A perspicacious gentleman named Steven R. Brown wrote the following on Facebook in response to my reportage of the apparent shelving of Wynn Paradise Park: “Steve Wynn‘s creativity can be 
outlandish at times (Like his idea back in the early 90s to turn parts of Downtown Las Vegas into a mini-Venice.) and at times, a stroke of genius (Mirage and Bellagio.). Paradise Park is a mix of the two. The lagoon itself is not a bad concept and would fit in with overall property. The amusement park rides and the giant ape belongs down the street at Circus Circus, not at a high-end resort. Make it something that brings to mind somewhere like the French and Italian Rivera.”
And then to the topic of major-league sports and Sin City …
“MGM Resorts is going to be fighting with a number of cities for Continue reading
tied for a distant second with 17% each. Now for the bad news. Terrestrial casinos continued to slump, with the Boardwalk down 9%. Even the big dog, Borgata, was off 5.5%, grossing $55 million. (That looks like a typo but isn’t.) Table games revenue bit the big one, falling 9.5% to $15.5 million, while slot revenues were 3.5% off, to $38 million on flat coin-in. Elsewhere in the market, the Caesars Entertainment portfolio sagged 12.5% for a $60 million. (Note that it takes Caesars three casinos to equal or surpass Borgata.) Caesars Interactive is also suffering, settling into last place with 14.5% of market share.
are expected to swiftly follow suit. Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli calls resort fees “a healthy baseline for ADR growth.” We call them a low-down, dirty form of highway robbery. In 2016, 39% of room-rate growth was represented by resort fees and at least 46% last year. It looks to be worse still in 2018. No wonder that AirBnb is catching on in Las Vegas. Why get ripped off by the casino barons when you can stay in a nice home, away from the madness of the Las Vegas Strip?
and Lady Luck Nemacolin will be allowed to bid but ownership of the first is in transition and the second makes so little scratch that it’s hard to see it ponying up the $7.5 million minimum bid. So what happened? Sands Bethlehem was busy selling to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians but what’s your excuse Neil Bluhm, Watouchke “Bob” Manoukian and Caesars Entertainment? Perhaps they are deterred by what is likely to be an investment in excess of $300 million. Penn National Gaming would only say it is “evaluating” whether or not to add a second mini-casino to its fold. Mind you, at some point the process will be opened to out-of-state operators and then it’s anybody’s ballgame. The one sure winner in this is 
— the first union contract Las Vegas Sands ever signed. Wall Street continues to wax skeptical on the deal, with Jeffries analyst David Katz not budging off his “Hold” rating for LVS: “Given the company’s prior efforts to sell the property, increasing competition in the Northeast, and Pennsylvania’s recent legislative rulings, we believe the announcement is modestly positive for the shares but does not alter our neutral stance on the shares.”
succeeding where Tropicana Entertainment and MGM Resorts International failed. Sheldon Adelson said, “Sands Bethlehem has become one of the leading regional entertainment and gaming destinations in the United States and we are extremely proud of the positive contributions the property has made for Bethlehem,” without explaining his motives for selling. However, it was always the red-headed stepchild of the Las Vegas Sands family so maybe the price was finally right.
consideration.” So say goodbye to nightly fireworks, free ice cream and giant apes, animatronic or otherwise. And take a good look at that rendering of Wynn Paradise Park because you’re probably never going to see it again. Wynn Resorts, if Santarelli is right, is moving away from the experimental, sometimes daffy things that Steve Wynn would initiate and towards what it understands: another hotel-casino on the Strip. Here’s hoping they try some new ideas in architecture and that Wynn West won’t look like the afterbirth of the amours of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore. It’s a good thing the company didn’t completely rip up the golf course, lest that acreage remain fallow. In an unrelated (?) development, Dr. Ray Irani abruptly resigned from the board of directors, while Alvin Shoemaker will step down at the end of his term.
although those who showed up seemed to have spent 21%. In any event, gambling revenue tumbled 8%. Most the action was in the Chicagoland area, which produced (when blended with casinos on the Illinois side of the border) $147 million in revenue, also down 8%. Safe in Lawrenceburg, nearer the Kentucky market than thee, Penn National Gaming‘s riverboat made $14.5 million, up 6%. Other operators got hammered, including Pinnacle Entertainment (-12%), Caesars Entertainment (-18%) and Boyd Gaming (-16%). There’s no way to be certain, but all three are heavily invested in the northern tier, where Four Winds Casino could be inflicting depredations on their player base as customers try out the new kid on the block.
