Plucking General Manager Michael Storm from the executive ranks of The D and the Golden Gate and installing him at Hooters Casino Hotel is proving to be one of the 
best ideas that property’s had in a long time. Storm’s “Month of Giving” campaign, in which the August marketing budget is rechanneled into charitable causes is getting noticed. It’s also getting a strong amount of employee buy-in. Most recently, the Hooter Girls showed the flag (and a $1,000 check) at Sam’s Town’s bowling alley for the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals “Out of the Gutter” fundraiser. Before that, they were enlisted as Habitat for Humanity volunteers.
“To my surprise, 14 girls showed up at 5 in the morning, ready to go, and they worked — they worked their butts off. Not only did we Continue reading
combined with a little good luck for the house, meant an 11.5% revenue uptick. Borgata grossed $81 million, a 12.5% gain, far overshooting Deutsche Bank‘s projection ($65 million). Table play was 10% higher and players lost big, with Borgata raking in 22% more than last year. Slot play was up 6% and the house had a winning edge, banking 8% more coin-in. (I’m telling ya, Boyd Gaming, you’re going to be sorry you sold your half of this piggy bank.) Borgata continues to hold the largest share of hotly contested Internet play, with the unlikely runner up being the Golden Nugget. With or without PokerStars, they’re still an also-ran at Resorts Digital, stuck firmly at the back of the pack.
a pretty mingy allocation but is in line with Secretary for Economy & Finance Lionel Leong‘s goal of 3% table-game growth. Wynn said it was “satisfied” with the grant, as though it had any choice but to roll with the punches. The megaresort was designed with 400 tables in mind and Steve Wynn is camouflaging the shortfall by importing 250 tables from Wynn Macau. The Macanese government seems to be having a jolly good time making an example of Wynn (the CEO, not the company) after he blew his stack over governmental micromanagement of the casino industry, views that probably shouldn’t have been shared on an international conference call. We’ve come a full 180 degrees from the days when Wynn said his eponymous firm was “essentially a Chinese company” and threatened to move corporate headquarters to the People’s Republic of China. (Las Vegans practically lined up to help him move.)
Trump’s running mate, though, is perfectly clear. While there is smoke with Trump, [Mike] Pence’s desire to usurp the states with a federal online poker prohibition is a raging inferno.” — Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas on 
Better slot play, stronger restaurant business and greater hotel occupancy (which drove up rates) conspired to improve American Casino & Entertainment Properties‘ revenue and profitability in 2Q16. Net revenue — i.e., not profit — is on a 10-month upward roll, driven in part by a 3% increase in room rates and 4% higher slot winnings. ACEP, owner of the Stratosphere, bucked the Las Vegas trend of generating higher revenue through non-gaming amenities. With 5% fewer people visiting the sightseeing pod atop the tower and spending 8.5% less, a 10% in pod-derived revenue was the consequence. Business was flat for ACEP’s Arizona Charlie’s grind joints but the company was successful in inducing more people to stay at the Aquarius in Laughlin, where hotel revenues rose 8.5%, even though gambling winnings were only 2% up.
for services and supplies. That’s almost half the construction budget for the Massachusetts megaresort. Essentially vowing to think globally and act locally, casino President Robert DeSalvio said, “Wynn [Resorts] is absolute in our commitment to keep as much spending as possible close to home during our nearly three-year construction phase, particularly with minority, women and veteran-owned vendors.” Meanwhile, despite federal litigation, the Mashpee Wampanoag are forging ahead with activity on Project First Light, planning to be the second Bay State casino to market, opening roughly a year from now.
doing. Exactly why it isn’t, nobody’s quite sure. Whether it’s that you can’t smoke or you have to be 21, we don’t know for sure what it is … Plainridge [Park] has about 500 jobs, about 20% of those people were hired off the unemployment rolls, and Plainridge has generated $80-plus million in tax revenue. From the standpoint of the negative consequences, there have been no serious traffic problems since the first day, we have a very careful study done of any crime of any kind in all of the surrounding communities … there has been zero increase in crime in the first six months owing to the casino.” — Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, 
setback from the property. Today, Missouri released its July gaming results and — surprise — Ameristar St. Charles was up 3.5%, to $24 million. Any Pinnacle customers who were discouraged from visiting Ameristar seem to have gravitated to Pinnacle’s River City, which pulled in $20 million, a 10% increase. The health of the St. Louis market was robust, with Tropicana Entertainment‘s Lumiere Place, still on the comeback trail, up 3.5% ($11.5 million) and Hollywood St. Louis increasing winnings 2%, for $21 million. Notable results among outstate casinos including a 15% jump at Isle of Capri Cape Girardeau ($6 million), a 7% increase at Isle of Capri Lady Luck ($3 million), in Caruthersville, and a 4% dip at Golden Entertainment‘s Mark Twain casino, which grossed $3 million.
