Encore Boston Harbor continues to lap the field in Massachusetts with 60% of market share and daily revenue of $1.6 million. Encore is definitely cutting into slot business at Plainridge Park, still impressive at 
$305/win/slot/day—but down from $357/slot a year ago. Revenues at the racino are tracking even worse than Wall Street expected. Plainridge Park grossed $11 million, tumbling 14.5%. Encore pulled in $47 million, with a slot/win/day average of $240 and a daily table average of $5,717 in win. Win-per-slot average at MGM Springfield was a below-average $193, while it did $1,446 per table, for an overall gross of $20 million, down 6%. Could lookie-lous be gravitating back to tribal casinos in Connecticut or are Boston-based players staying and playing close to home?
* J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff thinks that China President Xi Jinping‘s upcoming visit to Macao, usually a dreaded event for casinos, will actually be a plus. “Local media there have reported that he 
[pictured] will announce a number of supportive policies to boost the region’s economic prospects. We think these supportive announcements, coupled with a soon to be finalized phase 1 U.S.-China trade agreement, should serve as boosts to VIP and premium mass player sentiment and result in lower risk and lower uncertainty for operators there.” In other words, it’s a good time to get into Macanese gaming stocks. “We continue to see attractive upside in Macau and see the stocks as setting up nicely to own heading into 2020, after a tough and volatile 2019.” Then again, Greff thinks that Hong Kong political disruption will abate in 2020, so we take his optimism cum grano salis.
Why is Greff so upbeat? “A number of media reports, including Reuters Hong Kong, has reported that President Xi this week will announce a 
number of new policies aimed at diversifying the city’s casino-dependent economy into a financial center; this is according to over a dozen interviews with officials and corporate executives. The move is seen by officials and executives in Macau as a reward for having avoided the anti-government protests that have occurred in Hong Kong over the last six months.” The Macanese government is also being permitted to develop real estate on the mainland and bank credit to the enclave is being eased. We certainly buy the idea of those as positive auguries.
* The gavel of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association has passed from Steve Stallings to James Siva. The latter’s priorities are continuing to expand CNIGA tribal membership to as many as 50 nations and to address the sports-betting issue. As far as any specific proposal on sports betting is concerned, CNIGA is remaining neutral.
Jottings: A moment of silence, please, for suddenly deceased National Indian Gaming Association premier chairman Rick Hill, a pioneer in Native American gaming. A two-term chairman of the Oneida Nation, Hill signed the tribe’s first gaming compact with Wisconsin … It’s No-Goa for casino riverboats in Goa, India. Yet another civic government has failed to find a new anchorage for the flotilla, an ongoing problem … Congratulations to New Jersey‘s Raymond Lesniak on his induction into the Sports Betting Hall of Fame. We can’t think of a more deserving recipient.
