New Jersey‘s outspoken governor lays down some righteous grooves at Meadowlands, including telling the horsey set what it needs to hear: “I don’t have the money to be subsidizing failure.”
| Gov. Chris Christie on New Jersey horseracing: this industry has to be able to sustain itself |
He has a rather romanticized notion of Nevada‘s regulatory capabilities, though, which haven’t been expanded since the opening of The Mirage:
| Gov. Chris Christie calls for Atlantic City to become ‘Las Vegas East’ |
He also expounds on the white — or in this case, white and blue — elephant aptly termed Xanadu (evoking roller-skates, disco and Olivia Newton-John):
| Gov. Chris Christie: I’m not ready to give up on Xanadu yet |
And guess who owns Xanadu? Who would bet everything it has on a three-legged horse? Yes, the worst company in gaming: Colony Capital (ousting previous title-holder Columbia Sussex.) The folks who bet the farm on Station Casinos, then forfeited control as it ran full-speed into bankruptcy. The company that over-leveraged its two Atlantic City casinos, lost one to creditors and may yet have to give up the other one (or sell down its Midwest casino holdings). The firm that’s presiding over the demise of the Las Vegas Hilton and gave veto power over capex investments to those savvy, experienced casino operators, Goldman Sachs. Colony CEO Tom Barrack is associated with so many bungled investment plays that one has to reverse a Sheldon Adelson-ism and ask, “If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart?”
Second clip:
Getting families to AC in the summer. How did that work here?
Don’t get me wrong: Good they are looking at so many options. But kids and gaming don’t mix. Not from a moral spectate, but simply because people bringing kids to a casino resort destination don’t seem to gamble much.
Access,
You’re right about the Vegas “family friendly” campaign. It flopped – partly because it ran counter to the decades-old “sin city” reputation.
Atlantic City once was known as a safe family resort. They’re trying to bring that back. I get the sense that they want to broaden the appeal of the boardwalk area + inland from there, building on the drawing power of the boardwalk hotels as a base for family entertainment venues – not only for gambling.
I love Chris Christie! Finally Jersey elects a governor with the brass to demand change. He appears to be a Rudy Giuliani like Republican and just what AC needs in order to right itself again.
Funny stuff on Colony! Could not agree more. Columbia is probably still the champion even though their assets are far less prominent than Colony’s. A few Colony gaming victories include flipping Harvey’s to Harrah’s, divesting the East Chicago river boat for a premium before the bridge to the place was torn out and some AC land sales. I just can not figure out why they never de-levered their balance sheet with the proceeds! Their best asset? Bally’s Tunica……seriously. People really seem to drop a lot of pennies in there and it pays!