America‘s casino officially emerged from the doldrums with the release of the American Gaming Association‘s yearly survey, showing a 5% increase in private-sector casino revenue, just $200 million shy of 2007’s record amount. Mind you, we have quite a few more casinos now than we did in ’07, so the pie much be sliced more thinly. Twenty-one were added last year alone. Newer markets, from Maine to Kansas, led the surge. No surprise, New Jersey (-8%) was the biggest loser. Delaware and Indiana, much assailed by new, nearby competition, also had rough years. Despite the increased lucre at the tables, employment was down a percentage point, while tax payments rose 8.5%. New York City, where two, VLT-only racinos raked in $1.32 billion, clearly has explosive potential. Yet, despite all of this, lotteries remain Americans’ preferred form of gambling. After all, when it’s a Powerball jackpot vs. a progressive slot, Powerball is going to win every time.
Unfazed by rejection at the ballot box, Penn National Gaming is going to try, try again for a casino in Prince George’s County, in Maryland. Although voters preferred MGM Resorts International‘s pro-casino push (as opposed to Penn’s disingenuous opposition to gambling) and Penn has pissed off much of Continue reading
That “thud” you just heard was the price of an Atlantic City casino hitting its lowest level ever. In litigation filed against Colony Capital, spurned buyer Rational Group said it was to have paid only $15 million for the Atlantic Club Hotel. Having done so many things wrong, it’s only apt that Colony CEO Tom Barrack couldn’t even get a decent exit price in Atlantic City. (This super-bargain deal makes life harder for Carl Icahn, who’s trying to extract a higher valuation for the just-sold Trump Plaza.) PokerStars got a temporary restraining order against Colony, but I don’t think there’s much danger of Colony being able to find another buyer anytime soon.
We saw Claire Sinclair‘s new show at Stratosphere the other night … or rather, ‘saw as much as we could withstand.’ Our attention and sitzfleisch gave out around the one-hour mark, with at least another 30 minutes stretching before us. Speaking of stretch, the corps de danse looks very well-toned and amazonian but some of their routines appear under-rehearsed. Ditto the synchronization with the band of a vocalist only identified as “Anne.” The latter was mostly inaudible and when you could hear her, you 
“It was mostly old guys with cigars. It was very intimidating to walk into a poker room and see a guy who’s a thousand years old, smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day, giving you dirty looks because you’re taking the wrong card. What online poker did was let people get familiar with the game, feel a little bit of confidence and then they said, ‘I want to go to Vegas and do the real thing.’” — Dr. David G. Schwartz, director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research 
Yes, the recovery in Las Vegas could be said to be a chastened and limping one. The national press 
“MGM [Resorts International] still has much of its business in on the Strip, unlike its major rivals Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts … Those companies both reported gains for the first three months of the year because of their Macau resorts, while Caesars Entertainment, which has no presence in Macau, 
Last week, it turned out that Revel hadn’t drawn down so much as one penny from the Economic Development Authority, whose leader was able to testify that “no funds have been paid to Revel by the state.” Revel probably still intends to go for the gold 
Subtract one casino from the Tropicana Entertainment portfolio: The River Palms Resort & Casino, in Laughlin, just went for $7 million today. TropEnt CEO Anthony Rodio isn’t pulling out of the Colorado River market altogether. He says the company 
Every few years, brows are knitted earnestly in discussion of whether this will finally be the year in which Japan legalizes casino gambling. I’ve been hearing versions of this debate regularly since 2005, so you’ll pardon me if I suppress a yawn. Yes, billions of dollars — to say nothing of various Asian currencies — are flowing into Macao and Singapore. But this is hardly new or shocking intelligence. One’s skepticism is only fed by the hype of brokerages such as CLSA 
revenue in the wake of wake of recent naturals disaster wasn’t enough to get gambling expansion through parliament, what will be different this time? Meanwhile, the three nominal front runners — Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts — 
Pricewaterhouse Coopers, accountant to the stars — and Las Vegas Sands — tendered its resignation last week, news that Sands kept carefully under wraps until after the markets closed on Friday. After a brief, initial shock, Sands shares went back to trading as usual. J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff explained the rupture thusly: “we think this is likely a situation where a service provider reviewed the amount of fees its client pays in relation to services rendered and decided to quit the account.” In other words, keeping Sands’ books was more trouble for PWC than it was worth. This 
“Slot machines and blackjack tables have no power at all. What we are not building is a box of slots. We’re building a beautiful hotel that just happens to have a gaming room in the back.”– Steve Wynn, repositioning himself as an urban hotelier in the course of unveiling 
still pending in Nevada and other states but Ameristar always kept its nose clean and Pinnacle has generally behaved itself under previous CEO Dan Lee and successor Anthony Sanfilippo. Despite a player-sharing agreement with MGM Resorts International, Ameristar wasn’t able to draw MGM into a bidding war. Caesars Entertainment was too levered up and would have been duplicating assets (not that either consideration ever stopped CEO Gary Loveman before) and Penn National Gaming had taken itself out of the fray by going all REIT on us ahead of Pinnacle’s play for Ameristar. Pinnacle nabs a couple of lucrative assets in Missouri, two slightly less so in Indiana, a juicy one in Iowa and a loyal base of players. For Penn, meanwhile, this will be The One That Got Away. Back in St. Charles, Ameristar also received some good news …
Entertainment carried Boyd Gaming up with it, 
As Motley Fool 
If you have been waiting for the moment to sell your Caesars Entertainment stock and get out unscathed, even making a tidy profit, that moment is now. Actually, it was March 20 this year, when CZR hit an all-time high of $17.54, gently sloping off thereafter. That continued an impressive comeback for a stock that’s been of meager value until early February, when it began manifesting signs of strength. Today’s bulletin 
“Apollo’s sixth flagship fund was carrying Caesars [Entertainment] at one-fifth of its $1.34 billion investment as of Sept. 30, according to a marketing document obtained by Bloomberg News. Caesars had returned $158.8 million to the private-equity firm, the document shows.” — yup, Apollo Management and its co-founder, Leon Black, 
If Carl Icahn 
As the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and Gov. Deval Patrick (D, right) continue to try and convince the federal government that their prepackaged arrangement for the Mashpee Wamps to get a casino in southeast Massachusetts isn’t usurious (17% of gross revenues to the state), 
Break out a flagon of whatever Derek Stevens is drinking and put it on my tab, lads. To commemorate the first leg of the Triple Crown, he’s holding a May 3-4 Sigma Derby tournament. Buy-in starts at $50, so starting emptying your piggy banks for some of the best time-on-device action in Las Vegas. To the winner goes $2,500, with varying levels of consolation prize, down to $100 for the sixth through 10th-place finishers. D owner Stevens is also splitting $10K among all punters who bet on the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby. Still not good enough to draw your business? How about $6 mint juleps during the race? Stevens has proven yet again that the Joe Sixpack player in Downtown has no better friend among casino owners.
competitor for the last Philadelphia casino license pulled out its deal breaker. And it’s — a quartet of evergreens. Wow! I am so impressed. (Not.) The conifers are symbolic of a “Special Services District” that would extend from Seventh Street to I-95. PHL executives like to make the point that they were in South Philly long before bygone Veterans Stadium or either of its successors. Joe Procacci and his partners are promising a “world class” casino-hotel (2,400 slots, 105 tables, five eateries and a 250-room hotel, all for a relatively thrifty $428 million. And it can open six months ahead of anybody else, they say. (Not hard when you aim that low.)