way to a satellite casino in East Windsor. Although only 100 people showed up for the event, spirits were high: “Cheers erupted” as the walls began to crumble and Mohegan Tribal Chairman Kevin Brown declared, “We’ve been through too much already together to give up. And we’re not going to.” Take that, MGM Resorts International. Brown and his Mashantucket Pequot counterpart, Rodney Butler, foresee a two-year construction process, by which time MGM Springfield will have been up and running about 18 months and the damage may have 
somewhat vague directive, admittedly) nor directly involve themselves in loco-weed business. After all, no matter what Jefferson Beauregard Sessions might wish, there’s no crime in talking about wacky weed, provided nobody lights up a doobie. It’s good to see that the casino industry will see some benefit, however indirect, from Nevada‘s new status as the capital of legal reefer. Admittedly, it’s more of a boon to residents, as tourists can neither smoke in public nor in your hotel room, so pot tourism would seem to be a non-starter.
“We believe the most significant changes taking place during the Palms renovations will involve returning the property to its roots. In its heyday, the Palms was one of, if not the, place to be for dining and nightlife in Las Vegas. While a lot has changed since those days, including the Strip following suit and beefing up their dining and entertainment amenities, we believe the overall experience at the Palms is set to change in a material way.” — Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli, predicting a comeback from “paltry” food and beverage revenues in 2016-17.
categories which used to be in 50/50 balance. In February tables raked in almost $25 million while slots banked $28.5 million. Still, when you’re grossing $1.9 million a day, taxes a relatively minor worry, especially when those slots are pulling in a way-above-average$376/win/slot/day. Gambling revenue for the Free State was up 6%, although almost all of that gain was represented by National Harbor (+16%). Maryland Live was up 1.5%, with $47 million and a 34.5% market share. Horseshoe Baltimore slipped 3% to $21.5 million, while retaining a 16% market share.
shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.” Interestingly, the victims fund that is making the payouts has a gaming-industry connection, having retained Golden Entertainment spokesman Howard Stutz to be its media representative. The gaming industry is among the 90,000 donors chipping into this GoFundMe campaign that grew into a nonprofit corporation. Seven hundred dimes came from the industry’s Vegas Strong concert, while an enterprising Henderson school raised another $66,000 (!) from T-shirt sales. And no, they probably don’t say, “I was shot in Las Vegas and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” As far as how the money was divvied up, that was the determination of “a committee of victim advocates, mental health and medical professionals, lawyers, donors and others.” They done good.
Just minutes ago, I found myself lying on the kitchen floor, surrounded by the shattered remnants of a Stewie Griffin drinking glass. I’d had a momentary blackout and, had my loving wife not been home, perhaps it could have been worse. At any rate, God seems to be telling me, “No more S&G today.” Sorry, guys. I’ll try to do better next week.
analyst Carlo Santarelli put it) suggests that business never recovered. As a contributor to Penn’s bottom line, Jamul was a no-show: $5 million in cash flow to date and $400,000 more expected by the time the contract terminates on May 28. “Despite the inconsequential, though negative, financial impact on our estimates/[price target], we view the removal of the Jamul distraction as a modest positive,” wrote Santarelli. Penn also takes a $29.5 million hit from an unfunded loan to the tribe. “At present, PENN has $98 mm of face value debt outstanding to the Tribe and roughly $30 [million] in additional funding requirement obligations, of which $1 [million] have been drawn. Thus, PENN has in total $99 [million] of current loans outstanding to the Tribe and $128 [million] of potential total outstanding commitments. PENN has written down 
JP Morgan analyst Daniel Politzer took a favorable view of the transaction in an investor note. It should be observed that Churchill Downs is paying separately for each asset, spending 10X cash flow — a very liberal multiple — to get into Pennsylvania but only 6X EBITDA (below industry average) for Vicksburg. As Politzer wrote, Lady Luck “does not really move the needle on EBITDA.” Calling the deal “fair and strategic,” Politzer wrote that “the transaction provides an infusion of cash that could accelerate the company’s next transaction, while also limiting ERI’s exposure to less favorable gaming markets/properties where it sees limited opportunities for incremental EBITDA. We also do not view ERI as leaving much on the table, given that CHDN expects to generate ~$1m in synergies across both properties.”