Wall Street really hates it when casinos buy business with “promotional allowances” (read: comps) but sometimes — and especially when you’re Revel Hotel-Casino — there’s no choice. In marketing policies as new as its expanded nomenclature, Revel is acknowledging its lack of a customer base and trying very hard to make amends. Under the mantra, “Gamblers Wanted,” it is pursuing bread-and-butter players with a 100% rebate policy on slot losses over $100. Only during July. And only if you have a Revel players’ club card. But you’d have to play — and lose — quite a bit on the slots to qualify, so it’s a brilliant strategy for increasing slot handle. It should also bring in a lot of casual players who, despite their best [sic] efforts will fail to qualify for the rebate. Score one for Revel.
Also, the resort is touting “the introduction of the city’s largest contiguous Continue reading
While nobody wants to buy or even lease the Hooters Hotel, current owners Canyon Capital Realty Advisors at least have found some new gaming expertise for the property. In this case, “new” is a relative term, as the familiar faces of Larry J. and Larry D. Woolf will be steering daily operations. The elder Woolf, who once ran MGM Grand, right across the street, says Hooters — which will soon be de-branded — has been performing better and has enough in the kitty to spend $3 million on renovations. That sounds like a patchwork solution but so is Navegante Gaming: an experienced manager of grind joints, shepherding Hooters along until maybe, someday, someone will actually want to buy the place. Given the lack of name-brand hotel affiliation for Hooters, it is a marvel that it continues to survive. It’s got tenacity, no question.
In one of the odder gaming stories of the year, Sunday’s New York Times Magazine will reveal that former Barack Obama campaign operatives — now toiling in the private sector — paid Las Vegas a visit last spring to try and sell their data-mining mastery to Caesars Entertainment. The latter “was looking for ways to induce semiregular visitors to show up more routinely at its other casinos around the country and to keep regulars from defecting to new competitors.” Guess that Total Rewards magic isn’t working as well as it once did. The visiting wonks from A.M.G. must not have gotten a Caesars sinecure because they sniff about the trip being “a small discomfort” and playing “the Devil’s advocate.” (It would never occur to me to liken Gary Loveman to Satan, no matter how badly he’s wrecked Caesars.)
What do you do if you’re Galaxy Gaming CEO Robert Saucier? A judge in California has called you “evasive and … intentionally dishonest.” (Or, in plain English, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”) You’re 
“It reminds me of an Applebee’s.” — remark overheard during the media rollout of Pub 1842, 
In other words, it’s a governmental effort to forcibly steer customers from one segment of the industry to another, more politically palatable one. Since Gov. John Kasich (R) had already diluted the earning power of the four Buckeye State casinos approved by voters, by allowing seven racinos as well, it’s an after-the-fact form of protectionism. Given the inelastic nature of the Ohio market to date, it’s questionable whether cracking down on Internet cafes will drive massive amounts of slot play to the casinos and racinos. But, after the number of times the gaming industry has been shaken down by Kasich and his legislative cronies, it’s awfully sweet of them to try and manipulate the market back into 
State governments like casinos because they fill the capitol’s coffers with revenue. At least that’s what they’re supposed to do. But something’s gone very wrong in Delaware. Gov. Jack Markell‘s administration — having an extra $50 million on hand — is 
administration has not supported changing the tax structure permanently, but recognizes that forcing the casinos to bear additional costs will make them less competitive at a time when they need to be more competitive with casinos in surrounding states,” said Markell spokeswoman, Cathy Rossi. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, casinos accepting government handouts look pathetic. They are, after all, profit-making enterprises in which the odds always favor the house. However, states where government controls the amount of capacity and competition (such as Delaware) have an obligation toward the casino industry’s financial health. Markell and the Legislature should shave a few points off that tax rate or else 
While we’re still a few years from seeing Resorts World Las Vegas come to fruition, in the meantime, Genting Group would like to tease our interest. It’s asking Clark County 
It’s Monday, so it must be time for another worshipful Sam Nazarian profile in the Los Angeles Times. 
If you read Bloomberg News last week, Macao is tantamount to Disneyland, at least if you visit Venetian Macao, which is “home to a fake grand canal, crooning gondoliers and brands from McDonald’s to Dior.” The amenity-laden style of Sheldon Adelson
Wow. I am stunned. Despite defiant proclamations that he would fight the Federal Trade Commission in court, Pinnacle Entertainment CEO Anthony Sanfilippo capitulated in swift order. This morning, J.P. Morgan reported that Pinnacle had reached an agreement in principle to sell both its own Lumiere Place and Ameristar Casinos‘ Lake Charles project. The accord is subject to various other conditions (such as the assent of the Missouri Gaming Commission) 
I can visit the Fremont Street Experience anytime I want, for free. So can guests at any Downtown hotel … except the Golden Nugget. In a vile new variation on the “resort fee” phenomenon, owner Tilman Fertitta is now tacking on a bullshit, $5 tariff called a “Fremont Street Experience fee,” for which you can get … what all the rest of us get gratis. Spokeswoman Tiffany Hauck demonstrated the art of making a distinction without a difference, when she explained the move as an altruistic decision that “rather than raise hotel rates or charge high resort fees, we have chosen to keep our rates low and implement a nominal $5 fee.” Is it too soon to call for a boycott of the Nugget?
