You’ve got to hand it to Caesars Entertainment: It is truly shameless. The company went to the Internal Revenue Service seeking a “a tax-free separation” for REIT-to-be Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., claiming that if it had to pay taxes that would 
sap the value of the bankruptcy reorganization. Oh boo-hoo. Fortunately, 15 members of Congress, including Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R, right) took notice and sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew. “The REIT would effectively shelter a considerable portion of the casinos’ profits, thus functioning as a taxpayer-funded subsidy to one of the largest casino companies in the U.S. and its private equity owners,” they wrote, adding that the REIT structure could be employed to dodge antitrust laws.
Caesars has done some deplorable things in the past but extending its mitt to John Q. Public for a bailout is surely its most brazen move yet.
* Lawmakers in Pennsylvania could re-vote on Internet gambling in the Keystone State next Continue reading
gambling, an erosion of public support for the resort city. Assessing the situation — and the prospect of casinos at the Meadowlands and in Jersey City — Fitch Ratings has come out with a report that marks Resorts Atlantic City, Trump Taj Mahal, the Golden Nugget and possibly Bally’s for death if the referendum passes. It would only take a 10% drop in gross gaming revenue to send the Taj into the abyss. If that figure reaches 20%, Resorts is toast and a 25% dropoff would be the end of the Golden Nugget, according to Fitch’s research. The only silver lining is that Fitch predicts that northern New Jersey casinos wouldn’t open until 2020 0r 2021 … although Meadowlands Racetrack owner Jeff Gural says he could get a casino online sooner than that.
Park MGM, which sounds like someplace you leave your car. MGM is already hard at work on the 5,300-seat Park Theatre but doesn’t expect to finish the total property makeover until 2018. Still, Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli assures prospective customers, “Not unlike prior renovation projects, and despite the large scale of this one, we expect limited disruptions to operations stemming from the property overhaul. We anticipate MGM will do room remodels on a floor by floor basis, taking out 10-20% of available room night inventory at a given time as it works through the property.”
House Resorts CEO Dan Lee, however. The latter 
support among NFL owners 
International and MGM Growth Properties. It’s a huge vote of confidence in Atlantic City from MGM but a head-scratcher from the Boyd perspective. Consider that Borgata generated $812 million last year in net revenues. The short-term gain for Boyd is deleveraging: MGM will assume and refinance $300 million in Borgata-related debt. Among the gains for MGM, aside from greater cash flow, is the ability to assimilate Borgata players into the M life database. “While the market continues to experience challenges, Borgata has outperformed and differentiated itself as the undisputed leader in the city,” said MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren.
execs 
instance, although baccarat players wagered 21% more but house win was up 10%. “While we expect the market to continue experiencing volatility in baccarat play given a slowdown in Chinese players, this drag should moderate,” wrote JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. Other table games (in which Nevada now includes poker) saw 11% higher wagering but less than 2% more house win. Players were luckiest at the slots, with casino win down 4% on 1.5% higher coin-in. In an odd accounting quirk, slot handle was fully counted (although April ended on a Saturday) but revenue was not.
that would explicitly keep Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act scofflaws like PokerStars out of the Golden State, although there is some placeholder language where such a clause could go. However, the Gray bill prescribes two forms of suitability investigation, the more stringent of which is such a regulatory colonoscopy that only firms with the cleanest of hands could hope to transcend it. For instance, “past and present financial affairs and standing, and business activities, including whether the applicant or an affiliate of the applicant has a financial interest in any business or organization that is or was engaged in any form of gaming or transactions related to gaming prohibited by the law of the federal or state jurisdiction in which those activities took place.” Whoops, there goes PokerStars.
underutilized land behind Venelazzo. Adelson has formed a consortium with Live Nation Entertainment, Madison Square Garden Co. and other partners to build the arena, which is 
may not make it to the House. Why? Although the legislation would deal the casino industry in on DFS action, gaming executives complain that the regulatory mechanisms for DFS are flabby compared to what they have to comply with and they’d like to be permitted a wider array of Internet-gambling offerings, too. At present, DFS is illegal in Illinois, following an opinion rendered by Attorney General Lisa Madigan. While some solons are sympathetic to the casinos’ protests, others balked at the last-minute hitch. “With any bills that come anywhere close to gaming, everybody has their parochial interests that they pile on,” grumbled state Sen. Kwame Raoul (above), a co-sponsor of the bill, which 
property during the Bob Griffin era. This includes “reactivating lights and water fountains that had been turned off for years” (!), reopening the poker room — formerly one of Atlantic City‘s most renowned — renovating 180 worst-case hotel rooms and adding 250 rooms. He’ll also be restoring live music to the aptly named (for a Trump-branded property) Ego Lounge. “We want to let the world know that we are open for business and we’re not going anywhere,” is Rodio’s mission statement.
“I believe that art is an essential element of quality of life. I believe that all people regardless of their level of interest, education in the arts or even inclination has a visceral positive experience when they are enriched visually. That visual experience could be a desert park that we built between New York-New York and Monte Carlo or it could be a statue or oil painting.” — MGM Resorts International CEO James Murren, 
RRR’s acquisition of the Palms and its growing pipeline of management fees from Native American casinos. He also cited Station’s 400-acre land bank in the Las Vegas and Reno areas, which created the prospect of high return-on-investment properties and the advantage of controlling/preventing most new LV Locals capacity.” Observing that Red Rock has the largest market share (43%) of resident Las Vegas gamblers and that 90% of Las Vegans live within five miles of a Red Rock-owned property, he added that the “market has benefitted and should continue to benefit from a stable supply environment and from improving macro trends in the Clark County, LV economy, where key growth drivers such as population, jobs, wages, retiree base, and home prices are all trending positively.”
quite bullish of late. The market is showing signs of bottoming out,” said gaming analyst Ben Lee. However, for all of the new casino product, he says the industry is behind the curve of a market that is being reshaped in the image of middle-class players, not VIPs: “Macao currently still does not have the infrastructure to attract the family segment. We are talking about logistics, attractions, language and plain old service friendliness.” It sounds like Macao could learn a few tricks from Las Vegas after all.
shows no intention of pursuing fair value for Total Rewards or any of the other assets that changed hands for a pittance, junior creditors