{"id":13735,"date":"2014-06-06T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T19:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13735"},"modified":"2014-06-06T11:37:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T19:37:11","slug":"toppling-dominoes-in-new-york-secret-plan-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/toppling-dominoes-in-new-york-secret-plan-in-st-louis\/","title":{"rendered":"Toppling dominoes in New York; Secret plan in St. Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just like that, the E23<\/strong> casino project near Albany<\/strong> is toast<\/a>. But David Flaum<\/strong> won’t be asking for his $1 million back: He and partner Global \"Flaum\"<\/a>Gaming Solutions<\/strong> have their eyes on Rensselaer<\/strong> now. GGS blamed the demise of E23 on “significant land development constraints that limit our ability to deliver a destination gaming resort.” (Only 17 acres were developable.) Flaum and his partners are now proposing a casino of unspecified size at DeLaet’s Landing<\/strong>, a mixed-use development where Penn National Gaming<\/strong> and Cordish Gaming<\/strong> recently declined to pursue their own joint venture<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rensselaer Mayor Dan Dwyer<\/strong> had hinted that another casino developer might be in waiting<\/a> and he was as good as his word. Now the city council must ratify the Flaum\/GGS proposal, which means that the latter must come up with some specifics. Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan<\/strong>, meanwhile vented her wrath on Flaum’s retreating figure: “It has been very frustrating to have a developer come in and make promises and commitments to a community that clearly had no basis in fact.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“We all knew we couldn’t trust David Flaum<\/span>\u00a0no matter how many promises \"Andrew_Cuomo\"<\/a>he was making us or how good they may have sounded,” added Common Council member Judd Krasher<\/strong>, getting his kicks in. Flaum, meanwhile, had been caught off guard by Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong>‘s decision to build a 2,000-employee Thruway Authority<\/strong> headquarters at Exit 23, right in front of where Flaum’s casinos was supposed to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the proliferation of proposals for Orange County<\/strong> has killed off one Catskills-area application<\/a>. Len Wolman<\/strong>‘s Trading Cove Associates<\/strong> — in tandem with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community of Wisconsin<\/strong> — has pulled out of the process. A source close to Wolman told the Wall Street Journal<\/em> that the Orange County situation made it difficult and costly for Wolman to raise funds<\/a>. “The possibility, maybe even the likelihood, of a destination resort with gaming in Orange County so dilutes the market in Sullivan County<\/strong> that building and sustaining a first-class resort in Sullivan is not financially feasible for us,” said the would-be developers.\u00a0Four\u00a0Catskills applicants remain … for now.<\/p>\n

* Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> has its work cut it out for it recouping the $260 million it shelled out for Lumiere Place<\/strong> casino and two hotels. That’ll be the job of GM and Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> holdover Jeff Babinski<\/strong>. His fiercest rivals will now be his former competitors at River City<\/strong>. Managing expectations, he told \u00a0the St. Louis Post Dispatch<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cIf we can recapture even some of that revenue … I think that will be success for us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lumiere-252\"<\/a>Complicating the issue, St. Louis<\/strong> has faded somewhat as a gambling market, down to seventh in the U.S. (from fifth). Bidness-consulting firm RubinBrown<\/strong> has recently released a report recommending that regional casino markets reinvent themselves as vacation destinations and target a younger clientele. Babinski promises a service-oriented culture at a reinvented Lumiere Place and says that Tropicana has “bigger plans”\u00a0— albeit currently in abeyance — for the land occupied by its parking lots.<\/p>\n

* Until Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> arrives to shake things up later this year, Maryland is effectively a one-casino state<\/a>. Maryland Live<\/strong> grossed $59.5 million of last month’s $76 million statewide tally<\/a>. According to The Baltimore Sun<\/em>, it is “the top earner of all casinos on the East Coast offering both slots and table games.” And even though Maryland<\/strong> grossed 10% more last month last month, that was all the doing of Maryland Live and Rocky Gap Casino<\/strong>. Not so fortunate were Penn National’s Hollywood Perryville<\/strong> (-9%) or independent Ocean Downs<\/strong> (-1%). Considering Maryland’s insanely high tax rates on casinos, you have to wonder how the smaller joints make ends meet.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just like that, the E23 casino project near Albany is toast. But David Flaum won’t be asking for his $1 million back: He and partner Global Gaming Solutions have their eyes on Rensselaer now. GGS blamed the demise of E23 … 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":[70,7,72,39,101,69,30,111,20,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735"}],"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=13735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13736,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735\/revisions\/13736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}