That casino battle in New York State is evolving into a war of words. At stake is who can prove they’re poorer than the next guy. A study commissioned by the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development reached the perverse point of pride that Sullivan had “the lowest percentage of high school and college graduates, lowest median income, highest unemployment rate and worst health out of six counties examined in the study, including Orange and Ulster.”
Called upon to out-poor-mouth this, Caesars Entertainment veep Jan Jones Blackhurst replied that, well, “the sheer number of unemployed Orange County residents is more than four times higher than the number of unemployed people in the surrounding area.” So Caesars may be surrounded by the enemy but it’s got them outnumbered. Not to be left out, Newburgh wants it known that its economy “crumbled decades ago,” too and its population density is also greater than that of the Catskills.
The New York casino tourney could be summarized as, “We’re more desperate than you are!”
* While PlayLV General Manager Michael Pergolini was spinning that things are better than ever at the Plaza, the casino is coming down around his ears. The desolation speaks for itself, although when your Next Big Idea is Las Vegas Jerkys, I’d say that intellectual bankruptcy is at hand. When it’s not choosing poor casino leadership, owner Tamares Group is starving them of capital. It’s long past time that the Nevada Gaming Control Board ended this sham and made Tamares come forward for licensing. Downtown may have made a comeback but Tamares clearly didn’t get the memo. (The Container Park has jerky and hipness.)
Tamares should have been forced to either get licensed or sell off their casinos a long time ago. The problem is who would buy them? It’s been reported that they almost sold Las Vegas Club to Derek Stevens a few years back, but got cold feet on the deal at the last minute. They’ve made Las Vegas Club even more sad and dumpy, as they have no restaurants, the hotel rooms are closed, they’ve turned part of the casino floor into a tacky souvenir shop (Although still not as tacky as the one in the lobby over at Binion’s, but close.). Now there’s the rumors of CVS looking into leasing out the casino space for a drugstore. The Plaza is pretty much a ghost town ever since it reopened a few years back. I stayed there last October and while plenty of people were staying there, most were opting to go across Main Street to play at one of the Fremont Street casinos or took the walk down Main to Main Street Station. Hash House A Gogo never had more than a dozen customers in it every time I walked by (Meanwhile, Du-Par’s across the street at the Golden Gate had a line, especially for breakfast.).
I thought the Pergolini article was awkward.
The Plaza renovation was barely one if you ask me. Tamares is just as bad as Col Sux!