{"id":17715,"date":"2016-02-08T14:02:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T22:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=17715"},"modified":"2016-02-08T14:02:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T22:02:55","slug":"its-a-new-day-at-the-cosmo-atlantic-citys-fate-in-borgatas-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/its-a-new-day-at-the-cosmo-atlantic-citys-fate-in-borgatas-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a new day at the Cosmo; Atlantic City’s fate in Borgata’s hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe bottom line is you have a casino. Instead of downplaying that, let\u2019s celebrate it.\u201d That’s Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong> CEO Bill McBeath<\/strong> outlining the besetting sin of his predecessors, ignoring the central role \"Cosmo<\/a>of gambling as the Cosmo’s revenue driver. His changes ran the gamut from moving the sports book to welcoming higher-limit play, $200,000 a hand, with $5 million lines of credit and bigger slot jackpots, ending risk-averse Deutsche Bank<\/strong> policies. The Cosmo isn’t out of the woods yet, lacking a hotel-loyalty affiliation while trying to compete in the $300\/night tier among other problems<\/a>, the big difference between the Cosmo’s Deutsche Bank era and the new Blackstone Group<\/strong> is that the latter is actually turning a profit.<\/p>\n

Investment banker William Newby<\/strong> describes the Cosmo’s original, back-asswards market positioning thusly:\u00a0\u201cThe joke was you\u2019d go there later at night, you\u2019d notice the slot-machine seats were filled with people waiting in line to go to the clubs.\u201d A Vegas casino designed for Manhattan<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cIt takes away from the synergy of the whole thing when you\u2019ve got to go up escalators,\u201d says consultant Steve Norton<\/strong> of the stacked-casino layout. McBeath continues to reposition the property. He’s banished John Unwin<\/strong>‘s go-go dancers, said farewell to pricey DJs and deemphasized concerts, putting one of the Cosmo’s costlier amenities, The Chelsea<\/strong>, on the back burner.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re a unique luxury brand with a twist, and there wasn\u2019t anything luxury about that experience for me,\u201d McBeath says, unmoved. It’s not the Cosmo as Ian Bruce Eichner<\/strong> envisioned it, but it’s working a heckuva lot better.<\/p>\n

* As Atlantic City<\/strong> teeters on the precipice of municipal insolvency, Borgata<\/strong> just might give it the shove that sends the Boardwalk over the edge. The Boyd Gaming<\/strong>\/MGM Resorts International<\/strong> megaresort \"borgata_exterior_sunset\"<\/a>is demanding the immediate repayment of $62.5 million in property tax refunds (out of a grand total of $170 million). Trouble is, the city may have only half that amount on hand. Borgata can stop making current tax payments<\/a> for the time being but has to give the city 45 days to negotiate a settlement before it can start seizing Atlantic City assets. (A casino foreclosing on a city? Now there’s a new one.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not come to this decision lightly …\u00a0But after years of delays
\nand unsuccessful appeals by the city, we can wait no longer. We have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders of our parent companies to pursue collection of the amount we are owed,” said Borgata general counsel Joe Corbo<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cTo date, [Atlantic City officials]\u00a0have not made a serious offer, leaving us no choice but to exercise our rights as a taxpayer.\u201d Although Mayor Don Guardian<\/strong> (R) has said in the past that Borgata’s demands could tip A.C. into bankruptcy, for the moment he’s keeping his counsel.<\/p>\n

* If you eat at Macho Taco<\/strong>, in Justice<\/strong>, Illinois<\/strong>, you can play slots and video poker — as well as at two other slot-route locations on either side of it<\/a> in the same mall. But, in a similar scenario in Hometown<\/strong>, the Illinois Gaming Board<\/strong> nixed a trio of slot routes in one mall. Critics of the board saying it’s going against its own rhetoric opposing “backdoor casinos” like the one in Justice. The board doesn’t have much of an argument to defend its rather subjective decisions.\u00a0\u201cThe distinction is: If we know there\u2019s a plan to create what we consider\u00a0a mini-casino, there\u2019s not going to be support for it,\u201d was the best that Chairman Donald Tracy<\/strong> could do.<\/p>\n

Holding the line for Illinois’ besieged riverboat casinos is board member Thomas Dunn<\/strong>, who says that with 5,200 slots already deployed in storefronts, “Pretty soon, we’ll have one in every bathroom.” The 48 slots in Justice have been a windfall for the city, which has seen $145,000 in taxes from them. Obviously, they’re not going anyplace soon. Hometown initially thought even bigger: nine slot routes in one mall. Nor is it giving up easily. It’s next step is to take the Gaming Board to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe bottom line is you have a casino. Instead of downplaying that, let\u2019s celebrate it.\u201d That’s Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas CEO Bill McBeath outlining the besetting sin of his predecessors, ignoring the central role of gambling as the Cosmo’s revenue … 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":[23,60,66,4,58,53,11,25,92,31,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17715"}],"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=17715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17716,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17715\/revisions\/17716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}