table-game revenue was down 10% in May, the third consecutive month of declivity. Sands remained Pennsylvania‘s tables leader with $19.5 million, but Parx Casino was hot on its trail, up 13%, bagging $16 million. While Resorts World’s revenue has been described as “underwhelming,” it is targeting the New York City market that has been Sands’ bread and butter. Pyramid Associates General Manager Clyde Barrow told a reporters, “There’s only so much of the market to go around, and everyone is trying to compete for it now,” while casino consultant Steve Norton said of Resorts World, “They’re doing terrible in terms of revenue. But I think they’re probably stealing some of the market that Sands had out of Manhattan.” (Resorts World’s table revenue for May was half of Sands’.)

Given that Sands is coming off a really hot 2017, there’s little cause for incoming owners Poarch Bank of Creek Indians to worry. Besides, Sands is steadiness personified when compared to the volatility seen in other Keystone State casinos’ table revenue. Mount Airy Casino had a 30.5% landslide at the tables, while Valley Forge Resort Casino leapt 68% and The Meadows Casino vaulted 124%. Moreover, tables are a relatively small part of the picture for most Pennsylvania casinos — especially due to their 54% tax rate — so don’t look for the overall standings to change greatly.

In other Keystone State gaming news, DFS racked up $12.5 million in its first month of regulated legality. Real-world sports betting, meanwhile, waits in the wings.

* As Four Seasons and W Hotels expand rapidly, they are looking to Millennials for guidance, given that demographic’s perceived spending power. They (the hotel chains) are unreliable guides for Las Vegas, though, Four Seasons having only a small footprint and W having punted on Sin City altogether.

* We could be as many as seven years away from the first Japanese casino and already the bad news is rolling in: A study conducted last year projects 3.2 million Nipponese disordered gamblers. Some casino aspirants are so confident of their prospects that they’re already hiring and training Japanese trainers, and sending them overseas to gain experience. However, the central government only appears to just now be awakening to an existing gambling problem fueled by pachinko and pachislo, as well as by a lottery and parimutuel betting.

Hindsight being 20/20, that’s what’s fueling the talk of casino-entry fees and restrictions in Japan. Addiction counsel Noriko Tanaka says, “If you are promoting casinos, you also have to face the existing problem of gambling addiction. Japan needs to thoroughly revamp its measures against gambling addiction.” Agreed.