Collective-bargaining-agreement talks between the Culinary Union and 34 casinos must not be going well. The Culinary fired off an e-mail blast yesterday, publicizing the fact that it will hold a strike vote May 22 
and, should it pass, will hit the bricks June 1. One of the flashpoints between the Culinary and casino bosses seems to be the post-#MeToo workplace culture. “We are demanding an end to harassment in the workplace. Casino corporations cannot continue to normalize sexual misconduct by high rollers and customers in Las Vegas … I always do my best to provide excellent service, but I shouldn’t have to endure harassment — or worse — from guests who think they can abuse us just because they are on vacation,” said The Rio cocktail waitress Jocelyn Cegbalic. (Caesars Entertainment seems to be coming under particular fire as a hotbed of sexual harassment.)
Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline used the recent Trump administration tax cuts to fire a shot over the casino industry’s bow, saying, Continue reading
Northern Asia — an enviable position given our proximity to Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo … some of the largest areas in the world. In aggregate they carry some of the most affluent, mobile and fastest-growing populations on the planet.” — Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment CEO Mario Kontomerkos, betting the house on Project Inspire in Incheon, South Korea, which hasn’t even broken ground yet. MGE bought out its minority partner in the $1.6 billion megaresort, which is mostly debt-financed.
Vegas: the eight-year-old Cosmopolitan.” Get a grip. At $550 million it’s a relatively modest investment and nothing that followed Bellagio has threatened that property’s supremacy as a Las Vegas Strip icon, not even CityCenter (which the article erroneously refers to as a shopping mall). While MGM Resorts International execs are forthright about the lack of oomph the Monte Carlo brand had, it at least was evocative of a specific locale. “Park MGM” sounds like someplace you leave your car. Its opening is not so much soft as squishy. The casino and most of the hotel rooms open today, the nightclub, Eataly and the NoMad boutique hotel not until late in 4Q18.
good as ours. A hint may be found in successor Barry Cottle‘s background in online technology and social gaming. Sheehan fell on his sword gracefully. “I’m proud of what we have accomplished over the past two years … Barry has been a great partner, and I look forward to supporting his efforts to lead Scientific Games into the digital future.”
$58 million gross. While it grossed an eye-popping average of $1.7 million/day upon opening, now it is up to $1.9 million/day. National Harbor, which represented 40% of Free State market share, did it mostly on highly taxed slots ($30 million) instead of low-tax table games ($27.5 million). Maryland Live hung in there with a 3% increase and 32.5% market share, on a gross of $47 million. Even Hollywood Perryville ($7 million) was up 7%. Things look a mite bleak for Horseshoe Baltimore, down 11.5% and clinging to a 15% market share, grossing $22 million. Churchill Downs‘ Ocean Park ($5.5 million) continued to be powered by the addition of table games, up 15.5%.
slot machine winnings. Racing barons can sniff down their noses at casino gambling but it’s what keeps their anachronistic tourneys in business. You can argue about the “cerebral input that serious handicappers use to select winners” but the bottom line is that, without the dumb-luck slots, many a track will be put out to pasture. Case in point, Delaware: The state Senate 
locals casinos took a 5% hit. Deutsche Bank‘s Carlo Santarelli suggested that the Strip result was a bit of smoke and mirrors. The increase was “due entirely to stronger than expected baccarat drop/hold … given the majority of the Strip operators already reported, the result is largely inconsequential.” Slot revenue was flat at $278.5 million on slightly lower coin-in and tighter holds, while tables ($179 million) were down 8% on the Strip. The star performer was baccarat, up 115% on 52% higher volume and also enjoying a favorable calendar — one more weekend day.
