Fourteen gamblers are $1.5 million lighter in the wallet after a New Jersey judge ordered them to pay restitution to the Golden Nugget Atlantic City. At issue was the Nugget’s use of 
“pre-shuffled” card packs that were nothing of the sort. Once the mini-baccarat players copped to the repetitive sequence of the cards, they bet accordingly and cleaned the casino out, winning 41 consecutive hands. (That should have tipped somebody in management off.) However, although Judge Donna Taylor deemed the games illegal under Garden State law, she put the onus of her ruling on the players, not the non-compliant casino. They’ll have to return $1 million in chips, plus $500,000 in cash.
“The dealer did not pre-shuffle the cards immediately prior to the commencement of play, and the cards were not pre-shuffled in accordance with any regulation. Thus, a literal reading of the regulations … entails that the game violated the [Casino Control] Act, and consequently was not authorized,” wrote Taylor. Even so, the little guys lost and the Golden Nugget got off scot-free for its lack of due diligence.
* Pinnacle Entertainment reported one cent less profit per share in its 4Q14 conference call and predicted its REIT spinoff would take until 2016 to complete. Prior to the opening of 
nearby Golden Nugget Lake Charles, Pinnacle CEO Anthony Sanfilippo told me the entry of Tilman Fertitta into the market would only help his own L’Auberge du Lac. Yesterday, he reveled in the confirmation of his prediction, saying, “So far, the Golden Nugget has had a positive impact on visitor and gaming volumes in the Lake Charles market. The initial increase in guest visitation supports our long-held view that the market would grow substantially with the addition of a high quality gaming entertainment resort.”
* Wall Street analysts were impressed with how consistently undervalued Boyd Gaming
closed out 2014, posting numbers well in excess of consensus estimates. Boyd CEO Keith Smith also announced an aggressive program of capex investments for next year, both in terms of renovations and new amenities, mostly of the non-gaming variety. He added that it’s “still too early” to declare victory on the Las Vegas locals market, despite positive trends in that sector, their best pre-Great Recession quarter. One-time charges (something the industry almost always stashes in the fourth quarter) turned a profit into a $32 million net loss. Boyd will make that back with an anticipated $88 million property-tax settlement with Atlantic City. Strong patronage from Hawaii propped up a weak quarter Downtown.
