{"id":14412,"date":"2014-08-26T11:53:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14412"},"modified":"2014-08-26T11:53:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T19:53:00","slug":"horseshoe-baltimore-launches-hypocrisy-in-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/horseshoe-baltimore-launches-hypocrisy-in-indiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Horseshoe Baltimore launches; Hypocrisy in Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a “gritty stretch of Russell Street” in Baltimore<\/strong>, partners Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> and Rock Gaming<\/strong> are preparing to bust out their \"Horseshoe<\/a>latest inner-city casino. Not only will it provide commendable urban renewal, it will also give Maryland Live!<\/strong> its most serious competition to date. As the Washington Post<\/em>‘s map shows<\/a>, they are the most centrally located of the Maryland<\/strong> casinos, although Maryland Live! is much larger than Horseshoe, so it will be a heavyweight and a middleweight duking it out for Baltimoreans’ money.<\/p>\n

Live! is already projected to lose 18% of its revenue to MGM National Harbor<\/strong> in two years. How big of a chomp will Horseshoe make? One casino consultant “said that given the region\u2019s population size and affluence, all the casinos should all be able to survive, provided they are well-managed and have not taken on too much debt.” [*cough<\/em>*Caesars*cough<\/em>*]<\/p>\n

It looks as though the casino was tastefully done<\/a>, although — as is the nature of such things — preparations for the opening are going down to the wire. It also may have been a tactical mistake to slate the debut for a night when the division-leading Baltimore Orioles<\/strong> are playing a block away. One foresees much car-parking angst from that. But Caesars needs the money, stat, and can’t afford to wait for\u00a0ideal timing.<\/p>\n

* Is going from a divisional presidency at Caesars to the top job at Affinity Gaming<\/strong> a step up, down or sideways? That’s the \"terribles-pic\"<\/a>philosophical question to be pondered as Michael Silberling<\/strong> trades in a portfolio of 12 international casinos for Affinity’s 11 mostly minor-league casinos<\/a>, including the rattletrap threesome in Primm<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cThere is a meaningful opportunity to establish Affinity as the premier operator of regional gaming assets,\u201d said an optimistic Silberling, although Affinity’s got a long way to go to get there.<\/p>\n

In other company news, Affinity appointed three new board members, two from 34% owner Z Capita<\/strong>l and one from 25% owner Silver Point Capital<\/strong>. That way, institutional investors will be able to keep a close eye on the $382 million debt under which Affinity\u00a0groans.<\/p>\n

* Indiana<\/strong> Gov. Mike Pence<\/strong> (R, below<\/em>) is full of it, if only\u00a0where casinos are concerned. He says he wants\u00a0\u201cprudent and responsible ways that we could maintain the status quo\u201d of keeping those icky-poo casinos off Hoosier State soil. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita<\/strong> showed the folly of Pence’s thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pence\"<\/a>Doing what the state of Mississippi<\/strong> has partially done and what Illinois<\/strong> ought to do, Sen. Earline Rogers<\/strong> (D) is proposing legislation to bring Indiana casinos onshore. She even managed to get a bill to do that through the state senate in 2013.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m much more hopeful that [Pence will]\u00a0see the data on the negative impacts existing policies are having on local communities,” said Rogers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pence claims that\u00a0\u201cit\u2019s not my aim to reduce the role of gaming in our state budget or in our state\u2019s overall economy,\u201d but nonsensically defines movement ashore as an expansion of the industry. Rogers balks at this discriminatory attitude, saying\u00a0\u201cThere have been no incidents to cause us to regret being involved in the casino business. I just want us to treat casinos like any other business.\u201d Indeed, would the prissy Pence single out any other industry for stigmatization — and risk being called ‘anti-business’ into the bargain?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a “gritty stretch of Russell Street” in Baltimore, partners Caesars Entertainment and Rock Gaming are preparing to bust out their latest inner-city casino. Not only will it provide commendable urban renewal, it will also give Maryland Live! its most … 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":[173,113,70,154,7,68,72,11,33,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14412"}],"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=14412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14417,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14412\/revisions\/14417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}