Caesars Entertainment‘s new crown jewel, Belle of Baton Rouge, was a revenue disgrace, grossing $1 million and toppling 47%. Casino Rouge held steady at -3% and $4.5 million, while L’Auberge Baton Rouge ceded 8% yet grossed $12 million. In the Shreveport/Bossier City area, Margaritaville ($13 million, -10.5%) continues to beat the pants off Horseshoe Bossier City ($10 million, -43%). How the mighty have fallen. Eldorado Shreveport’s $6 million (-35%) was good for third place, while table scraps went to Sam’s Town ($4 million, -38%), Boomtown Bossier ($4 million, -17%) and just-sold Harrah’s Louisiana Downs ($3 million, -17%).
On an altogether happier note, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino split prime honors in USA Today‘s annual survey of the best casino resorts in the country. Mohegan Sun was tabbed #1 for its hotel while Foxwoods took the top spot for its casino. For dining, the dark-horse winner was Capriccio at Resorts Atlantic City, giving property operator Mohegan Sun another feather in its cap. Best Las Vegas attraction was the Mob Museum (hey, we’ve been saying that for years) and top casino was—wait for it—The D, a triumph for maverick owner Derek Stevens. Best Players Club went to Caesars Rewards, no surprise. Amazingly, second place for best Vegas casino went to the Plaza Hotel, followed by Venelazzo (Las Vegas Sands bested by Tamares Group … oh, the humiliation!) Wynncore and Caesars Palace. The rest of the best went to Downtown Grand (#6), Red Rock Resort, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the Sahara (!) and Bellagio, a poor showing for owner MGM Resorts International.
Best non-Vegas casinos (aside from Foxwoods) were fast-ascending Hard Rock Atlantic City, Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Ocean Casino Resort, Casino del Sol in Tucson, Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno, Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa, Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, Pechanga Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun. Defunct Le Reve made it onto the list of best Las Vegas shows, which seems to be of purely academic interest now, so we won’t enumerate them. As for best casino hotels nationwide, Mohegan Sun was followed by Casino del Sol, Pechanga and Hard Rock Hollywood (home of the guitar tower), Encore Boston Harbor, French Lick Resort (licking the Indiana competition), massive WinStar World Casino & Resort in Oklahoma, IP Casino Resort in Biloxi, Foxwoods and Venelazzo, the only Vegas property to crack this top 10.
Cheers to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) for issuing an executive order that temporarily allows sports bettors to register remotely. Despite only two sports books being up and running, business was fast out of the gate, with handle being $52.5 million in July. Although 23,000 mobile accounts have been opened you’d better hurry: Pritzker’s clemency expires tomorrow. Said analyst Dustin Gouker, “With Illinois’ sizable potential as a market, it could be a difference measure in tens of millions in wagers each month.” Almost all of the action was happening at (you guessed it) Rivers Casino Des Plaines, with half a million dollars chipped in by Argosy Belle in Alton. According to PlayIllinois.com, “to put BetRivers month into perspective, its Illinois handle would have topped every sportsbook in Pennsylvania except FanDuel during the month of July.” Pritzker has extended his executive order once—a boon for DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet and William Hill—and here’s hoping he comes through again.
Jottings: Apparently chastened by a tongue lashing from Donald Trump, “billionaire right-wing extremist” (™AmericanBridge.org) Sheldon Adelson has committed $1 million/day for the rest of the election campaign. Judging from the disproportionate amount of pro-Trump snail mail we get (two fundraising letters yesterday), The Donald’s campaign is not exactly short of money … Official betting partners of the Las Vegas Raiders continue to proliferate. BetMGM says it is “An Official Sports Betting Partner of the Raiders.” (The headline says “the first,” but that’s not accurate.) Like Caesars Entertainment before it, MGM will get “prominent branding throughout the stadium” and a VIP entrance … Good news for Nevada slot routes: Clark County bars that don’t serve food can reopen late Sunday. Masks and social distancing are still to be enforced. If you like your glass half-full, the Treasure Island-The Mirage monorail reopened today. More importantly, Coronavirus hospitalizations, ICU occupancies and ventilator usage continue to trend downward. Glass half-empty: Wynn Resorts is reporting 548 employee cases of Covid-19 at Wynncore since reopening. The positivity rate, says Wynn, is “well below the US national average.” Well, that’s something. And only 2% contracted the disease on-property.
