{"id":10842,"date":"2013-05-16T10:26:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T18:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=10842"},"modified":"2013-05-16T10:26:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T18:26:39","slug":"pennsylvania-and-louisiana-its-what-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/pennsylvania-and-louisiana-its-what-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania and Louisiana: It’s what it is"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When last seen, Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> was telling his brethren that a stale property is an endangered property. To prove his point, he need look no farther than Philadelphia<\/strong>, where new kid on the block Valley Forge Casino Resort<\/strong> (left<\/em>)was up in largely “down” April, its revenues increasing 29%. At $8 million last month, Valley Forge is still small potatoes but it’s ascending at a time when SugarHouse<\/strong> and Parx Casino<\/strong> are flat, and when — ahem! — Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong> fell -6%. All these boys need to make money while the sun shines because if the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission<\/strong> awards that fifth license to Steve Wynn<\/strong> or Bart Blatstei<\/strong>n, it’s be like dropping an A-bomb on the competition. Game over, fellas.<\/p>\n

(True, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> is in contention, too, but it’s yet to prove it can deliver a knockout punch, except in an uncontested market.)<\/p>\n

The rest of the Keystone State map was a story of down a little bit here, a little bit there, with two exceptions. Presque Isle Downs<\/strong> (-19%) continues to lose customers to Horseshoe \"\"Cleveland<\/strong>. And, with a 9% revenue increase for a near-best $38 million, is Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> owner Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> so convinced he wants to sell the place? Its only sin seems to be relatively low return on investment, but it’s withstood competition — even from Resorts World New York<\/strong> — and continues to grow. Trying to shed Sands Bethlehem is a knee-jerk decision that should be rethought.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pulling another market upwar<\/strong>d was a newcomer, Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> ($12 million, left<\/em>), which converted Louisiana<\/strong>‘s 4% year\/year, same-store drop into a 3% gain. L’Auberge BR continues to demolish its competition, making more by itself than Penn’s Hollywood Baton Rouge<\/em> (-33%) and Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Belle of Baton Rouge<\/em> (-27%) combined. Rarely have I seen a new property take a wrecking ball to its rivals in such a crushing manner. In the state’s biggest market, Lake Charles<\/strong>, Pinnacle’s L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong> (+9%) grossed $30 million, more than any casino in the state — even Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> ($26 million, -4%). Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong> dipped 6% at its Lake Charles vessel, grossing $11 million.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Fair Grounds<\/strong> racino (up 9%) in New Orleans<\/strong> was the only other property in the Pelican State to post significant gains. Caesars (-3%) and Boyd Gaming<\/strong> (-2%) has average months statewide and outperformed their competitors in the Shreveport<\/strong> area? How did they do that? By having flat months at Sam’s Town<\/strong> and Horseshoe<\/strong> when everyone else was slipping. Perhaps there are macroeconomic explanations for why revenues seem to be stuck in neutral, but Occam’s Razor suggests that the casino industry — in those regions where it exists or is accessible — has hit its saturation point and is just going to have to learn to live with these kinds of numbers, uninspiring though they may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When last seen, Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman was telling his brethren that a stale property is an endangered property. To prove his point, he need look no farther than Philadelphia, where new kid on the block Valley Forge Casino … 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":[60,28,14,120,85,84,101,71,69,95,30,111,25,12,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10842"}],"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=10842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10843,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10842\/revisions\/10843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}