tragic, and it just magnifies the importance of defeating this referendum,” said opposition leader Debra DiLorenzo, who predicts that as many as five Boardwalk casinos could close if the referendum passes. Would-be megaresort developer Jeff Gural argues counterintuitively that passage of the referendum would help Atlantic City. He was echoed by state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D, left), whose constituents include the casino-hungry Meadowlands. “The pending closure of the Trump Taj Mahal should serve as a wake-up call for Atlantic City officials to take advantage of the benefits of casino expansion. Expanding New Jersey’s gaming sector to North Jersey will provide financial resources so that Atlantic City can invest in economic expansion. The city has the opportunity and the ability to become a destination resort that doesn’t rely on casinos alone,” Sarlo said.
enough for #1 status), while nearby Ameristar East Chicago (the victim of low table hold) was also down, -3%, grossing $20 million. Ownership blamed “
Hawkeye State was propelled upward by a couple of dramatic revenue swings. Both the novelty factor and conversion to land-based gaming put a tailwind behind Isle of Capri Bettendorf and Rhythm City Casino. The former grossed $8 million, a 27% boost, and the latter banked $6 million, a 53% propellant. In sheer dollar volume, the traditional winners remained the same. Prairie Meadows Racetrack & Casino grossed $16 million (up 4%), Caesars Entertainment‘s Horseshoe Casino & Bluffs Run Park pulled in almost $16 million (flat) and Ameristar Council Bluffs roped in $15 million (up 3%). The state’s big underachiever was Wild Rose Clinton, down 12% on a $3 million gross. Gainers of note, however, included Harrah’s Council Bluffs, up 7% on nearly $7 million, and Hard Rock Sioux City, rising 8% on a $7 million gross. Boyd Gaming had mixed results, with Diamond Jo Dubuque flat at $6 million but Diamond Jo Worth grossing more ($7.5 million) but posting a 5% decline.
couldn’t or wouldn’t pull the trigger on reconstruction. The site has been on and off the market for years and 
a surge in Las Vegas summer business to a Zika virus outbreak in Florida, one that has led the federal government to warn pregnant women away from the Sunshine State. “One of the interesting notes I got this week were comments from JetBlue that they’re seeing a pickup in passenger activity to Las Vegas and maybe a slowdown to Florida … It’s helping everybody in town, and not just the MGM portfolio. As sad as that situation is in Florida, I certainly don’t want to benefit from that. I can say we’re seeing a pickup in air traffic and driving traffic even in the last couple of months.” Proceeds from the sale of Crystals 
taken him to Aristocrat Technologies, where he was the company’s new broom on the American front, to Bally Technologies, to Shuffle Master and to Scientific. Most of those companies have subsequently been consolidated (including Bally and Shuffle Master into Scientific), some of them under the Scientific banner. “This management change, we think, increases execution risk in a set of complex, low growth businesses, that were relatively recently put together in a series of M&A transactions. Losing Gavin is a loss of gaming industry talent, and SGMS loses an executive who was well thought of by its customer base globally and well respected by his competitors,” wrote a somewhat shocked J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. In other words, the incoming CEO has big shoes to fill while learning a new industry.” He took comfort in the fact that Isaacs’ resignation didn’t take effect until the end of 2016 but couldn’t help noting that Sheehan had no background in the gaming sphere. (In other news, Scientific opened a new outpost in Australia, with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval [R] partaking of the festivities.)
“This titan of Wall Street is utterly incapable of making a decision unless it is mean-spirited and benefiting him alone. The great deal-maker would rather burn the Trump Taj Mahal down just so he can control the ashes. In the end he’ll have to live with what he’s done to working people in Atlantic City.” — Unite-Here Local 54 President Robert McDevitt, 
night. However, Saturday-night rates have been boosted from $411 to $501. And a Friday night at Wynn Palace is a better deal than one at Wynn Macau, $334 versus $398. “While we don’t know specifically if the change in rate is related, we would point out that Parisian has recently begun accepting reservations on its website for its