Earlier today, Pinnacle Entertainment announced that it had agreed with Golden Nugget to sell Ameristar Casinos‘ unfinished Lake Charles project at cost ($214 
million and climbing). As Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli noted, “We view this as a firm positive given expectations for a haircut to expenditures to date.” Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta (pictured) has a long history of paying top dollar (read: overpaying) for acquisitions but, once he’s closed the deal, he turns his new toy into one of the best properties in the market. So Pinnacle can feel good now but had better expect very fierce competition later. There’s also a Texan symmetry in the deal: Houston, where Fertitta is headquartered, is the supreme feeder market for Lake Charles, so it’s almost as good for Tilman as if Texas were to legalize casinos.
The Ameristar takeover should close on time (the end of next month). Although Pinnacle has yet to find Continue reading
That Alex Yemenidjian! He just can’t keep the Tropicana Las Vegas out of the headlines — and not in a good way. It’s kicking The One Group out, taking over Bagatelle Beach Club and 
This will be at least the fourth Yemenidjian-era incarnation of the space, which was Nikki Beach and (very briefly) nightclub RPM, before One Group took over. As the Las Vegas Sun‘s John Katsilometes notes, Bagatelle is now overshadowed by “behemoth multivenue entertainment fortress Hakkasan” at MGM Grand. Confronted with that bastion of revelry, it looks like Yemenidjian decided to run up the white flag. Anyway, give the venue a few months and it will have yet another identity, I’m sure, and Alex will be telling the media that this time they can’t miss … as he did the time before … and the time before that …
While the attempted boycott of his Venelazzo poker rooms 
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forget about the flyover from the freeway, and instead make punters get off the highway and drive around a little bit. At least the funding for this is all coming out of Mohegan’s pocket, not that of John Q. Taxpayer. Out east, Foxwoods Massachusetts 
unconscionable. Considering that the U.S. still operates as a trickle-down economy, heavily dependent on consumption, one would think it would be A Good Thing if the proles had more discretionary income at their disposal. For instance …
Only in Phil Ruffin‘s wildest imagination do members of Great Britain‘s royal family patronize Treasure Island, fast becoming one of the douchiest properties on the Strip.
As we all would agree, Suffolk Downs doesn’t have the capitalization, the track record or the leadership that Wynn Resorts does. However, Richard Fields and Harvard homeboy Gary Loveman have a big something going for them: juice. I expected their superior political connections to play a role 
interpretation of the law. Given his clear mandate (86% of voters saying “aye”), Wynn might be more strongly inclined to dig in and fight than he was in Foxborough or his first run at Philadelphia. But he’s got another issue threatening his project — it’s too tall; 
“I’m looking at it as a huge positive for the city. It shows that we are looking like the resort destination that everyone wants us to be. Although gaming revenue keeps the lights on in these buildings, this shows that people are still coming to town and spending money — spending money on things other than the slot machines.” — Matthew Levinson, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, on the return of Atlantic City business to pre-Hurricane Sandy levels.
When the city of Springfield finally stopped fence-sitting and decided against going with Penn National Gaming, I knew it was only a matter of time before Penn emerged somewhere else in Massachusetts. 
It’s not every day that Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman has a good idea. But when he does, it’s a real brainwave. 
“[Internet-gaming analysts] believe that federal politicians are happy to play the pro-gambling crowd off of the anti-gambling crowd (and vice versa) in order to reap the reward of federal lobbying money. It’s something of a sport in Washington, and veterans of Congress are quite adept at it.” — Churchill Downs‘ Bluff newsletter, 
This week’s announcement of a $1.4 billion takeover of Shufflemaster, er, SHFL Entertainment is another reminder of the casino industry’s monkey-see/monkey-do tendencies. Scientific Games gobbled up WMS Industries, so Bally had to do something, right? At least this buyout was somewhat better received on Wall Street. The resulting greater diversity of products and global presence (particularly in Australia and Asia) was a positive for J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. It also considerably strengthens Bally’s position 
been counted when “MGM executives were already on the phones with Mayors, Town Managers and heads of regional organizations in the surrounding communities,” according to a company press release. Both Hard Rock International and Mohegan Sun could find themselves outgunned now that MGM is going region-wide: The lion spent $1 million on Springfield alone, so you can imagine what kind of cash it could deploy against West Springfield and Palmer referendums. (It’s not shaping up to be a good week for Massachusetts aspirants Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun: 
hopes to raise $1.2 billion from the public offering, Caesars has pledged so much dough against casino projects in Cleveland and Baltimore, and possible ones in Ontario and Florida, that the money’s as good as spent already. The spinoff will leave the parent company only $19.6 billion in debt, $500 million having been dumped off onto Caesars Growth Partners. As described earlier in these pages, the latter will own a grab-bag consisting of Caesars Interactive, Horseshoe Baltimore and Planet Hollywood. Growth Partners will skim, er, collect management fees from the two casinos. (Getting paid by assets that you own … that’s a mighty neat trick.)
Travis Hoium panned this “
It was a somewhat mixed victory for the casino industry. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX, left) 
prospective site for a slot parlor. Bluhm surrogate Greg Carlin 
and say, “Gamble, damn you!” At least five years into the Great Recession, Wall Street tells itself comforting bedtime stories of “pent-up demand” while consumers clutch their pocketbooks as tightly as ever, at least when it comes to gambling. On a same-store basis, The State of Misery was well-named last month, down 10%. It’s no wonder that Pinnacle Entertainment‘s Sanfilippo (right) was so quick to put Lumiere Place on the block to placate the Federal Trade Commission: Who wouldn’t trade a casino that grossed $12.5 million (-13%) last month to get one (Ameristar St. Charles, pictured above, down 5% in June) that grossed $22 million instead? Throw in Ameristar Kansas City and its $17 million (-10%) and Pinnacle stands to gain far more than it loses.
Frankly, I’m impressed that it lasted as long as it did — an impressive four years –considering that customers got less and less show for their money (fewer headliners, fewer performers, etc.), as the show was stripped of parts to save money. 
As many of you know, Mount Charleston, on the distant outskirts of Las Vegas, is