Caesars gets wrist slapped in Atlantic City

Reeg assured regulators that Eldorado Caesars was committed to the future of the Boardwalk. “We wouldn’t be doing this transaction if we weren’t believers in Atlantic City because it’s so important to Caesars as it sits today,” said the former hedge fund manager. He added that “we know that Atlantic City and New Jersey have had some difficulties with a lack of investment from Caesars, chiefly in the past, and we understand why the conditions are there. We are absolutely committed to agreeing to the requirement.” Anthony Rodio will be tasked with overseeing the capex investments while current Caesars viceroy in Atlantic City Ron Baumann gets to keep his job, despite Reeg’s aspersions. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if any small operators want to get in on the ground floor with those formerly deed-restricted properties. The A.C. market is friendly to newcomers these days. In the meantime, chalk up a win for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which extracted a pretty “george” deal from Reeg … presuming it still doesn’t nix the takeover.

Sweden may have a Coronavirus mortality rate six or more times as bad as those of Norway, Denmark and Finland (and 40% higher per capita than the U.S.). It’s economy may have “suffered business-destroying, prosperity-diminishing damage, and at nearly the same magnitude of its neighbors.” But by golly it kept its casinos open. At least as long as it could. Now Casino Cosmopol CEO Per Jaldung is peddling his experience through a megaphone provided by UNLV. His nostrums include Compete Less, Communicate More (in a crisis) and be sure to be seen cleaning those slots. Not all of Jaldung’s talking points are conventional wisdom. He advocates that employees be brought into the crisis-management process and enlisted to let the higher-ups know what the customer is feeling. Sweden’s government may have made a botch of its Covid-19 response but Jaldung shows that, as has so often been the case, the gaming industry has been smarter and more sensitive than politicians.

“Smarter and more sensitive” would not describe bar owners who, faced with the temporary loss of their slot routes, are suing the state of Nevada. Public health be damned, video poker must prevail! Seriously, if 50% of your revenue is predicated on a gaggle of slot machines, then there’s something very unstable about your business model. Contend the barkeeps, “There is no evidence that sitting at a bar top or at a table within the bar area increases the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 so long as the bar or tavern complies with all of the Phase Two requirements.” They say they’ve been on their best behavior, improving from a woeful 48% rate of compliance June 24-July 2, and that none of them were cited between June 26-July 10. They say they’re being singled out while water parks and Home Depot-type stores get off scot-free. At least they’ll have their day in court now.

Did your MGM Resorts International customer data get hacked? Don’t worry. You’ve got plenty of company. As in 142 million patron accounts getting sapped. And your information is very valuable. It’s selling on the black market for as much as $2,900, payable in cryptocurrency only. The MGM hack, which dates back to July 2019, was only disclosed last February, and was spun as mostly a panty raid on high-end customers. Not so, it would appear. MGM vows that it has “strengthened and enhanced the security of our network to prevent this from happening again.” Your name, your e-mail and your street address are the bulk of the stolen info that’s being shopped. At least Social Security numbers haven’t been breached. ZDNet, which has been all over this story, warns “It is worth noting that the leaked information could be enough for launching spearphishing campaigns,” for starters. MGM’s in good company, data have been plundered in similar fashion at Starwood and the Trump Hotel Collection. (Another reason to skip Trump International when visiting Vegas.)

Jottings: CEO Jay Snowden may have scrapped the buffet at the Tropicana Las Vegas but appears to have backed off his (cheapskate) plan to offer only prepackaged food to guests. Restaurants Bacio, Red Lotus, Public House and Oakville Steakhouse will all be part of the September 1 resumption of business. After all, what’s a Las Vegas casino without a steakhouse? … 2Q20 was another shitty quarter for Macao, where gross gaming revenue was down 96%. Casinos have pulled 13% of their table games and idled 57% of their slots … Moderna‘s promising Covid-19 vaccine enters clinical trials July 27. But now it must be tried on 30,000 test subjects in hopes of replicating the initial results.