{"id":105,"date":"2009-06-25T19:24:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/6\/25\/Case-Bets-California-Packers-pickle-Macao-pix-Holy-Cow-Singapore-RoboPoker-etc"},"modified":"2022-02-08T07:15:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T15:15:39","slug":"case-bets-california-packer-pickle-macao-pix-holy-cow-singapore-robopoker-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-california-packer-pickle-macao-pix-holy-cow-singapore-robopoker-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: California, Packer pickle, Macao pix, Holy Cow!, Singapore, RoboPoker, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note:<\/strong> An item involving Crown Ltd<\/strong>. contained factual errors, which have been corrected (as you’ll see). I apologize for the misinformation. My thanks to the reader who pulled my head out of my @$$.<\/em><\/p>\n

California gamblers stay and play<\/strong> … at home. While the recession has made some inroads on tribal-casino revenue in the Golden State, it’s losing less ground than Las Vegas<\/a>. Some of those Vegas losses will eventually be recouped, but this day of reckoning was bound to come.<\/p>\n

Unlike Las Vegas<\/strong>, which is arguably suffering from having too many competing profit centers within each resort, California casino bosses interviewed still view entertainment as either a loss leader or a one-off. I never thought I’d say this but Las Vegas could use a little more “old school” thinking right now.<\/p>\n

James Packer, the guy who can’t catch a break<\/strong>, is<\/span> finds his casino company in even more hot water, in a case of the sins of the father being visited upon the son. The plot surrounding Crown Ltd<\/strong>.’s courtship of a self-banned high roller (and convicted felon) is thickening considerably<\/a>. Seems paterfamilias<\/em> Kerry Packer<\/strong> may have been pressuring crony John Williams<\/strong> to get pathological gambler Harry Kakavas<\/strong> back to the tables.<\/p>\n

Williams, for his part, rolled on the late Mr. Packer, who’s now got some ‘splainin’ to do<\/span>. No wonder the young Packer’s pursuit of Cannery Casino Resorts<\/strong> collapsed like a pup tent.<\/span> The money quote, if you will, is: “[Williams] said it was common for patrons to rip up [self-exclusion] cards and that, in his view, Mr Kakavas’s loss of $2.3 million in 28 minutes was recreational gambling<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

If you lose $82,000 per minute, it’s not recreation. It’s degenerate gambling.<\/p>\n

Globe-trotting Ian Sutton<\/strong> is back from Macao<\/strong> and G2E Asia<\/strong>. The sights! The sounds! The smog<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(Update<\/em>: Ian says it’s not smog but mist, as forthcoming videos will show.)<\/p>\n

Holy Cow II<\/strong>: GlobeSt.com<\/em>, normally a continent source of business news, is shocked — shocked!<\/em> — that Steve Johnson<\/strong>‘s proposed casino on the former Holy Cow<\/strong> site will include a Walgreens<\/strong>. Smelling salts, stat!<\/p>\n

But there are some interesting revelations, For one, the reason that Palazzo<\/strong>‘s flagship retailer is also a Walgreens is that it was a compromise Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> effected with the landowner … Steve Johnson<\/strong>. (The mere fact of Adelson compromising is newsworthy enough.)<\/p>\n

Turns out, that purchase may set the record for an on-Strip acquisition, at an alleged $50 million<\/strong> per acre — Phil Ruffin<\/strong>, eat your heart out! Johnson also paid through the nose for the Holy Cow site. The price? $23.5 million\/acre for land north of Sahara Avenue<\/em>. Egad!<\/p>\n

Columbia Sussex’s casino portfolio<\/strong> continues to crumble. Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> parent Tropicana Casinos & Resorts<\/strong> is selling its Amelia Belle<\/em> riverboat (thereby forfeiting the New Orleans<\/strong> market) barely two years after the ship was acquired. Amelia Belle<\/em> is former Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> vessel, having been Bally’s Belle of Orleans<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s a canny strategic move for new owner Peninsula Gaming<\/strong><\/a>, which now has a Louisiana<\/strong> riverboat as well as a racino and four OTBs, not to mention a small flotilla of Midwest riverboats. TropEnt CEO Scott Butera<\/strong>, meanwhile, has less and less over which to preside. At the moment, his ambit consists of four riverboats, mostly in tertiary markets, two casinos in Laughlin<\/strong> and one on Lake Tahoe<\/strong>. Is this TropEnt’s future: A succession of piecemeal asset sales? Sure looks that way.<\/p>\n

Bad news for Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>. Over in Singapore<\/strong>, rival Genting<\/strong>‘s mega-budget Resorts World at Sentosa<\/strong> is letting news outlets like Bloomberg<\/strong> know that 60% of the project will ready for a soft opening in early 2010 (i.e., February-March). Projected attendance figures have been revised 20% downward.<\/p>\n

In a rapier thrust at Marina Bay Sands<\/strong>, a Genting exec said the company was having regular meetings to make sure it came in on its $4.5 billion budget. Full completion of Sentosa is projected for 2012. Sands is going to have a sufficiently tough time making its nut without Genting crashing the party so soon … to say nothing of the fact that Genting enjoys much higher brand equity in that corner of the world.<\/p>\n

RoboPoker has risen from the grave<\/strong>. Electronic table games have been OK’d for eight New York<\/strong> State racinos. Though the Lege hasn’t signed off, the Empire State’s lottery board is confident it has the authority to make this move unilaterally. Poor Atlantic City<\/strong> is dying the death of a thousand cuts.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Penn National<\/strong>. It’s scheduled to inaugurate a new pavilion for Empress Joliet<\/em> today. A March 20 fire resulted in a three-month closure of the boat and substantial fiscal hardship for Penn National<\/strong>. In a noble gesture, CEO Peter Carlino<\/strong> kept employees on the payroll even though his ship was hors de combat<\/em>. Capt. Carlino, S&G<\/em> salutes you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: An item involving Crown Ltd. contained factual errors, which have been corrected (as you’ll see). I apologize for the misinformation. My thanks to the reader who pulled my head out of my @$$. California gamblers stay and play … 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":[23,103,34,15,28,14,4,104,120,7,118,22,76,49,84,62,101,69,119,90,25,12,108,8,9,20,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105"}],"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=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30705,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/30705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}