{"id":14593,"date":"2014-09-18T10:14:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T18:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14593"},"modified":"2014-09-18T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T18:28:09","slug":"foxwoods-woody-exits-eldorados-big-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/foxwoods-woody-exits-eldorados-big-gains\/","title":{"rendered":"Foxwoods: Woody exits; Eldorado’s big gains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foxwoods Resorts Casino<\/strong>‘s financial problems could hardly be called “solved,” but CEO Scott “Woody” Butera<\/strong> plans to leave next month anyway for a non-gaming \"foxwoods\"<\/a>job. He will continue to advise Foxwoods<\/a> from his new perch, though, even dickering with the casino’s creditors. Butera hasn’t disclosed what his “rare opportunity outside of the gaming industry” is. Perhaps, having converted $2.2 billion in old debt into $1.7 billion in new debt<\/a>, Butera feels his work is done. Said Woody,\u00a0“Foxwoods now has a strong executive team and a solid plan that I believe will result in great success in the near future.”<\/p>\n

Among the unfinished business Butera leaves is the casino’s attempt to penetrate southeastern Massachusetts<\/strong>. It’s been mulling sites<\/a> in Fall River<\/strong> and is expected to make a strong push for the Bay State’s last casino license. Anyway, Butera made his name as a restructurer, not on operator. Having reorganized Foxwoods’ debt, perhaps Butera feels there is relatively there for him to do.<\/p>\n

* Louisiana<\/strong> had a good August, up 1% from last year. The headline item was an \"lauberge_exterior\"<\/a>unlikely upset in Lake Charle<\/strong>s, where Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>‘ underdog\u00a0Isle Grand Palais<\/strong>\u00a0was up 8%, at the expense of L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong>, down 6%. (L’Auberge still outgrossed Grand Palais, $31 million to $13 million, but the shift in momentum is noteworthy.) Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s other L’Auberge -branded property, in Baton Rouge<\/strong>, was flat, which was more help to Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Belle of Baton Rouge<\/strong> (up 5%) than to GLPI<\/strong>‘s Hollywood Baton Rouge<\/strong> (down 4%). In dollar volume, L’Auberge outgrossed its two competitors combined.<\/p>\n

Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> was even more dominant of the Big Easy market, grossing $27 million. Even a 2% drop in revenue didn’t put it in shouting distance of Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Treasure Chest<\/strong> (up 2%), Pinnacle’s Boomtown New Orleans<\/strong> (down 4%) or Churchill Downs<\/strong>‘ Fair Grounds<\/strong> racino (-6%). Boyd \"Amelia<\/a>struggled at some of its outlying properties, like Amelia Belle<\/strong> (-3%, left<\/em>) and Evangeline Downs<\/strong> (-4%) — integrating the Peninsula Gaming<\/strong> portfolio has been easier said than done. However, strong results at Delta Downs<\/strong> (up 6%) and Sam’s Town Shreveport<\/strong> (+11%) put Boyd in the plus column for the month, alongside Isle and Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The crowded Shreveport<\/strong>\/Bossier City<\/strong> market had a banner month, the exceptions being Diamond Jacks<\/strong> (-11%) and Caesars’ Louisiana Downs<\/strong> (-1%). Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong> led the market in dollars and percentage gain (12%). Other properties posting positive results were Pinnacle’s Boomtown Bossier<\/strong> (+5%), Eldorado Shreveport<\/strong> (+11%) and Margaritaville<\/strong> (+6.5%). Indeed, during its brief existence, Margaritaville has elbowed its way to third place in the market. Who says there’s no good news in gaming?<\/p>\n

* Speaking of Eldorado, the Carano<\/strong> family received\u00a0the final clearance<\/a> it needed to subsume MTR Gaming<\/strong> into Eldorado HoldCo<\/strong>. The transaction doubles the size of Eldorado’s portfolio, including adding lucrative Scioto Downs<\/strong>, in Ohio<\/strong>, and Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort<\/strong>, in Chester<\/strong>, West Virginia<\/strong>. Those MTR properties are going to be in very good hands, as anybody who’s stayed at the Caranos’ Silver Legacy<\/strong> in Reno<\/strong> can attest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foxwoods Resorts Casino‘s financial problems could hardly be called “solved,” but CEO Scott “Woody” Butera plans to leave next month anyway for a non-gaming job. He will continue to advise Foxwoods from his new perch, though, even dickering with the … 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":[60,176,166,7,85,84,112,158,71,69,30,111,79,21,139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14593"}],"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=14593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14596,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14593\/revisions\/14596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}