PokerStars Chairman Mark Scheinberg is so eager to expedite an Atlantic City deal that he’s agreed to forfeit $50 million in potentially ill-gotten gains. Scheinberg’s online casino is now arguably the scummiest license applicant in New Jersey history, but a lot of people want to see this deal done. One who doesn’t is Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack, who recently took Rational to the cleaners (along with his investors, who have seen a $513 million investment lose $498 million of its value). Even so, Rational is going to fight it out in appeals court. However, PokerStars is obviously rolling in dough, giving one cause to wonder why it doesn’t pursue Trump Plaza instead. Money should be no object, since legitimized Internet gambling is the ultimate prize, and Rational has more than enough scratch that even Trump creditor Carl Icahn should be satisfied.
Steve Wynn is engaging a multi-pronged effort to clinch the favor of voters in Everett. Of course, if the Massachusetts Gaming Commission 
Pinnacle Entertainment has lined up $2.9 billion in financing for its takeover of Ameristar Casinos. (Wouldn’t it have been awkward if Wall Street had said, “No thanks”?) In case you’re wondering, the deal values Ameristar at 8X cash flow, a nice premium for a company that’s rooted in secondary and tertiary markets. Assets sales to placate either the Federal Trade Commission or the State of Missouri shouldn’t change that valuation, since it’s Pinnacle’s own Lumiere Place (above) and an unfinished Ameristar casino that are likeliest to go onto the auction block — with Pinnacle in a very poor bargaining position right now.
Buried at the bottom of a J.P. Morgan analyst rep0rt on meetings with MGM Resorts International executives was a real corker: “[W]we would not be surprised to see MGM look to monetize some of CityCenter’s asset base, for example Crystals, its retail mall,” whose net operating income is a measly $40 million. Morgan’s Joseph Greff thinks the moribund, super-high-end, l0w-traffic mall could fetch $800 million at resale and boost MGM share values. Although Greff characterized customer spending and hotel bookings along the Strip as recovering in “modest, baby-step improvements,” that’s overshadowed by a 
degenerate gambler Yusuf Omar Siddiqui (left, who has now added “convicted felon” to his resume) and Mexican pharmaceutical exec Zhenli Ye Gon, who’s being housed and fed at U.S. taxpayer expense while he tries to avoid going back to Mexico to face felony charges there. While these are pretty rum customers, Sands can’t exactly choose the company it keeps. But if it had reason to be suspicious about the provenance of Siddiqui’s ill-gotten gains or Gon’s money, then it’s in the soup. Heck, I’m still waiting for a convincing explanation of how Sands China could be paying 700 grand to Macanese legislator Leonel Alves and not be in contravention of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Given Sands’ history of 
Casinos in Ohio have not been living up to revenue expectations. Given such a fallow market, what has Penn National Gaming decided to do? Break ground on two racinos, of course! One is in the Dayton area, the other — $250 million Mahoning Valley Race Course — is near Youngstown, and Penn is pushing for a third. Since they’ll only have VLTs, they won’t be fully competitive with, say, Hollywood Toledo or underachieving Hollywood Columbus. But remember that MTR Gaming has been kicking Penn’s ass in Columbus with VLT-only Scioto Downs, so these are not second-class facilities by definition. At least Rock Gaming Caesars had the perspicacity to negotiate a sweetheart provision with Ohio that enables it to move ThistleDown Racino to near Akron if it bombs in the Cleveland market.
wait for it — 
of the way around the globe to recruit … Melco Crown Entertainment as operator. 
While in Vegas, Deutsche Bank’s Carlo Santarelli dropped in on Boyd Gaming and … well, the news wasn’t as good there as on the Strip. He predicts a “tempered recovery,” adding that “expectations for an inflection in the LV locals gaming recovery are premature at present.” All the important indicators — employment, construction activity, home prices — are trending in the right direction. Not so good for players is a drastic reduction in comps and promotional offers. Given all of that, is it any great surprise that locals are spending 4/5 of what they were at the height of the boom? Boyd, specifically, is looking toward $200 million in locally derived cash flow this year, compared to 2007’s $275 million. According to Santarelli, “they believe [recovery] is lurking around the corner,” as they always seem to do. Elsewhere, its Midwest casinos are stable, performance in Louisiana — where Wall Street erroneously 
Strip project remains on schedule to open in early 2016 (a covert dig at Sheldon Adelson‘s perpetual tardiness?) and Santarelli describes the project as “meaningfully under-appreciated.” Interestingly, Wynn is the only operator in Macao not to offer rebates on losses to high rollers. Wynn Macau is adding two more VIP rooms and Santarelli implies that tables will be shifted there, away from mass-market play. (Remember, there’s a government-imposed cap on the number of table games you can have.)