{"id":13905,"date":"2014-06-24T12:24:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T20:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13905"},"modified":"2014-06-24T12:24:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T20:24:58","slug":"mississippi-bogged-down-how-much-for-revel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mississippi-bogged-down-how-much-for-revel\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi bogged down; How much for Revel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HarrahsTunicaExterior\"<\/a>Still further evidence of gaming saturation comes from the Bayou State, where revenues have declined in 21 of the last 23 months — an Atlantic City<\/strong>-like declivity. Last month, the last full month of operations for Harrah’s Tunica<\/strong>, statewide revenues were down 11%. The coastal casinos did incrementally better than river-based ones but we’re splitting hairs. “Revenues in Arkansas<\/strong> increased almost seven-fold from 2007 to 2013, rising by more than 10 percent from the year earlier for 55 straight months,” reports The Associated Press<\/strong>, reflecting the impact of ‘instant racing’ at Arkansas tracks.<\/p>\n

* Elsewhere in the state, somebody had the bright idea of putting a casino in an area zoned as\u00a0residential<\/a>. Community activist Nicole Boisdore<\/strong> fumed,\u00a0“There’s a large group of us that live on the south side and\/or own property on the south side that don’t want a casino literally in our backyard, right in the middle of the neighborhood.” But, in a disconnect, the Property Owners Association<\/strong> voted overwhelmingly to give casino guests “access to the golf course, restaurant, pool and marina for the same rates members pay. They also would receive preferred tee times and marina slips at discounted rates.” If that’s not selling out your local constituency, I don’t know what is.<\/p>\n

* The West Virginia Lottery Commission<\/strong> has also been looking into the saturation issue, pondering whether to relicense the state’s casinos<\/a>, and commissioned a study of FY12 and FY13 from the firm of Gibbons & Kawash<\/strong>. The report’s conclusion is that West Virginia<\/strong>‘s casinos are in ‘sound financial condition’ despite strong new competition from Maryland<\/strong> and Ohio<\/strong>. Here are the comparisons of 2012 to 2013 …<\/p>\n

Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races<\/strong> (Penn National Gaming<\/strong>): $546 million\/$456 million (17.5%)<\/p>\n

Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort<\/strong> (MTR Gaming<\/strong>): $197 million\/$175 million (11%)<\/p>\n

Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino Racetrack<\/strong>:\u00a0$140 million\/$115 million (18%)<\/p>\n

Mardi Gras Hotel & Casino<\/strong>: $44 million\/$40 million (9%)<\/p>\n

The Greenbrier<\/strong>: $13 million\/$13 million (0%)<\/p>\n

All casinos were relicensed by the Lottery Commission. Anyway, it wouldn’t make much sense to pull a license because you had a bad year on the gaming floor, would it?<\/p>\n

* Nobody struggles quite like Revel Hotel Casino<\/strong>, which got a judicial reprieve last week<\/a>. It obtained a forbearance on certain long-term debt while it looks for a buyer. The specter of closure still haunts ill-starred Revel.\u00a0\u201cOh, God, I don\u2019t even want to think of that.\u00a0It can\u2019t happen. It just can\u2019t happen,\u201d moaned former casino regulator Frank Catania<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201dI think a sale is going to happen. This is just too magnificent of a place to close, [but]\u00a0if anybody\u2019s going to buy it, they\u2019re going buy it at a bargain-basement price. I don\u2019t see anybody getting anything near what it cost to build.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, Catania pegs the upper end of the price range at $750 million. But would even so flush a suitor as Hard Rock International<\/strong> pay that much? Revel is downight\u00a0desperate and whoever buys it will have the seller by the short hairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still further evidence of gaming saturation comes from the Bayou State, where revenues have declined in 21 of the last 23 months — an Atlantic City-like declivity. Last month, the last full month of operations for Harrah’s Tunica, statewide revenues … 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":[23,14,165,72,158,71,69,111,25,157,139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13905"}],"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=13905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13907,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13905\/revisions\/13907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}