We were stumped for a lead item until we got this snap from our Atlantic City bureau. One has to puzzle at Borgata‘s cretinous idea of a welcome, particularly its implicit slap at women. Did property President Melonie Johnson sign off on this affront?
Next door in Pennsylvania, terrestrial casinos are still having a difficult time catching up to the palmy days of 2019, being 2.5% behind last month for a gross of $278.5 million. Surely what we’re seeing is a saturated market, exacerbated by a string of new-casino openings that has not yet played out. Parx Casino continued to be untroubled, up 5% to $56 million. As for the other Philadelphia-area casinos, Philadelphia Live‘s tight-fisted marketing habits may be catching up with it. It slipped incrementally behind Rivers Philadelphia (still -33%), which came in $300K ahead of Live’s $19 million. Valley Forge Resort suffered a bit, down 10% to $11 million and Harrah’s Philadelphia suffered a lot, sliding 21.5% to $16.5 million. Cordish Gaming won $8.5 million at Live Pittsburgh, while competitors Rivers Pittsburgh ($28 million, -14%) and The Meadows ($16.5 million, -23%) felt the pinch. Rivers Pittsburgh, meanwhile, is upping its game with a $60 million hotel.
Aside from Parx, the only revenue-positive casino in the state was Mount Airy, up 8.5% to $17.5 million. Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs was down 12% to $18 million and Wind Creek Bethlehem won $36.5 million, a -16.5% slippage. Presque Isle Downs dropped 16% to $10 million, Hollywood Penn National made $20 million, off 8% and Lady Luck Nemacolin tumbled 29% to $2 million.
Paris-Las Vegas notched a court victory last week, getting back $155,000 in room taxes from Clark County. The latter had audited Paris-LV, and couldn’t reconcile its definition of a discount and a “room allowance” with that of Caesars Entertainment. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Paris had classified as discounts and room allowances the incentives it provided to people who reserved blocks of rooms at the hotel. The county disagreed with that interpretation.” It paid $300,000 under protest and the court’s ruling essentially splits the baby, while finding that Paris’ conduct was right and proper. A new audit was ordered, one with a clearer definition of the disputed terms. For its part, Caesars will not seek refunds at its other Las Vegas Strip hotels nor at The Rio. Caesars called the ruling “mutually satisfactory.”
Joining William Hill and the D.C. Lottery, fast-rising BetMGM is unrolling its sports-betting app at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. Although—like the Hill app at Capital One Arena—it will only be usable within a two-block radius of the ballpark, it’s sure to beat the tar out of the Lottery’s app, which is widely unpopular with D.C. punters, the majority of whom have sided with William Hill to date. The Lottery claims, unconvincingly, that bettors prefer walk-up wagering. We’ll see about that when BetMGM opens a sports book within the baseball stadium later this year.
Jottings: The bill is due for Las Vegas Sands‘ quixotic tilt at the Texas Lege. $10 million and 74 lobbyists later, the company has jack to show for it. Was the effort just too heavy-handed? We wonder … Sports betting has passed overwhelmingly out of the Ohio state Senate. The bill would permit a george 58 skins, 25 of them online-only, the rest coupled to casinos … Mohegan Sun has become the second casino to sue its insurer over Covid-19-related monetary losses. Foxwoods Resort Casino is brawling with Factory Mutual Insurance about the latter’s claim that the policy excludes viruses and other contaminations … Casinos in Macao that thought they were going to breeze through to concession renewal had better be on their toes: The number of casino inspectors is going up from 192 to 459 and a new directorate has been created to overseas the heightened scrutiny. This will not make the already-shy VIP players happy … Jumer’s Casino Rock Island is now officially a Bally’s Corp. property. However, the dismal recent grosses at Jumer’s make us think Bally’s $120 million purchase price was way off the mark. Sensibly, CEO George Papanier focused on the ability to get into Illinois sports betting … We predicted that autonomous security robots would be coming to Nevada casinos and, sure enough, Grand Sierra Resort is debuting the first one. Will the Sahara be next? … Congratulations, Las Vegas. It’s been named one of the top three destinations for LGBT travelers. You’ve come a long way, Sin City.
