“There’s such crossover in time periods between basketball and football seasons that when somebody wants to come to our 
sports book, and they’re sitting there and they want to bet on a basketball game, they can’t do it. It made us just kind of hide in a shell ourselves and not really do major marketing because we just didn’t think it was going to be worth it.”—Golden Nugget Atlantic City owner Tilman Fertitta on the difficult days when the casino wasn’t allowed to take NBA wagers.
year’s end. (Gotta be ready for New Year’s Eve.) The changes are subtle at first. Hotel management goes over to Highgate while Paragon Gaming, getting a vote of confidence, stays on as casino operator. Night Owl showroom tickets are still valid and your loyalty card points will roll over OYO Rewards Club. OYO says that Hooters is merely its 
going to flourish. Last week federal authorities indicted 15 individuals (seven of whom are on the lam) and seized 60 machines, along with $150,000 in cash. The raids on Oahu were a joint operation of three federal agencies and the Honolulu police department. U.S. Attorney Kenji Price described the two busts as part of a larger effort to extirpate gambling in the Aloha State.
not a nine-casino market, and I don’t understand why nobody realizes that,” he told The Press of Atlantic City. “You could say the market is going up and that we’ve added thousands of jobs, but now every other casino has had to lay off jobs, so I don’t even know how big the net gain is. But now, none of the casinos have the cash flow that they did.” He predicts that increased competition = reduced capex. “It’s a seven-casino market, and when it was seven casinos, everybody was 
betting. However, American Gaming Association President Bill Miller, in his capacity as gaming’s premier lobbyist, took the temperature of the corridors of power and discovered no fever for sports-betting regulation. Besides, as he reminded us, there had been federal regulation—the Bradley Act—and it had failed miserably. Now the NCAA is back, 
use the standard casino-industry multiple of 7X EBITDA, that implies that The Rio is doing cash flow of $73 million a year. The official press release somewhat defensively describes the sale price as “a strong sales price to EBITDA multiple.” Caesars got a half-billion for the property, fulfilling Gary Loveman‘s long-held (but previously unrealized) ambition. Mind you, Caesars isn’t get out of the Rio business. It will manage it for “at least” two years and pay $45 million in rent.
back to MGM, which would probably roll the sale proceeds into an Osaka resort. The talks are said to be in an “advanced stage” but could yet fall apart. It makes you wonder if Blackstone really intends to sell The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas if it is about to fatten its casino portfolio with two more of the biggest casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
into yet another legendary global entertainment capital. Together with Virgin Hotels, experience seekers all over the world will have the opportunity to partake in an extraordinary guest journey that only our strategic alliance can deliver,” proclaimed Mohegan CEO Mario Kontomerkos. Virgin will be replete with brand names. In addition to Mohegan Sun running the casino, J.C. Hospitality will operate the hotel and the whole shebang will be marketed through Hilton‘s Curio Collection. And let’s not forget AEG, the new booking agent for The Joint. Virgin Hotel represents the first tribal casino on (well, near) the Strip. Can Hard Rock International be far behind?
grossed $85.5 million last month, MGM did $21 million and Plainridge $12 million. That breaks down to $1.7 million a day for Encore, $676K in Springfield and $390K in Plainville. The latter took a 21.5% hit from Encore but still did an impressive $325/win/slot/day. JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff is predicting Plainridge Park will decline 19% in the quarter, compared to his initial projection of 10%. Expect Penn National Gaming to clamor even louder for table games.
blowout (-15% on 7% less wagering) at Borgata—$72 million—was responsible for only 1.5% revenue growth, nearly negating slot win that was up 9% on 6.5% higher coin-in. Still, Borgata is tracking to finish the quarter up 7.5% against Wall Street projections of a 4% slump. As a group, the Caesars Entertainment triptych held the line pretty impressively, up 4% on 4% higher table win (with 6% more wagering) and 4% higher slot win despite flat hold. Harrah’s Resort was flat at $31 million, Caesars Atlantic City jumped 10.5% and Bally’s was flat at $19 million. In sum, Caesars A.C. dramatically outperformed the market and carried its two brethren.
were MGM Resorts International (“its LV Strip exposure next year should be a big positive”), Boyd Gaming (“regional and LV Locals trends remains steady, free cash flow underappreciated, with a primary focus on reducing its balance sheet leverage/net leverage ratio, and don’t foresee any irrational [mergers and acquisitions], an investor concern of late”) and a company whose Las Vegas Strip presence is easily forgotten, Penn National Gaming (Greff thinks it’s under appreciated in its ability to pay down the leverage on its balance sheet).
Circus brings with it. CityCenter North was killed by the Great Recession, Rock in Rio was a flop and the weak performance of nearby SLS Las Vegas surely discouraged casino development. Don’t look for the clown casino to bring big bucks on the market: JP Morgan analysts continually peg its value at 8X cash flow. Maybe all the underdeveloped real estate will raise that up a bit but you’re buying in a rough neighborhood, one that customers have long since fled.
environment (we’re still struggling with the latter over here). “From the results, it is actually quite a surprise to us that most respondents have chosen topics related to a healthy working environment, rather than salary increments,” said New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association Vice Director Jeremy Lei. The slate of requests will be one of the first tests of new chief executive Ho Iat Seng‘s administration.-
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