Parx Casino in Raynham, Massachusetts, will cost $277 million. Parx has $231 million in the kitty. How does the company propose to make ends meet? It will erect a temporary slot facility while the permanent one is built. This temporary slot parlor will have to generate $46 million, so that Parx numbers pencil out and possibly to cover any cost overruns.
And then there were two. Only tail-dragging Revel Resort and the Atlantic Club Hotel have now failed to sign up with an Internet gambling provider. Even Atlantic City‘s worst-performing casino, Trump Plaza, now has a partner. It’s teaming with Betfair, which already is in good standing with the State of New Jersey. It provides the platform off of which parimutuel wagers are placed on 4NJBets. S&G predicts speedy approval of this deal. Betfair has already been chumming the waters with social-gaming applications and advertisement. Trump Entertainment Resorts still hopes to sell the Plaza, which partly explains its decision to have Trump Taj Mahal partner with Station Casinos subsidiary Ultimate Gaming, which ought to simplify matters.
It was a bittersweet victory for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians. Its casino compact was gazetted by the Obama administration, but that’s far from the end of the line for the Station Casinos-backed project. Opponents of the off-reservation casino appear to have gathered enough signatures to force a referendum next year. That means the North Fork will have to put its dreams in its back pocket for at least 13 months more. Every time the project appears to have reached fruition, it gets pushed a little farther out of reach.