Wynn Resorts stated “Given Jay’s key board role and deep institutional knowledge, withholding your vote for him would only serve to undercut the progress Wynn is making.” (Progress? What progress?) The conflict comes to a head at the shareholders’ meeting May 16. When answering to a higher authority — the Massachusetts Gaming Commission — CEO Matt Maddox said Wynn Resorts couldn’t handle more than 30% turnover in the board at any given time. Hagenbuch is one of the foxes investigating the henhouse that was Steve Wynn‘s sexual predation upon company employees, giving Ms. Wynn twice as much reason to want him out,.
never know what I’m going to find when I open a door: It could be completely trashed room or a dangerous situation,” says maid Amalia Uricel of the situation at Bally’s. More alarmingly, Flamingo maid Diana Thomas says, I’ve been in a room with empty gun shells laying around and I feel very uncomfortable being alone in the room in situations like that.” (Don’t come to Las Vegas without at least one gun.) The Culinary is seeking contractual language that reads, “…For security purposes…If a guest refuses entry to housekeeping employees for more than 24 hours. the Employer’s security shall open the guest’s room for entry and service by housekeeping employees and shall remain in or next to the room as long as the Security Department deems it necessary to protect the safety of housekeeping employees…” 
immediately contribute to Boyd’s free cash flow, as well as taking some pressure off Par-A-Dice casino. “Gaming investors have a case study for this BYD deal in PENN’s 2015 acquisition of Prairie State Gaming and we believe that experience has been favorable from an ROI perspective,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli, while noting that Penn National Gaming bought Prairie State for a low cash-flow multiple (4.5X) while Boyd is paying a premium 8X.
casino gaming could ever take hold here, as it has in Tampa … where I’ll be in a couple of days. Perhaps I will partake of the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa while I’m there, sample the buffet and check out the expansion while the wife plays some penny slots. The last time I checked, the feckless Lege seemed on course to let its last opportunity for gaming reform slip through its fingers. Come November’s election, the unlikely combination of the Seminole Tribe and Disney is likely to put through a ballot issue that places control of gaming expansion in the hands of the electorate, cutting the Lege out of the loop. When that happens, it’s Katie bar the door.
the company’s Midwest revenues came in flat, which surpassed Wall Street‘s expectations. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff even called Boyd’s Blue Chip projection “too harsh.” The company came in lower than projected in the Las Vegas locals and Downtown markets, the latter impacted not by visitation, which was described as “strong” but higher jet-fuel prices. It’s not cheap chartering those planes in from Hawaii. If regulatory approvals go according to plan, Boyd opens up multiple new cash spigots in the last half of the year, mapping $21 million free cash flow from Valley Forge Resort Casino and $56 million from the Ameristar St. Charles/Ameristar Kansas City/Belterra/Belterra Park quartet.
your calendars, for that is the day the doors are supposed to swing wide and a new era in Massachusetts begins with its firs casino megaresort. If there’s going to be any special entertainment, MGM has yet to announce it. However, it does promise “eclectic guest rooms inspired by the historic significance, iconic architecture and literary legacy of its urban surroundings. Each space is punctuated by details such as quotations from the works of Emily Dickinson and whimsical Merriam-Webster-inspired works of art.” Recreation includes as TopGolf “swing suite,” where you can play a simulated game, an eight-screen cineplex and a bowling alley.
analyst Carlo Santarelli called Las Vegas revenues “considerably stronger than our forecast,” especially in the revenue-per-room department, up 6% on 84% occupancy. Gross gaming revenue was an above-expected $204 million (+13%). JP Morgan‘s Joseph Greff termed the domestic returns “right down the fairway.” In terms of company news, the convention center’s opening has been moved to early 2020, but the cost has been trimmed from $360 million to $325 million. (How often does that happen in Las Vegas?) While the company is torn between proceeding with Wynn West or redeveloping the golf course, the lagoon is back “on” at a cost of $150 million.
gambling-addicted
turned a deaf ear to career Interior employees who recommended approval of Foxwoods Resorts Casino and Mohegan Sun‘s satellite casino in East Windsor, in an apparent effort to get in the good graces of MGM Resorts International. (Zinke has aspirations for electoral office in his native Montana and may have had visions of MGM donations dancing in his head.) Zinke’s decision to punt the staff recommendation into a permanent holding pattern has Connecticut’s congressional delegation demanding that the Interior Department‘s inspector general look into the matter.
consider it. (The Diet adjourns on June 20.) Now, the bad news: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in a world of hurt, with plummeting job-approval ratings and an expectation that he could resign when the Diet wraps up business. Abe and wife Akie are accused of mixing private business with public duties, using Abe’s position of financial gain. The Finance Ministry’s Junichi Fukuda is already out, having been caught making “