Internet-gaming revenue continues to slip in New Jersey, down 9% from May. There are only three players of consequence: Borgata (36.5%), Caesars Atlantic City (27%) and Tropicana Atlantic City (18%). Still, Internet 
gambling continues to provide a cushion for the resort city, which was down only 6% last month (a same-store comparison was flat). Caesars enjoyed a big bounce at its Atlantic City property, where revenues rose 12%, to $29 million, thanks to heavy table play (up 21%). Borgata ($48 million; -1%) got clocked a bit at the tables, with revenues off 10.5% on a comparable diminution in volume. However, that was offset by nice, tight slots, which won 4% more than last year, despite a slight decline in coin-in.
Results at the four Caesars Entertainment properties were very mixed. Harrah’s Resort ($29.6 million) was only off 2% but a veritable diaspora continues at the lower-echelon casinos. Showboat ($14 million) was down 17% and Bally’s 18%, for $18 million. By contrast, Tropicana jumped 23% (for $26 million) and Golden Nugget pole-vaulted 34%, to $14 million. Resorts Atlantic City was down 5% (to $11.5 million) and what looked like a recovery at Revel has been stymied, down 2% ($11 million). Finally, at the two Trump Entertainment Resorts properties, the Taj Mahal ($20 million) was down 7% but Trump Plaza slid 32%, landing at $4.7 million. With numbers like those, how could they justify keeping it open?
You can keep Crystals. Sin City finally came of age with the announcement that Ikea is opening a store in the southwest corner of the Las Vegas Valley. It’s no credit to us that this didn’t happen sooner. “Ikea said our percent of college graduates was just too low and they found they didn’t do well in that kind of market,” developer Rich Worthington told the Las Vegas Sun some time back. That stung. I’m typing this story while sitting in an Ikea chair but am not amused I had to go to West Covina, California, to get it.
* “Vegas Nocturne is a hit,” said producer Ross Mollison, displaying a bold defiance of reality as the show closed last weekend. (The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas announced it coldly in two sentences.) Its
next destination has been mooted as being anywhere from SLS Las Vegas to Wynncore to a tent on the Strip, all of which makes me think Mollison doesn’t have any serious takers. They’d have to be given pause by reports that Vegas Nocturne (often confused with venue Rose.Rabbit.Lie) was losing money hand over fist.
It was too rich for incoming Cosmopolitan owners, Blackstone Group, it seems, and the format and nature of the show were difficult to describe even if you’d seen it (as I did, and was confounded). As John Katsilometes writes, “There is a time when trying to be too groovy only leads to confusion and exasperation, and Vegas Nocturne did seem to cross that line.” He goes on to mention that Blackstone is planning a redesign of the Cosmo’s fatal flaw, its casino floor. I’m not sure if what’s wrong can be entirely put right but, for what Blackstone’s paying for the joint, it can’t hurt to try.
