{"id":15508,"date":"2015-02-12T13:59:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T21:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15508"},"modified":"2015-02-12T13:59:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T21:59:25","slug":"whither-ballys-boffo-january-for-atlantic-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/whither-ballys-boffo-january-for-atlantic-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Whither Bally’s?; Boffo January for Atlantic City"},"content":{"rendered":"

From publicly mulling a Horseshoe<\/strong> rebranding to talk of a new hotel tower, Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> has never seemed to know quite what to do with Bally’s Las Vegas<\/strong>, white \"BALLYSHOPS\"<\/a>elephant of its parade of Strip casinos. The Las Vegas Weekly<\/em>‘s Brock Radke<\/strong> has taken a gander at the latest prettying-up around the edges and come away unimpressed<\/a>. At least when the Grand Bazaar Shops<\/strong> formally open on Feb. 26, we’ll learn if the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> needs another 120 Swatch<\/strong> and Ugg<\/strong> boutiques. One thing certain to set the Bazaar apart is the Swarovski<\/strong> crystal store, shaped like a diamond and crowned with a Yesco<\/strong>-devised 14-foot LED installation that at “midnight every night, the starburst will blast out a three-minute light and sound show.”<\/p>\n

Another indication of Bally’s identity crisis was the demise, after seven months, of gay-male-targeted Liaison<\/strong> nightclub. This was one of the first overt attempts on the Strip to court the LGBT demographic and it makes you wonder that, if Victor Drai<\/strong> failed, how long it will be before anyone dares taking the same path. (Others contend that Liaison was too upscale and insufficiently raunchy<\/a>.) In its place we are promised “an exciting new nightlife concept.”<\/p>\n

Aren’t they always?<\/p>\n

* Has Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s long financial freefall finally stabilized? Gaming revenues were down only two-tenths of a point in January and, on a “same store” basis were up 18%. It seems like \"Harrahs<\/a>there’s nothing wrong with the Atlantic City economy that a few casino closures didn’t cure (well, except for that shrinking property-tax base). Internet<\/strong> gaming was good for New Jersey<\/strong>, too, up 8% last month and raking in nearly $12 million.<\/p>\n

Coin-in and table play were both down, 3% and 11% respectively, but a 8% increase in table revenue — the house played very lucky — evened things out. Borgata<\/strong> beat expectations healthily, with an 18% and $57 million gross. Slot revenue was up 18% on heavy coin-in (+12%). Borgata also continues to lead the Internet market with 33%, while Caesars Interactive<\/strong>, the Golden Nugget<\/strong> and the Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> divide the rest pretty evenly between them.<\/p>\n

Harrah’s Resort<\/strong> gained 20% ($31 million) and Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> jumped 30% ($23 million). In this context, Bally’s Wild Wild West<\/strong> underperformed, up 7% on $16 million. The stumblebums at Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> continue to race toward the bottom of the market (currently the province of Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong>), with a $12 million gross and 21% decline. Resorts, meanwhile, managed a 32% increase, grossing $11 million.<\/p>\n

The Overachiever Award goes to the Golden Nugget, whose $16 million gross was good for a staggering 51% increase. It’s still not quite caught the Trop, which pulled in $20 million, worth a 20%. Really, unless you’re a Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> executive, these are good times to be operating on the Boardwalk.<\/p>\n

* Strapped for civic cash, Nevada<\/strong> Treasurer Dan Schwartz<\/strong> is taking the easy way out and calling for an increase on casino taxes<\/a>, always the first resort of a fortitude-challenged bureaucrat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From publicly mulling a Horseshoe rebranding to talk of a new hotel tower, Caesars Entertainment has never seemed to know quite what to do with Bally’s Las Vegas, white elephant of its parade of Strip casinos. The Las Vegas Weekly‘s … 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":[23,60,14,4,7,37,53,11,167,31,9,129,21,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15508"}],"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=15508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15510,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15508\/revisions\/15510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}