For the second time, Las Vegas Sands has decided that Sands Bethlehem was too valuable to sell, especially after it set a state 
record for table game revenue. (Earlier, Sands was bruited to be in talks with Tropicana Entertainment to sell the place for $1 billion,) Negotiations with MGM Resorts International over the property have “collapsed,” according to multiple Morning Call sources. Sands COO Rob Goldstein made the case for keeping its Bethlehem presence in a recent investor call, saying “Bethlehem represents a pretty extraordinary investment in terms of what we put into the market versus what it returns to us, although it’s a small number, obviously, relative to our other assets.” Analysts blamed a potentially watered-down gambling market (slot routes, DFS, Internet gambling) for the fruitless end of the negotiations.
Even the breakdown of talks with MGM doesn’t mean that Continue reading
Gov. Dannel Malloy 
has announced that construction cranes will be up by August at the latest and 
celebrate the company’s emergence from bankruptcy by monetizing 90 acres of Las Vegas Strip frontage. To be fair to Frissora, the Caesars Palace revamp, as well as a pedestrian bridge at Paris-Las Vegas, were in Gary Loveman‘s cards before he took a hard left turn into an LBO, the catastrophic effects of which included putting several projects into the deep freeze. The work could re-start as soon as this autumn. “We have plans to basically develop all of that very valuable center-strip property as soon as we emerge [from bankruptcy],” Frissora told Bloomberg TV. “Those assets will have a very high-return, low-risk profile.”
his serial attempts to become a Las Vegas gaming mogul. The project, which literally never got off the drawing board, always seemed too hoity-toity for its own good. The operative question is not whether Packer could have brought it off but who, if anyone, will spring for the acreage and at what price? They’re so strategically located that Steve Wynn or Eric Trump could use them for expansion. Heck, Wynn could leave his eponymous golf course intact and build Wynn Paradise Park on the Alon site.
progress, some recent concrete work is evident on the steel structures at Resorts World. We believe the project remains at least 3 years off and even that assumes the pace of activity accelerates meaningfully from the current state. We believe interest in Fountainbleu has picked up and believe a transaction with a potential developer could be a 2017 event. Given meaningful interior work remains at the asset, we anticipate it would take at minimum two years to open the property post work commencing at the asset.” [emphasis added] In other words, wait until 2020. Can SLS Las Vegas hang in that long?
To wit: A third, offsite casino 
money 
dramatic in the Pelican State market, up 19%. By contrast, Shreveport/Bossier City was down 3%. The increase was especially dramatic at Harrah’s New Orleans, up 42.5% (no, that’s not a typo). So much for the allegedly pernicious effects of the smoking ban. Smoke-free Fair Grounds racino was up 7%, as the two casinos grossed $35 million and $3 million respectively. Elsewhere in the Crescent City, Boyd Gaming‘s Treasure Chest was down 4%, to $9.5 million, and Pinnacle Entertainment‘s Boomtown riverboat notched a 1% gain to $10 million.
the Boardwalk was up 4%. Market leader, by an astonishing margin, was Borgata, garnering $58.5 million, almost one-third of the total market. In fact, it carried the market, as you will see below. Its tables parlayed a 3.5% increase in wagering into a 15% gain, while its slots eked out a 1% increase on flat revenue. Market-wide, table-games were down 12% on 4% less wagering and slots saw 2% less coin-in, resulting in flat revenue.
for $1.2 billion. Reuters describes the move as “ending a fraught offshore expansion and freeing up cash for new projects at home.” In other words, Crown Resorts will be turning its back on Macao (and Las Vegas) to concentrate on Sydney and Perth. One analyst described the arrest and uncertain fate of The Crown 18 as “a major factor in terms of considering what’s best for the future. I think they just wanted to step completely clear of anything to do with that market.”
figure sum Icahn was seeking. It’s a triumph for Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen, who clearly drove a hard bargain and who probably was able to finance the steal of a deal out of cash flow. For those of you keeping score, 
about legalized sports betting. The AGA recently commissioned a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll that concluded — surprise! — that most Americans 
Atlantic City casinos a good soaking, pointing out that they paid $237 million last year, compared to New York‘s $888 million and Pennsylvania’s $1.4 billion. Maryland‘s five casinos ponied up $453 million. Now, if you want to finish smothering Atlantic City in its crib, raising taxes would be a helluva way to it. The Garden State turncoats are led by state Rep. Chris Brown, the rare Republican who believes in higher taxes. “I simply believe casinos should pay their fair share of taxes to ensure we don’t place an additional, unfair tax burden on our working families,” he told a reporter. Let’s hope Brown’s ideas don’t gain traction, especially since he’s been a rare defender of the Boardwalk until now.
“We’re not necessarily in love with the conditions or the three-year test period. We don’t want to spend billions of dollars and find out in three years they’ve changed their mind and they’re not going to allow locals in. So we want to see how that goes.” — Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson on a potential three-year pilot program to allow locals to gamble in Vietnam‘s casinos.
The two casinos took in $279/slot/day and $246 respectively, healthy numbers indeed, although Maryland Live revenues fell 21.5%. Horseshoe Baltimore also took a hard hit, down 19% to $24.5 million. By contrast, Rocky Gap Casino continued on the comeback trail for Golden Entertainment, up 10% ($4.5 million), while Ocean Downs was up 3% to $5 million. Hollywood Casino Perryville, the little casino that couldn’t, fell 8% to $6.5 million. So far, Penn National Gaming‘s Charles Town casino in West Virginia has lost 7% of slot play and 17% of table play, as National Harbor chips into its market share.
banks have been told to make sure every ATM is monitored on a 24-7 basis so as soon as cash levels get low, a team is ready to fill the machine back up, on a 24-7 basis,” said a South China Morning Post source. Of course, whenever a policy change like this occurs, it stokes fears of currency flight or outright money laundering — the kind of thing that will bring a crackdown from Beijing faster than you can say “pataca.” As JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff wrote, “It is conceivable to believe the governments in both Macau and China may want to clamp down on this, given the broader efforts on curbing capital outflows.” Already there have been some gaudy prosecutions, including one involving a couple that had