{"id":15422,"date":"2015-01-28T11:24:40","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T19:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15422"},"modified":"2015-01-28T11:24:40","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T19:24:40","slug":"case-bets-igt-hard-rock-golden-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-igt-hard-rock-golden-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: IGT, Hard Rock, Golden Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"web1_WEB-IGT-LOGO\"<\/a>Profits were slimmer for International Game Technology<\/strong> in 1Q15, with the company reporting $35 million, 56% less than a year ago. IGT, which is in the process of being acquired by GTECH<\/strong>, offered little commentary on the results<\/a>. CEO Patti Hart<\/strong> issued a statement that\u00a0\u201cmarket challenges remain in the land-based casino business.\u201d However, the company’s social-gaming sector — driven by DoubleDown Casino<\/strong>, up 11% — grew 23%, grossing $91.5 million.<\/p>\n

* The former Horizon Casino<\/strong> on the shores of Lake Tahoe<\/strong>, purged of the evil spirit of Columbia Sussex<\/strong>, will reopen today as the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong> with the smashing of a guitar<\/a> made of ice. Ironically, it will not have a Hard Rock Cafe<\/strong>: nearby Harvey’s Lake Tahoe<\/strong> (owned by Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>) already has one. Instead, the Hard Rock will have five other restaurants and 25,000 square feet of gaming space. A number of music acts, including the English Beat<\/strong>, are already scheduled for the Hard Rock’s concert hall, Vinyl<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u201cWe felt at that time, the timing was right to bet on a Nevada<\/strong> rebound,\u201d Golden Gaming<\/strong> CEO Blake Sartini<\/strong> said of a 2011 deal that saw Golden\u00a0unload its three Colorado<\/strong> casinos in return for Nevada slot routes and two casinos in bustling Pahrump<\/strong>. Now he thinks it’s the moment to go public<\/a>, via the acquisition of Lakes Entertainment<\/strong>. The news is \"Rocky<\/a>certainly good for the Las Vegas<\/strong> economy, as Golden will have to staff up to meet the paperwork requirements that will go with being an SEC<\/strong>-scrutinized company. (Sartini says the company fielded up to 50 sales offers before settling upon Lakes.)<\/p>\n

Sartini didn’t outline any changes of course for Maryland<\/strong>‘s Rocky Gap Casino<\/strong>, which has been doing extremely well of late. He did, however, hint at pushes into other regional markets. Of his predecessor at Lakes Entertainment, Lyle Berman<\/strong>, Sartini said,\u00a0\u201cLyle\u2019s gaming history speaks for itself.\u00a0He\u2019ll be a tremendous resource. He has a vast network of contacts.\u201d And although Golden already has 7,600 slots and 48 taverns in Nevada, Sartini is not ruling out further Silver State expansion either.<\/p>\n

* In a bit of regulatory housekeeping, Gov. Brian Sandoval<\/strong> has reappointed<\/a> Chairman A.G. Burnett<\/strong> and member Shawn Reid<\/strong> to the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong>. Reid, a 25-year veteran of the NGCB made a name for himself recently by being the only Nevada regulator to oppose the licensure of Sam Nazarian<\/strong>, following revelations of Nazarian’s drug use and tendency to be a patsy for extortionists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Profits were slimmer for International Game Technology in 1Q15, with the company reporting $35 million, 56% less than a year ago. IGT, which is in the process of being acquired by GTECH, offered little commentary on the results. CEO Patti … 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":[27,15,18,7,76,136,72,25,162,92,146],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15422"}],"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=15422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15424,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15422\/revisions\/15424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}