{"id":13459,"date":"2014-04-25T12:32:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T20:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13459"},"modified":"2019-07-11T08:56:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T16:56:24","slug":"curtains-for-caesars-windsor-churchill-downs-wants-to-be-a-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/curtains-for-caesars-windsor-churchill-downs-wants-to-be-a-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtains for Caesars Windsor?; Churchill Downs wants to be a player"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mgm-grand-detroit-promotions\"<\/a>Karl Henkel<\/strong> of the Detroit News<\/em> makes a close analysis<\/a> of the market situation in Detroit<\/strong> and sees portents of what has been happening in Atlantic City<\/strong> and Tunica<\/strong>. His analysis doesn’t just focus on gross revenues but, for instance, their failure to keep pace with inflation. Boston College<\/strong>‘s Richard McGowan<\/strong> says the unthinkable: “I can’t imagine the three Detroit casinos are all going to survive.\u00a0I\u2019d be really surprised. I think one will eventually go because the owners are going to say that it is just not worthwhile<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having posted a healthy profit of $156 million last year, MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong> appears impregnable. (Revenue figures for privately owned MotorCity<\/strong> are unavailable.) Greektown Casino<\/strong> is definitely a turnaround project, having lost $31 million and currently taking on $50 million switchout of its gaming equipment and HVAC system. No, the critical-care patient appears to be across the river at Caesars Windsor<\/strong>. It once grossed $616 million, back in 2000, and is now described as “spiraling toward $200 million annually.” (Overall casino revenue for the market last year was $1.68 billion.) With Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> in retrenchment mode, the worst-case scenario no longer seems unthinkable.<\/p>\n

Caesars did better<\/strong> far to the south, in Louisiana<\/strong>. Of all the state’s casinos, only two posted increases: Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> and Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Belle of Baton Rouge<\/em>. In terms of consumer spend per casino<\/a>, Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong> was tops, with $106.89. (Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Delta Downs<\/strong> was a close second.) Statewide, casino win was 3.5% down. Average spend wasn’t high at Harrah’s N.O. but the turnstile count was: 518,035 customers. Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s\u00a0L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> continued to dominate that market and the same could be said of L’Auberge Lake Charles<\/strong>, although customer spend there was almost the same as at Isle of Capri<\/strong>. Over at Shreveport<\/strong>, the addition of the Margaritaville<\/strong> casino merely redistributed business, which was 1% off last year’s pace.<\/p>\n

Churchill Downs<\/strong>‘ is having some issues with its New Orleans<\/strong>-area Fair Grounds<\/strong> racino, whose license renewal looks less than certain. The track has been allowed to deteriorate and the Louisiana Racing Commission<\/strong> wants more than just oral promises of a makeover: It wants them in black and white. That may be a little difficult for Churchill Downs<\/a>, coming off a $700,000 1Q14 loss and looking at six-to-seven-figure fixups in the Big Easy. Meanwhile, Churchill Downs is tooling away on an Internet<\/strong>-poker platform. “And we’ve got a long-term view on this,” explained COO Bill Carstanjen<\/strong>.\u00a0“We can’t make states legalize Internet gaming any faster than they would otherwise. But as that occurs, we want to be a player.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karl Henkel of the Detroit News makes a close analysis of the market situation in Detroit and sees portents of what has been happening in Atlantic City and Tunica. His analysis doesn’t just focus on gross revenues but, for instance, … 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":[23,60,176,154,44,14,7,37,85,84,11,35,30,111,25,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13459"}],"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=13459"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24495,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13459\/revisions\/24495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}