{"id":11691,"date":"2013-10-01T13:08:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T21:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11691"},"modified":"2020-12-29T06:51:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T14:51:15","slug":"atlantic-city-exit-pinnacle-turnover-at-revel-invading-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-exit-pinnacle-turnover-at-revel-invading-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City: Exit Pinnacle, turnover at Revel; Invading Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took three years and a frightful loss ($239 million), but Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> is finally shot of Lee’s Folly, the Sands Casino Hotel<\/strong> site that ex-CEO Dan Lee<\/strong> bought for $270 million during the boom years<\/a> … and which promptly went bust when Lee prematurely \"Pinnacle\"<\/a>demolished the Sands, then couldn’t capitalize his projected megaresort. Pinnacle’s successor, Boardwalk Piers<\/strong> is entertaining a variety of uses for the land, including family oriented attractions. (It’s currently parkland.) However, given the advent of Internet<\/strong> gambling in Atlantic City<\/strong>, the Sands land becomes potentially viable for gambling again. Don’t be surprised if Boardwalk Piers floats a “boutique casino” proposal in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n

Interim Revel Resort<\/strong> CEO Jeffrey Hartmann<\/strong> is on the way out, but it’s not how it looks. The “interim” on Hartmann’s title referred to his six-month contract, which is closing out soon<\/a>. Hartmann’s a restructurer, a job that’s pretty well done now. He’ll step aside in favor of COO Scott Kreeger<\/strong>, a marketing exec late of Station Casinos<\/strong>. And marketing is definitely where Revel needs to put its dimes and nickels these days. Revenues have been up in July and August, but high ADRs ($151 on average) appear to be driving down occupancy (a poor 63%). You may think you’re the market leader in hotel product but it’s the market<\/em> that will tell you whether you are. Revel needs to price those rooms to move.<\/p>\n

\"japan_flag_01-300x300\"<\/a>Casino developers have been<\/strong> making investment promises to Japan<\/strong> that dwarf what they offered to spend in Singapore<\/strong>. And no wonder. When one considers that — without casinos — the annual gambling market in Japan is $192 billion<\/a>, no wonder Steve Wynn’s mouth waters. Ditto for Lawrence Ho<\/strong>, who has publicly committed $5 billion to Japanese expansion<\/a>. (Wynn’s peeps haven’t said how big their investment will be, just that it will be billions more.) Everyone’s banking on projections that Japan will be a $10 billion market right off the bat, at minimum, dwarfing Las Vegas<\/strong>, although well short of Macao<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The National Police Association<\/strong>, which benefits from pachinko parlors, looks dimly on the advent of casino resorts. However, pachinko is for the bread-and-butter gambler, a class that may either be banned or discouraged from attending Nipponese casinos. Unlike other Pacific Rim countries, Japan is considered well-advanced in anti-money-laundering technology. Ergo, it is attractive in ways that the Philippines<\/strong> and South Korea<\/strong> are not. Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> is so eager that it says it is “open minded” about taking on a local partner — although partnerships with Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> don’t usually end happily for the other guy.<\/p>\n

The Melco Crown Entertainment<\/strong> CEO is saying all the right things so far: Tourists won’t come strictly for gambling, yadda, yadda. The prospect of a low-tax (20%, jurisdiction) also appeals to potential operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took three years and a frightful loss ($239 million), but Pinnacle Entertainment is finally shot of Lee’s Folly, the Sands Casino Hotel site that ex-CEO Dan Lee bought for $270 million during the boom years … and which promptly … 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":[23,22,171,94,62,93,30,157,12,108,57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691"}],"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=11691"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29001,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11691\/revisions\/29001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}