{"id":14286,"date":"2014-08-11T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T20:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14286"},"modified":"2014-08-11T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T20:33:08","slug":"reality-in-illinois-indiana-optimism-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/reality-in-illinois-indiana-optimism-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality in Illinois, Indiana; Optimism in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois<\/strong> has had far worse months than July, which was down only 5%.
\n\"HarrahsJoliet\"<\/a>Admissions were off 9%, implying a 4% higher spend\/visitor. Rivers Casino<\/strong> was flat but still managed to gross double what Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> managed. The latter, however, was up 6%, enough to negate a -9% month at Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> and lift the Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> portfolio 1%. Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> was the only Land of Lincoln casino to grow its revenue, although Rivers Casino’s sanguine results and a mere 1% decline at Jumer’s Casino Rock Island<\/strong> helped make for a relatively stable month.<\/p>\n

The Penn National Gaming<\/strong> portfolio took a moderate clobbering, down 11% at poor sister Alton Belle<\/strong>, off 8% at Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> and posting an average -5% at Empress Joliet<\/strong>. It was much worse for Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Par-A-Dice<\/strong>, -15%, and MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s Grand Victoria<\/strong>, down 14%. Once the top-grossing casino in the state it is now a distant third.<\/p>\n

* For a change, Indiana<\/strong> was worse off, especially with the Cincinnati<\/strong> market sucking playing out of the southern end of the state. Penn’s \"Ameristar<\/a>Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg<\/strong> had the worst of it, down 27%. Relatively close behind were Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Belterra<\/strong> (-19%) and independent Rising Sun<\/strong> (-18%). Further back, but still hurting, were Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong> and French Lick<\/strong> (both -8%). Casino Aztar<\/strong>, in Evansville<\/strong>, is doing a nice job of defying the spread of convenience gambling in Illinois, up 6%. The racinos had a mixed month, with Indiana Downs<\/strong> up 2% but Hoosier Park<\/strong> down 5%.<\/p>\n

In the state’s northern tier, the two Majestic Star<\/strong> boats posted their customarily uninspiring numbers, -6.5% and 16%, respectively. Boyd had a good month at Blue Chip<\/strong> (up 4%) and Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong>\u00a0(above<\/em>) was flat while Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong> suffered an uncharacteristic dive, -18%.<\/p>\n

* “The longstanding image of gambling as a no-doubt winner for state governments has quietly gone the way of a bettor\u2019s bankroll after too many hours at the tables,” reports the New York Times<\/em>. As industry analyst Harold L. Vogel<\/strong> says of Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong> (D), “He’s 15 years too late to the party.” For an extreme example of what Vogel means, look at Delaware<\/strong>, where the racino industry is cadging for state handouts.<\/p>\n

Cuomo’s White House aspirations could hinge upon “a large influx of \"Andrew_Cuomo\"<\/a>revenue and economic activity in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign.” That means the selection process could be tilted toward where it will make the most money: Orange County<\/strong>. A report from the state comptroller’s office warns to expect most of the money to come from in-state. In other words, it’s already being played in New York State<\/strong> somewhere. Much of that is at the country’s leading racino, Resorts World New York<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Whoever thought to juxtapose a casino with a Syracuse<\/strong>-area Amish<\/strong> farm, though, ought to have his head examined for rocks. Downstate racinos are also among the opposition to upstate casinos, which also will be in a footrace with Massachusetts<\/strong> to see who can get their gambling parlors open first. The Cuomo administration dismisses all this as\u00a0\u201cjust a part of a comprehensive effort to grow the upstate economy and bring good-paying jobs to these host communities.\u201d With the jobs projected to earn $30K-$40K a year, it begs the question of whether they will be good enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illinois has had far worse months than July, which was down only 5%. Admissions were off 9%, implying a 4% higher spend\/visitor. Rivers Casino was flat but still managed to gross double what Harrah’s Joliet managed. The latter, however, was … 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":[60,164,14,120,7,58,68,112,11,91,101,69,30,111,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14286"}],"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=14286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14288,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14286\/revisions\/14288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}