You’d think Caesars Entertainment had its hands full with four active casinos in Atlantic City and the defunct Atlantic Club Hotel. But no, CEO Gary 
Loveman is reported to be considering a bid for $2.6 billion Revel Resort, which Caesars could get for a fraction of its face value. (It is unknown whether Loveman was also being fitted for a straitjacket.) Leave aside the fact that Revel has problems that Caesars could do very well without. New Jersey law bans “undue economic concentration” among casino operators. By adding mammoth Revel to its portfolio, to say nothing of mothballed Atlantic Club, how could Caesars not be flouting that route?
True, Total Rewards could be used to boost customer counts at Revel, but a lot of that business would be borrowed (or stolen, if you prefer) from Caesars’ existing casinos in Atlantic City, a contracting market. Hard Rock International is also in the hunt for Revel, it’s not otherwise represented in the market and it’s wobbling under $24 billion in debt. But the power of shiny objects to distract to Loveman should never be discounted.
Speaking of overloaded markets, officials of the City of East St. Louis got to make their case to state Rep. Bob Rita (D), who’s trying to jam them up with a nearby racino. Some of you will recall that, before the opening of Casino Queen, East St. Louis had fallen into anarchy. Now the casino supplies 42% of the state’s taxable revenue. Said Mayor Alvin Parks Jr., “Without the Casino Queen, just from an operational standpoint, we don’t know what the city of East St. Louis would do, quite frankly.”
But we strongly suspect that Rita (right) was more enchanted by the siren song warbled by Fairmount Park, which characterized casino gambling as essential to its survival. Track President Brian Zander said Fairmount Park had lost events, players and jobs to Missouri, where purses are fatter. It’s possible that Zander is right and that it would be a win-win situation for Casino Queen and Fairmount Park alike, but I’ve not seen any evidence that would case me to share his optimism.
Dr. David G. Schwartz explains why the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement‘s cutdown on casino information provided to the public is a A Bad Thing. I wonder if it isn’t a budgetary measure — but that doesn’t make it any more laudable.
