{"id":15206,"date":"2014-12-15T14:45:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T22:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15206"},"modified":"2023-02-22T08:37:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T16:37:36","slug":"hope-and-change-in-atlantic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/hope-and-change-in-atlantic-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope and change in Atlantic City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not everybody is on board with Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong>‘s and state Senator Stephen Sweeney<\/strong>‘s plan for a new, fixed-rate payment system for Atlantic City<\/strong> casinos, in lieu of \"chris-christie\"<\/a>property taxes. Despite a floodtide of new revenue in recent months, the Golden Nugget<\/strong> is still one of the smaller fish in the Atlantic City pond. As such, its general counsel,\u00a0Steve Scheinthal<\/strong>, says the Nugget would be penalized by the new proposal.\u00a0“This is Robin Hood<\/strong> taking from the poor to give to the rich.\u00a0It takes our taxes from $4.7 million to $8.1 million. We’re not happy. We are going to go to court and blow this whole thing up,” he vowed.<\/p>\n

General Manager Todd Pohlman<\/strong> added his voice: “”As ecstatic as we are to lead the industry in revenue growth, this proves all the more how unfair that bill is.\u00a0It’s frustrating to think that the state thinks raising our taxes but giving the big casinos huge tax breaks is the answer.” Scheinthal tempered his own remarks by saying that Sweeney might advance a tax credit to any casino owners who see their property taxes rise under the planned reform. (Not showing his hand, Sweeney declined to comment.)<\/p>\n

Scheinthal had his own staff crunch the numbers<\/a> and came to the conclusion that, under the proposed law, Harrah’s Resort<\/strong>, Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong>, Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong>, Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> and Borgata<\/strong> would (in descending order) pass less in property taxes. Bally’s<\/strong> and Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> would pay more.<\/p>\n

* No sooner had a state Senate committee approved a new, slimmed-down version of the old ’boutique casino’ bill than a suitor appeared<\/a>: Curtis Bashaw<\/strong>. He proposes a mini-casino in
\n\"Chelsea\"<\/a>his 330-room Chelsea Hotel<\/strong>. Bashaw has been trying to get into the game for some time and this looks like his best chance yet. No longer would be have to build an all-new facility nor grow it up to 500 rooms over time.<\/p>\n

“It’s a boutique hotel; we don’t have room for a big casino,” Bashaw said. “But the [earlier] bill that passed prevented us from taking advantage …\u00a0It would be a very intimate experience.\u00a0The casino would be a desirable place to go and learn to play, and hang out with your friends.” (Hotel guests would get first dibs on gaming positions.) Bashaw added, “there is too much capacity of the one-size-fits-all gaming floor that dominates Atlantic City.\u00a0We don’t want to compete with the mega-gaming halls.”<\/p>\n

Of course, those “mega-gaming halls” may look askance at a newcomer just as their own revenues are finally climbing.<\/p>\n

* In other Boardwalk news, Richard Stockton College<\/strong> got Showboat<\/strong> for $18 million<\/a>. That number must make Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> accountants weep when they think of \"Showboat<\/a>how much more the company could have made had it liquidated that asset before or during the company’s LBO. Caesars’ failure to perceive the effect Pennsylvania<\/strong> would have on Atlantic City will go down as a major bit of shortsightedness. Anyway, the erstwhile Showboat gaming floor will “include approximately 20 mixed-use classrooms, 10 lecture facilities, music, dance and choral instruction rooms, an experimental theatre and dance studio.” Some 479 hotel rooms, plus restaurants, will be operated by Dolce Hotels & Resorts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As one deal closed, another formally unraveled. Judge Gloria Burns<\/strong> gaveled finis<\/em> to\u00a0Brookfield Asset Management<\/strong>‘s abortive purchase of the carcass of Revel<\/strong>.\u00a0“They pre-emptively went to the press and announced that they were walking away from this transaction. Quite simply, they have affirmatively repudiated the contract,” said Revel attorney John Cunningham<\/strong>. Rather than repeat all the bankruptcy-auction madness wrought by Brookfield, Revel ownership is asking that runner-up Glenn Straub<\/strong>‘s $95 million bid be accepted, a matter that will be adjudicated early in the new year.<\/p>\n

Revel doesn’t walk away from this empty-handed<\/a>. It’s keeping $11 million that Brookfield put down as a deposit. (An earlier breakup fee\u00a0by Straub was also kept.) It seems to be easier to make money off Revel dead than alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not everybody is on board with Gov. Chris Christie‘s and state Senator Stephen Sweeney‘s plan for a new, fixed-rate payment system for Atlantic City casinos, in lieu of property taxes. Despite a floodtide of new revenue in recent months, 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":[23,60,185,7,11,167,95,157,31,129,21,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15206"}],"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=15206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32380,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15206\/revisions\/32380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}