Verbal tributes to the late Jackie Gaughan continue to roll in and may not end with yesterday’s funeral. He was remembered as a man who said “Honesty, character and morals are 75 percent of the job. I can teach you everything else,” and who was out at dawn every day, checking out the slot machines at his properties and his competitors on Fremont Street. If there was ever such a thing as the complete casino executive, Jackie Gaughan was it.
Conversion into slot parlors provides hope for bankrupt Suffolk Off-Track Betting Corp. It will get 1,000 slots and turn over management to Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment Inc. (pending bankruptcy court approval), concessionaire at MetLife Stadium. The latter has guaranteed Suffolk OTB $58 million in annual revenue and will grubstake $65 million in conversion money, starting at a 5% interest rate. In return, Delaware North gets an upfront fee of $2 million for rights, 2% of slot net revenues and 5% of cash flow. “Past forecasts estimate a casino could generate $1.5 billion in wagers,” reports Newsday.
While Suffolk OTB expects to be on line by the fall, Nassau OTB is still looking for a Long Island site. Currently it has no place to put its thousand slots — and the Lege might bestow an additional thousand on both OTBs. A good thing Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and lawmakers didn’t include them in budget projections.
Upstate, after trying to get a casino the federal way, the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans and Trading Cove Associates are going to capitalize upon New York State’s new casino-expansion law. Like Empire Resorts and Mohegan Sun, they’re targeting the town of Thompson, where the other two have pieces of the old Concord resort site. This critical mass of projects in Sullivan County — plus the Nevele one in Ulster County –lengthens the odds for Penn National Gaming and Cordish Gaming further downstate, even if they’re brand names.
Getting tribal casinos to incentivize their players to go to Las Vegas has been a source of frustration … except, presumably, Caesars International, armed with Total Rewards. But today, MGM Resorts International announced a pact with Thunder Valley Casino Resort, near Sacramento. Thunder Valley players are eligible to join M life and members of the latter can enjoy the benefits of Thunder Rewards. The Thunder Valley end of the deal is more “george,” including comped hotel rooms and free slot play. MGM will only discount rooms and free-play offers are at “participating properties.” Come on, MGM: With the amount of money you’re making, you can afford to loosen those marketing purse strings a bit.
