{"id":11747,"date":"2013-10-08T13:25:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T21:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11747"},"modified":"2014-02-25T15:22:42","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T23:22:42","slug":"game-time-in-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/game-time-in-massachusetts\/","title":{"rendered":"Game time in Massachusetts;"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Plainridge\"<\/a>Three casino firms got ready to rumble yesterday, as the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> heard pitches from all slot parlor applicants. It was a day characterized as filled with “glitzy renderings and plenty of big promises …\u00a0soaring music, testimonials, and pictures of good-looking people enjoying a good time at a casino<\/em>.” More germane was what each company offered to bring to the table. Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s deal with Plainridge Racecourse<\/strong> would make it “the last line of defense<\/a>” between Massachusetts<\/strong> gamblers and Twin Rivers<\/strong> racino across the border. Penn also promised to keep harness racing alive in the Bay State and touted its Doug Flutie<\/strong> affiliation, including periodic rights to display Flutie’s Heisman Trophy.\u00a0Raynham Park<\/strong> developers offered to create a “soft landing place” for harness racing if they<\/em> got the slots license. They also promised a quick revenue fix, dangling the prospect of a temporary facility that could open within six months. Cordish Gaming<\/strong> touted the geographical isolation of Leominster<\/strong>, as well as its ability to finance project from free cash flow<\/a>. All talked up the environmental friendliness of their proposals. As MGC Chairman Stephen Crosby<\/strong> said, “a very tough choice” awaits the board. One theoretical strike against Raynham Park is that the Mashpee Wampanoags<\/strong>‘ tax obligation to the state drops from 17% to 0%<\/a> if its regional exclusivity is breached. That would seem like a point in Leominster’s favor but this horse race is too close to call.<\/p>\n

\"Maryland-Live-rendering\"<\/a>If Cordish had wanted<\/strong> to brag, it could have pointed to the revenues from its Maryland Live!<\/strong> casino, beating the competition to a pulp with the added power of table games<\/a>. Its poker is also sucking the action out of both Penn National’s Hollywood Casino<\/strong> in Perryville<\/strong> and its Charles Town, W.V.<\/strong>, racino. Only Commerce Casino<\/strong>, in California<\/strong>, sees more action at its card tables. Cordish raked in $50.5 million of last month’s $65 million haul<\/a> (down a bit from August’s record high), a 45% vault from last year. When Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> opens, its hardest task will surely be to wean Maryland<\/strong> players off the Cordish habit, which is obviously proving benignly addictive.<\/p>\n

New York is promising<\/strong> $430 million in revenue-sharing from casino expansion<\/a>. If we apply the Penn National Rule, that will be more like $325 million. Think tanks and casino developers alike have a history of tossing blue-sky numbers around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three casino firms got ready to rumble yesterday, as the Massachusetts Gaming Commission heard pitches from all slot parlor applicants. It was a day characterized as filled with “glitzy renderings and plenty of big promises …\u00a0soaring music, testimonials, and pictures … 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":[70,72,101,69,25,31,20,139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747"}],"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=11747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12856,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747\/revisions\/12856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}