{"id":17183,"date":"2015-11-09T12:21:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T20:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17183"},"modified":"2015-11-09T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T20:22:08","slug":"caesars-exiting-ohio-with-head-held-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/caesars-exiting-ohio-with-head-held-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars exiting Ohio with head held high; New Showboat setback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> may have gotten the boot from its three managerial arrangements with <strong>Dan Gilbert<\/strong> in <strong>Ohio<\/strong> but it&#8217;s spending the waning weeks of its tenure putting up impressive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/cincinnatcasino.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5760\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/cincinnatcasino-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"cincinnatcasino\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/cincinnatcasino-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/cincinnatcasino-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/cincinnatcasino.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>numbers. <strong>Horseshoe Cleveland<\/strong> ($18 million) was up 4% and <strong>Horseshoe Cincinnati<\/strong> had a resounding, 14%\u00a0million increase, taking $16 million to the bank. The only property where Caesars couldn&#8217;t work its magic was <strong>ThistleDown Racino<\/strong> ($9 million), down another 8%. Gilbert is reported to be <a href=\"http:\/\/ggbnews.com\/issue\/vol-13-no-44-november-9-2015\/article\/caesars-out-of-ohio\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">sinking another $70 million into the racino<\/a> to make it competitive with <strong>Hard Rock Rocksino<\/strong> &#8212; $17 million, up 12% &#8212; but that seems like a real stretch. <strong>Total Rewards<\/strong> is on the way out but members can redeem point accrued up to this point at other Caesars properties. Future point accruals will only redeemable at other Rock Gaming properties, like <strong>Greektown Hotel-Casino<\/strong> in <strong>Detroit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Although <strong>Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Belterra Park<\/strong> continued to bring up the rear in Ohio ($6 million, $148\/slot\/day), the racino made a <!--more-->44% improvement over last year. <strong>Eldorado Resorts<\/strong>&#8216; <strong>Scioto Downs<\/strong> (due for rebranding) banked $12 million, up 2%. <strong>Penn National Gaming<\/strong> had the smallest of declines at <strong>Hollywood Columbus<\/strong> (-1%), Lady Luck not smiling upon the casino despite a 3% increase in coin-in. <strong>Hollywood Toledo<\/strong> (+2%) did an industry-average $201\/slot\/day. As for Penn&#8217;s racinos, they continue to be little powerhouses with <strong>Hollywood Dayton<\/strong> averaging $234\/slot\/month and <strong>Hollywood Austintown<\/strong> continuing to boggle the mind with its $272\/slot\/day.<\/p>\n<p>* The agonies of the <strong>Showboat<\/strong> continue. <strong>Philadelphia<\/strong>-based developer <strong>Bart Blatstein<\/strong> has postponed closing his planned purchase of the ex-casino until January. Plenty of time for <strong>Glenn Straub<\/strong> to make mischief &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>* In another blow to <strong>Atlantic City<\/strong>, Gov. <strong>Chris Christie<\/strong> (R) has vetoed the carefully crafted <strong>PILOT Act<\/strong>. Otherwise known as the <strong>Casino Property Taxation Stabilization Act<\/strong>, it would replace property-tax assessments with fixed payments to the states. From Christie&#8217;s vantage point, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pressofatlanticcity.com\/news\/christie-conditionally-vetoes-pilot-bill\/article_50c9927a-86f7-11e5-bb38-cb97c200f998.html\" target=\"_blank\">this is simply a giveaway to the casinos<\/a>, solving nothing. He wants tangible reform in Atlantic City&#8217;s governance, he says. Since Christie&#8217;s veto was conditional, the Legislature can amend the bill to his liking and send it back for his signature. So it&#8217;s not all bad news.<\/p>\n<p>Christie was on a veto orgy, nixing two other bills that rechanneled money (some of it from the defunct <strong>Atlantic City Alliance<\/strong>) into Atlantic City&#8217;s coffers. Ditto the $60 million that the PILOT Act <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/chris-christie.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5806\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/chris-christie-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"chris-christie\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/chris-christie-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/chris-christie-150x97.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/chris-christie.jpg 453w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>would have sent straight to the Boardwalk. Christie wants the city to apply to the state before it gets the goodies. And, instead of having PILOT money divvied up by a committee of casino executives, Christie would place that discretion with the <strong>Division of Gaming Enforcement<\/strong>.\u00a0&#8220;It is undeniable that the city has experienced historic economic uncertainty as a result of contraction in the casino industry, but also due to unwillingness by some to make the difficult decisions seeded to restore the city&#8217;s fiscal health,&#8221; Christie wrote.<\/p>\n<p>One lawmaker took a shot at Christie for allowing the bills &#8220;to sit on his desk for months&#8221; while campaigning for the presidency. County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Dennis-Levinson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-17184\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Dennis-Levinson.jpg\" alt=\"Dennis Levinson\" width=\"140\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Dennis-Levinson.jpg 140w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Dennis-Levinson-124x150.jpg 124w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 140px) 100vw, 140px\" \/><\/a>Executive <strong>Dennis Levinson<\/strong>, however, took events in stride, tempering his disappointment by saying, &#8220;The conditional veto [Christie]\u00a0put on it is a pretty strong message this is a work in progress &#8230;\u00a0The goal is the same for everyone \u2014 a vibrant, redeveloped Atlantic City.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christie kicked casino workers in the pants by unconditionally vetoing a bill that, as described by <em>The Press of Atlantic City<\/em>, &#8220;required full-time casino employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement to receive health-care and retirement benefits that are either fully employer funded, or that meet state or federal law.&#8221; Very petty, governor. Very petty indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caesars Entertainment may have gotten the boot from its three managerial arrangements with Dan Gilbert in Ohio but it&#8217;s spending the waning weeks of its tenure putting up impressive numbers. Horseshoe Cleveland ($18 million) was up 4% and Horseshoe Cincinnati &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/caesars-exiting-ohio-with-head-held-high\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,154,44,199,185,7,53,69,30,33,111,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17183"}],"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=17183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17186,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17183\/revisions\/17186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}