Long-serving — and long-suffering — Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway has lost patience with Harrah’s Entertainment. He is convinced that the metamorphosis of Grand Casino Biloxi into Margaritaville Casino is kaput and that Harrah’s will tear down what little it has built. The fact that Harrah’s is obtaining new casinos from the Las Vegas Strip to Bratislava (to say nothing of sniffing around Fontainebleau and the Palms) has not escaped him. Meanwhile, Margaritaville gathers dust. Its construction cranes were dismantled a good while ago. (Even several moribund Vegas projects have kept their cranes in place.) For its part, Harrah’s says it is “evaluat[ing] options” — perhaps such as having the option to double down on the Philadelphia market. The company confirms that it’s dickering with the erstwhile Foxwoods project, on which it holds a $67 million marker.
Speaking of moribund …
KLAS-TV takes inventory of the failed, failing or just-not-happening casino and condo developments on the north end of the Strip. While the Riviera‘s bankruptcy filing was merely the ratification of a fait accompli, even Circus Circus is Continue reading
“Nevada itself would love to be receiving more revenue from casino gaming, but there’s precious little its legislators or governor can do to expand gambling in the state, save thinking good thoughts (although slot route operators would likely settle for a repeal of the tavern smoking ban). It’s the market, not the government, that’s effectively regulating the size of our industry … Given this perspective, it should be clear that doubling, or even quadrupling, the size of the industry [nationally] won’t make much of a difference; even if legislatures permitted it, there just isn’t enough gambling to go around.” — David G. Schwartz, director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research saying things politicians and self-cannibalizing casino companies 
In what was 2010’s biggest foregone conclusion, Riviera Holdings filed bankruptcy yesterday. This has been coming a long time although the scanty news coverage 
“I suspect we’ll be talking about growth in the next couple of months. I always think tomorrow is going to be better than today.” — Harrah’s Entertainment‘s East Coast chief, Don Marrandino, whistling past the graveyard that is Atlantic City, 
Even without loss limits on table games and with new casino attractions at River City, June in Missouri was pretty much a wash. Revenues were up 6% statewide but once you allow for River City (left), everybody else was -4% from last year. All casinos not named “River City” were -10% in table game play, in fact. Also, the new Pinnacle Entertainment fun spot was cannibalizing Harrah’s Maryland Heights and Ameristar St. Charles -12% and -2%, respectively. Ameristar SC’s $23 million still makes it the top-grossing riverboat in the state.
“I don’t listen to a critic who is not rich because I say, ‘If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? I send these guys embroidered Sheldon Adelson towels with a handwritten letter that says, ‘This is for you to wipe the egg off your face when you come to realise how wrong you’ve been.'” — Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson, showing that if he’s growing old, he’s not doing so gracefully.
Oh, how I envy Sheldon Adelson. My own hair grows thinner and grayer while his becomes thicker and darker. (The photo at left, shows Classic Sheldon, circa 1999.) But I digress …
However, she issues 
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Taking its cue from Monty Python‘s interpretation of the death of Mary, Queen of Scots, management of the Riviera refuses to roll over and die. Its latest enhancement is somewhat out of the box as far as Strip watering holes go: a quasi-British pub promising “pints, footy and bangers.” The brainchild of a chef (Mark McGarry), a tattoo designer (Nick Elliot) and a butcher (Nick Jones), Queen Victoria’s British Pub opened late last month and has no doubt been resounding with the sound of the vuvuzela, as a full slate of World Cup games was promised.
Ameristar didn’t do quite so well in Indiana, where its revenues continue to be attenuated by a bridge closure in the East Chicago area. Boyd Gaming‘s Blue Chip riverboat (-7%) continues to feel the effect of new tribal competition in Michigan. The two Majestic Star boats notched gains in the 3%-4% range but nobody managed more than a very, very distant second-place finish to Harrah’s Horseshoe Hammond, a real category killer that pulled in a gargantuan $43 million (+8%).
“So many of the [blackjack] tables have been removed and turned into sucker games. They’re killing the cash cow instead of milking it.” — Pi Yee Press General Manager Al Rogers, distributor of Blackjack News, on 
Since tout le monde is fixated upon where LeBron James will play next season (is it OK for me to say I don’t care?), this seems like the moment to observe that Penn National Gaming bricked an easy layup. That’s right, Penn is suddenly out of the running for the Aqueduct Race Track racino contract.
Even with — thanks to a quirk of Silver State law — slot revenues from the end of April rolled into May’s results, the latter weren’t anything about which to crow. For the state as a whole, only three months in 2009 posted lower grosses than this May’s $847 million. The Strip’s $450 million (-6%) was middling by last year’s standards but the locals market remains anemic, despite harbingers of recovery in