As a huge gambling expansion works its way through the Legislature, casino owners in Illinois must feel like condemned men awaiting the execution. At any rate, it behooves them to gather roses while yet 
they may. Fortunately, gamblers felt like playing last month, propelling revenues up 3%. There were 2% fewer patrons but they spent 5.5% more. Penn National Gaming‘s Hollywood Aurora rocketed 18.5% upward ($12 million), while its Argosy Belle was flat ($4.5 million) and its Empress Joliet rose 3%, to $11 million. Boyd Gaming was not so fortunate, as long-suffering Par A Dice fell 8.5% to $7.5 million, well below analyst expectations. GLPI‘s Casino Queen in East St. Louis was up just a bit (1%) for a $10 million take.
Jumer’s Casino Rock Island was one of the few revenue-negative properties, dropping a percentage point to gross $6.5 million. Neil Bluhm‘s Rivers Casino posted a competition-crushing Continue reading
to invest $375 million in the former Trump Taj Mahal. On top of the 1,000 projected construction jobs, Hard Rock predicts the ex-Taj 
IRS) descended upon the casino and temporarily shut it down. The alleged scam is a classic: Buy chips with dirty money, play a little, then cash out the chips for “clean” cash. The Bicycle has been through this before. In 1991, the casino was confiscated, Washington having discovered that Florida drug lords were washing their $12 million of money there. In fact, with a total of an additional $10 million cleaned through the Bicycle Club cage, the card room was a full-service laundromat for scofflaws. The casino was literally built with laundered money.
their plan to erect a Trump-branded casino next door to Trump International. Pardon the pun but there’s no precedent for this situation, 
different bills. The state Senate one would give the Seminole Tribe the right to operate seven Class III casinos, add non-tribal slot parlors in Miami-Dade and Broward counties (one apiece), and enable slots at eight parimutuels statewide. The House bill is almost exclusively concerned with ratifying the Seminole compact at a higher-revenue rate. 
also a racist, an anti-Semite and a xenophobe, who wrote of immigrants that they were “hardcore, indigestible blocks which have not become integrated into the American way of life but which, on the contrary, are its deadly enemies.” Accordingly, 
it. It will be slick advertising just like their whole approach to this was slick.” That was Maine state Sen. Ron Collins (R), before he stormed out of hearing on Shawn Scott‘s latest sleazy attempt to get himself a casino. Under the masquerade of “Horseracing Jobs Fairness,” Scott raised enough signatures to get a referendum placed on November’s ballot — a question craftily worded so that 
for a Jordanian casino. This won’t play well with religious hawks in the Hashemite kingdom, who went into full cry when a previous regime 
be like eight New Year’s Eves in town.” Yeah, right. And holding the NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas was a good idea. (That’s a mistake 
pill was put in place by Donald Trump when he owned the Plaza. Incredibly enough, Carl Icahn prevented Trump Entertainment Resorts from selling the Plaza for $20 million, unrealistically thinking it could bring more. 
has an appetite for risk plus a track record of taking distressed properties and turning them around. So, in addition to running Hollywood Casino Tunica, it will soon be in charge of Resorts Casino Tunica and Bally’s Casino Tunica, in a transaction announced this morning. Despite the latter’s brand name, it is not a Caesars Entertainment property. “Bally’s” is sublicensed by outgoing owner RIH Holdings. Penn and partner Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. snapped up the pair of gambling houses for a bargain-price $127 million. (The low price tells you something about depressed the Tunica market has become.) Resorts defaulted to its creditors several years ago when Colony Capital over-leveraged the property, under CEO Tom Barrack‘s reckless leadership.
get used to saying “Las Vegas Raiders.” Needless to say, this is a huge coup for Sin City, all the bigger for having transpired so rapidly. Goodell’s tipping his hand on 
Zinke (R, right) for secretary of the Interior Department. In Zinke’s lone congressional term, he “established a proven record of working closely with tribes in the state of Montana on critical issues relating to law enforcement, water rights and water infrastructure, Indian housing, and tribal labor sovereignty.”
be more comfortable with an exorbitant fee imposed on them for profit.” — anonymous LVA reader on Las Vegas Sands‘ and MGM Resorts International‘s recalcitrance at paying eight-figure sums to leave the NV Energy grid. The comment was made in response to today’s “Question of the Day.” As part of our revamped Web site, you can comment on QoD and have your remark posted immediately for all to see.
brand equity in gaming had dwindled to zilch and the man himself was out of gaming entirely. However, funny things happen over time and the Trump name