It’s been a grim December for regional casino markets. Even Pennsylvania, once a bastion of strength, ended 2013 with a slight year/year decline. In Connecticut, a 15% revenue decline was reported at Foxwoods Resort Casino, with handle off 21%. Mohegan Sun showed less volatility of handle but revenue was 8% down there, too. Foxwoods CEO Scott “Woody” Butera dismissed the numbers as “on par with what our expectations were for December,” in a startling display of candor. The pain is being felt in Hartford, whose share of slot lucre fell from $430 million to $296 million in 2013.
Statewide, Louisiana was off 4% from last year — worse when measured on a same-store basis, allowing for Margaritaville in Shreveport. The only riverboats showing more-than-incremental gains were Pinnacle Entertainment‘s two L’Auberge-branded ones. Among those having a particularly rough time of it were Hollywood Baton Rouge (-19%), Harrah’s New Orleans (-18%) and Boyd Gaming‘s Treasure Chest riverboat (-16%).
Kudos to Caesars Entertainment for a multi-pronged promotional deal with the Chicago Blackhawks. The ingenious promos range from Blackhawks logos on Horseshoe Hammond‘s table games to free-play cards for early arriving fans at Blackhawks games. Team-related events will also be held aboard the ‘Shoe. Congratulations to whoever brainstormed this scheme. (Incidentally, Horseshoe Hammond’s lack of a hotel — unique in its market — cost it a day of business during recent snow storms.)
Betting on fantasy sports could be a real bonanza … provided casinos can find a way to make it work. (That shouldn’t be difficult.) The demographics — young, male and unmarried — dovetail with those of the prototypical nightclub patron. So Vegas has a captive audience that it has to figure out how to tap. Daily fantasy wagering is seen as the easiest way to make it work. Matthew Holt of CT Technology “said fantasy sports’ evolution in Las Vegas would be tied to properties creating fantasy games around a loyalty program that lets participants use points they earn for rewards, such as free rooms, meals or concerts.”
While I agree with anti-gambling activist Kathy Gilroy that allowing MTV‘s 16 and Pregnant in Tinley Park, Illinois, would be deplorable, would allowing slot routes be worse? That’s what she’s have us believe. I don’t buy and it doesn’t look like City Hall will either.
Sheldon Adelson has so little clout in D.C. that he can’t find a sponsor for an anti-Internet gambling bill that’s been gathering dust since October. Adelson’s latest ploy is to brandish the “terrorism” bogeyman as an excuse to illegalize i-poker and other games. American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman dismissed El Bombastico’s bill as “pretend Prohibition,” which pretty much hits it on the nail. Besides, Las Vegas Sands isn’t the industry’s paragon where money handling is concerned.
Want to get a tour of Vegas from a bonafide Mafia hit man? Frank Cullotta is giving nightly bus tours, $99 each, jumping off from the Royal Resort (a real throwback joint). It will include some sites where Cullotta put a slug into some unfortunate guy’s noggin.
