{"id":14510,"date":"2014-09-08T10:58:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T18:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14510"},"modified":"2014-09-08T11:44:37","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T19:44:37","slug":"new-hope-for-showboat-gloom-for-atlantic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-hope-for-showboat-gloom-for-atlantic-city\/","title":{"rendered":"New hope for Showboat, gloom for Atlantic City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Showboat<\/a>While Revel<\/strong> and Trump Plaza<\/strong> go begging — and Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> reportedly plans to close in November<\/a> — suitors are lining up to woo Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> for the Showboat Atlantic City<\/strong>. Already Atlantic Properties Group<\/strong> has pitched the idea of reopening it as a boutique casino<\/a>. And now, from Florida<\/strong>, comes mall developer Latitude 360<\/strong>. Its vision for the Showboat involves no gambling, but the customary Latitude 360 mix of dining, recreation and live entertainment — a formula that the company is taking to Minneapolis<\/strong>, too, having already succeeded in Indianapolis<\/strong>, Pittsburgh<\/strong>, Albany<\/strong> and Jacksonville<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Showboat is but one of three sites Latitude 360 is looking at in Atlantic City<\/strong> but CEO Brent Brown<\/strong> has already had discussions with Caesars. The latter says,\u00a0\u201cWe have consistently said that we would entertain reasonable offers for the property from credible buyers with access to the required capital.\u00a0Our position on this has not changed.\u201d Considering the company’s habit of taking the gaming entitlement off its closed casinos, it would probably prefer to sell to Latitude 360 than Atlantic Properties.<\/p>\n

“We see declining revenues, fewer hotels and slot machines, and most likely, even fewer saltwater taffy sales.” So wrote Deutsche Bank<\/strong> gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett<\/strong>. It’s against that backdrop of sentiment that New Jersey<\/strong> Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (D) convenes his much ballyhooed gaming summit<\/a>. The main purpose of the gathering seems to be to rationalize and legitimize the breaking of Atlantic City’s casino monopoly, with particular emphasis given to creating new, “convenience” casinos in the north part of the state. The idea is meeting with a certain amount of scorn.\u00a0These people claiming a North Jersey casino will be the panacea for New Jersey are the same ones who said Revel would revitalize Atlantic City,” scoffed Atlantic County<\/strong> Executive Dennis Levinson<\/strong>. Added gaming analyst Alex Bumazhny,\u00a0\u201cA northern New Jersey casino would be more of a threat than an aid to Atlantic City, even if you have some kind of revenue-sharing component.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/a>Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> spokesboor Donald Trump<\/strong> couldn’t resist congratulating himself.\u00a0“It’s a different place. About 80 percent of the casinos there have filed or will file for bankruptcy. The whole casino industry is in dishevel. It’s really in trouble now. I got out seven years ago. My timing was impeccable,” he gloated. Some will miss him<\/a>, but not us. Summit or no, the fate Atlantic City’s exclusivity as a casino town is ultimately up to the voters, who won’t be able to vote on the matter until November 201<\/a>5. Even so, one can’t help that Christie’s rescue plan, announced with much fanfare in 2010, is being abandoned in midstream.<\/p>\n

* MGM Resorts International<\/strong> is parting with the oldest and quaintest of its casinos, the Railroad Pass<\/strong>, in Henderson. The building, which dates back to 1931, contains a vault in which pay packets for Hoover Dam<\/strong> workers were \"railroad-pic\"<\/a>stored. The buyer is First Federal Realty<\/strong> but few other details of the transaction<\/a> are available. Even if you’ve never played at Railroad Pass<\/a>, there’s a good chance you seen if from the eponymous scenic railway that runs past it in warm-weather months.<\/p>\n

* Casino operators with designs on Japan<\/strong> shouldn’t expect the market to be a slam dunk. Although women and young men aren’t filling the ranks left by deceased pachinko players, operators are attempting new and flashy ways of keeping the game Japan’s number one sport ($180 million in revenue last year). Zent Nagoya Kita<\/strong>‘s gaming floor may have all the charm of an assembly line<\/a>, but it’s just part of a $100 million investment that includes “a miniature shopping mall, with a convenience store, ramen noodle restaurant, coffee shop, laundromat, flower shop, children\u2019s day care center, wine cellar and even a small art gallery.” Two industries can play the casino-resort trick, it seems.<\/p>\n

* Did you know that poker is illegal in Idaho<\/strong>? Read it and weep<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Revel and Trump Plaza go begging — and Trump Taj Mahal reportedly plans to close in November — suitors are lining up to woo Caesars Entertainment for the Showboat Atlantic City. Already Atlantic Properties Group has pitched the idea … 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":[23,88,42,7,140,171,11,157,20,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14510"}],"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=14510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14520,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14510\/revisions\/14520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}