{"id":11813,"date":"2013-10-16T12:04:06","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T20:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11813"},"modified":"2021-07-02T08:49:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T16:49:41","slug":"singin-the-blues-in-pennsylvania-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/singin-the-blues-in-pennsylvania-louisiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Singin’ the blues in Pennsylvania, Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even slight improvements in consumer spending<\/a> weren’t enough to help Pennsylvania<\/strong>. Gross gambling revenue fell 6%. Thanks to strong table play, Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> was able to buck the trend, staying flat for \"harrahs-chester\"<\/a>September. By contrast, Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong> — in a crowded market — got hit hard, posting steep declines both at the slots and tables, down $16.5 million. Other Philadelphia<\/strong> casinos did not suffer nearly so badly, with Parx Casino<\/strong> still dominating the market<\/a>, down only 2%. Outstate, the Presque Isle<\/strong> racino continued to bleed market share to Ohio<\/strong>, down 14%.<\/p>\n

Despite its central location, Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s eponymous racino also had a hard month, down 12%. Withstanding new competition from Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>‘ operation at Nemacolin<\/strong>, relatively little play was wrested away from huge Rivers Casino<\/strong> in Pittsburgh<\/strong>, down 4.5%. In these economic conditions, it’s just insanity adding another casino to the Philadelphia market but I’ve grown tired of saying so. Let the chips falls where they way.<\/p>\n

Down in Lousiana<\/strong>, the advent of Margaritaville<\/strong> in Shreveport<\/strong> hasn’t grown the gaming market but it has slowed its decline. What was an 8% fall in gambling revenue becomes a 13% declivity when Margaritaville<\/em> is removed from the equation. Except for the hitherto beleaguered Shreveport<\/strong> market (-3%) everybody took a hard hit, even Lake Charles<\/strong> (-12%). It should be noted that Margaritaville<\/em> sucked a lot of business out of the rest of the Bossier City<\/strong> flotilla, which was down 21%. Baton Rouge<\/strong> was 12% down and New Orleans<\/strong> -17%.<\/p>\n

Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Boomtown<\/em>-branded riverboats’ performance was pretty dire. L’Auberge Lake Charles<\/strong> (-17%, below<\/em>) lost \"lauberge_exterior\"<\/a>business to Isle of Capri Lake Charles<\/em> (+3%), while L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> was also 17% down. But Baton Rouge punters seem to have just stayed home: Nobody made gains in that market. Isle was the only major operator to positive a positive month. Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> (-5.5%) saved some face for the company, which got skunked at Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong> (-25%) and again at Louisiana Downs<\/strong> (-14%). Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s five properties posted a 10% decline between them and Penn National would prefer to forget September entirely: down 26% and grossing a meager $5.4 million aboard Casino Rouge<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If there’s one lesson to be taken home from this latest round of monthly financials it’s this: Wall Street<\/strong>‘s constant babbling about Americans’ “pent-up demand” for gambling is just a load of malarkey. More and more product goes onto the market and yet the demand does not materialize.<\/p>\n

If you’re in Vegas<\/strong> and want a burger, Thrillist<\/em> shows you where to find the toniest ones in town. Me, I get gallstone pains just looking the photographs but, for the rest of you, bon appetit<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even slight improvements in consumer spending weren’t enough to help Pennsylvania. Gross gambling revenue fell 6%. Thanks to strong table play, Sands Bethlehem was able to buck the trend, staying flat for September. By contrast, Harrah’s Philadelphia — in a … 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":[18,172,7,85,84,91,71,69,95,30,12,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11813"}],"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=11813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29789,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11813\/revisions\/29789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}