{"id":12577,"date":"2014-01-29T12:14:45","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12577"},"modified":"2014-01-29T12:14:45","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:14:45","slug":"showdown-over-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/showdown-over-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"Showdown over Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Philly<\/a>“We need to offer something more than a casino<\/em>,” said Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board<\/strong> member Gregory Fajt<\/strong> at yesterday’s hearings, at which The Provence<\/strong> and Hollywood Casino<\/strong> made their cases. The Provence promised to be something and Hollywood, almost defiantly, offered more of the same … or maybe less. Convenience, convenience and convenience were its selling points<\/a>. In “every market across the country, what comes back is convenience,” said Penn National Gaming<\/strong> COO Jay Snowden<\/strong>. With an attitude like that, Penn is probably out of the running already.<\/p>\n

If it wasn’t, then CEO Tim Wilmott<\/strong> stuck his foot squarely in his mouth. “We don’t want to end up like Revel,” he said, by way of defending his company’s multi-phase development strategy. Using such a notorious failure by way of an example suggests a borderline pessimistic attitude toward the Philadelphia<\/strong> market. \u00a0And do you remember that promise to put “all the profits” into local nonprofits?\u00a0Well, that’s been scaled back to $2 million\/year<\/a>, escalating to $23 million 15 years hence.<\/p>\n

Bart Blatstein’s The Provence is selling itself on snob appeal<\/a>, calling it “an integrated urban entertainment destination” that happens to have gambling. “”I believe strongly that the bulk of the market is being missed<\/em>,” said Blatstein, and architect Paul Steelman promised a “stratified” design to appeal to all classes of customer, all the way up to high rollers. Whereas Penn National sold itself on how many parking spaces it would have, The Provence is in a congested part of downtown Philly. Its revenue projections are also the most aggressive.<\/p>\n

Blatstein said “said his $700 million casino would be a world-class destination on par with the glitzy gambling resorts of Las Vegas, offer a strong mix of gambling, high-end shops and restaurants, entertainment venues, a hotel and many other amenities<\/em>.” Unfortunately, he seems to have left operator-to-be Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong> at home, giving Penn National free rein to tout its experience as a regional operator.<\/p>\n

Casino supporters<\/strong> in Kentucky<\/strong> are still getting their pants on while opponents launch an aerial assault<\/a>. The Kentucky Baptist Convention<\/strong> is already airing anti-casino radio spots. In them, the KBC’s Paul Chitwood<\/strong> says, \u201cI\u2019m a hunter, but Kentucky lawmakers should not be issuing \u2018hunting licenses\u2019 that allow casino operators to prey on the most vulnerable among us<\/em>.\u201d He’ll be following up with a video blitz. Casino-enabling legislation is still stuck in casino, so the KBC may be opening fire on a sitting duck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We need to offer something more than a casino,” said Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board member Gregory Fajt at yesterday’s hearings, at which The Provence and Hollywood Casino made their cases. The Provence promised to be something and Hollywood, almost defiantly, … 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":[24,28,14,85,116,69,95],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12577"}],"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=12577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12579,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12577\/revisions\/12579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}