{"id":10457,"date":"2013-02-07T11:47:46","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T19:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10457"},"modified":"2013-02-08T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T22:29:57","slug":"ameristar-no-surprises-illinois-iowa-and-ohio-all-soft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/ameristar-no-surprises-illinois-iowa-and-ohio-all-soft\/","title":{"rendered":"Ameristar: No surprises; Illinois, Iowa and Ohio all soft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A preview of Ameristar Casinos<\/strong>‘ 4Q12 report draws an about-what-we-expected reaction from Joseph Greff<\/strong> of J.P. Morgan<\/strong>. Ameristar narrowly missed most of Wall Street<\/strong>‘s expectations, a result Greff partially attributes to “sluggish … regional gaming spend.” Hardest-hit by the competition was Ameristar’s Kansas City<\/strong> casino (left<\/em>, -8%), which has been losing business to Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s racino at Kansas Speedway<\/strong>. Bright spots on the map were Black Hawk<\/strong>, Colorado<\/strong>, and Vicksburg<\/strong>, while dominant performer Ameristar St. Charles<\/strong> held steady — news that will be welcomed over at Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>, owner-to-be of it and all other Ameristar properties. That transaction is said to be speeding along and could close sometime this spring. Pinnacle’s concentration of ownership in the St. Louis<\/strong> area is expected to be problematic but it gives CEO Anthony Sanfilippo<\/strong> a perfect excuse to cut loose Lumiere Place<\/strong>, whose luster is now a distant memory.<\/p>\n

On the subject of regional sluggishness<\/strong>, let’s look at Iowa<\/strong> and Illinois<\/strong>, which last month grossed $107 million and $123 million, respectively. That puts them -6% and -3% from January 2011. Normally, one expects the \"\"widest swings from the casinos with the smallest revenue bases — like the 9% drop at Penn’s Argosy Sioux City<\/em> — but it was Iowa market leader Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> ($19.4) that got socked the hardest, down nearly 11%. Ameristar’s Council Bluffs<\/strong> casino tumbled 5.5% but was still good for $13 million, while Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong> flotilla of riverboats (-5%) scraped together $18 million between them. Ameristar’s getting more bang for the buck on its 1,589 slot machines than Caesars is on its 2,539 one-armed bandits … something else that will make Pinnacle smile. Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s new twin daughters, Diamond Jo Worth<\/em> and Diamond Jo Dubuque<\/em>, however, joined the family amidst a revenue swoon, off 9% from last year. It sounds like Boyd and Caesars alike could use some new marketing strategies in the Hawkeye State.<\/p>\n

The good news in Illinois<\/strong> is that the Chicago<\/strong> market has stabilized (or bottomed out, depending on your perspective), although Neil Bluhm<\/strong>‘s casino in Des Plaines<\/strong> (+7%) continues to nibble off bits and pieces of the \"\"competition, mainly MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s Grand Victoria<\/em> riverboat (left<\/em>), down 12.5%. With the exception of Harrah’s Joliet<\/em> ($16.9 million, up 2%), Rivers Casino<\/strong> is doing double, even triple the business of its competitors, its $32.4 million gross dwarfing everyone else. The closest thing to good news downstate was that Penn’s Alton Belle<\/em> ($5.3 million, -3%) suffered less than one might expect following Penn’s takeover of the former Harrah’s Maryland Heights<\/strong>, in nearby Missouri. Casino Queen<\/em> had a rotten time of it, though (-11%), as did Boyd’s Par-A-Dice<\/em> (-10%) and Harrah’s Metropolis<\/em> (-13%). Even the state’s former star pupil, Casino Rock Island<\/strong>, has faded in appeal, posting its sixth revenue-negative month in the last 10. So the Land of Lincoln’s casino industry has caught a breather, overall, but with slot routes fast approaching, it’s highly unlikely to improve. If you own an Illinois casino and your last name isn’t “Bluhm,” my advice is: Sell while you still can.<\/p>\n

\"\"Early returns from Ohio<\/strong> are unqualified good news if you’re Rock Caesars Gaming<\/strong>, whose Horseshoe Cleveland<\/strong> grossed $21 million, with average slot and table win per day of $227 and $2,108 — below average for the Caesars\/Dan Gilbert<\/strong> property but easily the best results in the state. Hollywood Columbus<\/strong>‘ slot win could be described as anemic ($124 per slot per day), although it gave Horseshoe a run for its money at the tables ($2,003\/day). H’wood Columbus will attempt to improve its numbers by removing 500 slots<\/a> and beefing up its poker-table inventory. Hollywood Toledo<\/strong>‘s slot win was respectable ($175\/day) but well below average for the Penn property. Detroit<\/strong>-based casino executives can breathe a sigh of relief: The threat from the Buckeye State turns out to have been greatly exaggerated.<\/p>\n

Update<\/em>: Scioto Downs<\/strong> grossed $10.2 million, essentially maintaining its market share vis-a-vis<\/em> Hollywood Columbus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A preview of Ameristar Casinos‘ 4Q12 report draws an about-what-we-expected reaction from Joseph Greff of J.P. Morgan. Ameristar narrowly missed most of Wall Street‘s expectations, a result Greff partially attributes to “sluggish … regional gaming spend.” Hardest-hit by the competition … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,27,28,44,14,7,58,86,85,45,11,35,39,158,91,71,69,30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10457"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10460,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457\/revisions\/10460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}