{"id":18051,"date":"2016-04-07T11:01:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T19:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18051"},"modified":"2016-04-07T11:14:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T19:14:52","slug":"unhappy-easter-in-illinois-money-laundering-mess-in-sparks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/unhappy-easter-in-illinois-money-laundering-mess-in-sparks\/","title":{"rendered":"Unhappy Easter in Illinois; Money-laundering mess in Sparks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easter, if you can believe it, is being blamed for a 2% decline in Illinois<\/strong> casino revenues last month. Argosy Belle<\/strong> continued to be the problem child of the state, down 13% (to $5 million). Slot-route competition continued to do a number on Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Par-A-Dice<\/strong>, \"HarrahsJoliet\"which fell 10%, to $8 million. Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong> ($17 million) and Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> ($7 million) were flat with last year. GLPI<\/strong>‘s Casino Queen<\/strong> ($10 million) also held steady. March was a mixed bag for Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, which was up 2% ($11 million) at Empress Joliet<\/strong> but 5% down at Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> ($10.5 million). Market-dominating Rivers Casino<\/strong> ($37 million) was off 2%. Independent Jumer’s Casino Rock Island<\/strong> ($6.5 million) slipped 4%. Foot traffic statewide fell 4%, as customers spent less to boot.<\/p>\n

* The Easter Bunny didn’t make off with any casino revenue in Maryland<\/strong>, where revenue was up 7.5% for the second-richest month ever<\/a>. Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong> won the “most improved” ribbon, its business increasing 12% to $28 million. That still put it well behind $54 million-grossing Maryland Live<\/strong> (up 5%), while Penn’s hard-luck Hollywood Casino Perryville<\/strong> ($7 million) rose 8%. Ocean Downs<\/strong> ($4.5 million) posted an $11 million increase. There’s still plenty of elasticity in the Free State for MGM National Harbor<\/strong> when it debuts.<\/p>\n

* Evidently “The Park at MGM Grand” didn’t fly with focus groups as a successor to Monte Carlo<\/strong>. According to MGM Resorts International<\/strong> CEO Jim Murren<\/strong>, the title “is not ready for show time.” Ditto renaming Luxor<\/strong> as “Pyramid.” Still, \u201cWe are not going to name [Monte Carlo] something from somewhere else. Those days are over,\u201d Murren told the Las Vegas Sun<\/em>. The company is planning to reinvest<\/a> in its bargain-market projects, promising capex infusions into Excalibur<\/strong> and Luxor … but not Circus Circus<\/strong>. Call me a pessimistic, but I don’t think the clown casino figures in MGM’s long-range plans.<\/p>\n

* Sparks<\/strong> has been the focus of regulatory scrutiny this week. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network<\/strong> laid a $1 million fine on the previous ownership of what used to be John Ascuaga’s Nugget<\/strong> for running a disaster area<\/a>, at least where anti-money-\"Nugget\"laundering efforts are concerned. FinCEN concluded that with “blatant disregard” from top to bottom, the Nugget \u201cwillfully violated the (Bank Secrecy Act<\/strong>)\u2019s program, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements.\u201d The laxity occurred<\/a> during ex-CEO Michonne Ascuaga<\/strong>‘s watch, prompting her resignation from the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> and complicating the sale of the Nugget to Marnell Gaming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Although the Ascuaga family professed itself “satisfied that this matter has been resolved,\u201d FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery<\/strong> was less forgiving<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cSparks Nugget had a systemic breakdown in its compliance program.\u00a0Despite the fact that it hosted convicted embezzlers and had been repeatedly alerted to suspicious transactions by its own compliance manager, Sparks saw no need to re-think its defenses.\u201d With the FinCEN nastiness out of the way, the Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> approved Marnell’s purchase<\/a> of the Nugget.\u00a0\u201cI think it\u2019s good to see this kind of cross-regional operation take hold,\u201d said board member Terry Johnson<\/strong> of the Laughlin<\/strong>-based Marnell’s gaining\u00a0of a Reno<\/strong>-area foothold.<\/p>\n

\"MARNELL03_t178\"CEO Anthony Marnell<\/strong> III<\/strong> promised regulators an improved FinCEN-compliance regime at the Nugget. He also pledged $25 million in capex maintenance<\/a>, including the replacement of the casino’s slot machines.\u00a0\u201cThe property is in desperate need of capital.\u00a0There\u2019s an opportunity to improve the operations of the business substantially,\u201d Marnell told the NGCB. In other business, it was in with the new, out with the old, with a new owner being improved for the tiny, off-Strip Stage Door<\/strong> casino and the Riviera<\/strong> being deregistered, which gives us a nostalgic pang of regret.<\/p>\n

* That bane of law enforcement, illegal Internet<\/strong> “sweepstakes” cafes has spread to the heart of Arizona.<\/strong> The state isn’t notably starved for gambling, so it’s hard to see why a hole-in-the-wall joint<\/a> would prosper when there are so many tribal casinos around.<\/p>\n

* Glass half-full or half-empty? The tendency of visitors to Macao<\/strong> to stay more than one night seems to be increasing but fewer gamblers are coming from China<\/strong>, prompting greater reliance upon the Taiwan<\/strong> market (somewhat of an irony, given Beijing<\/strong>‘s high-handed attitude toward what we used to call Nationalist China<\/strong>). Also, the Macanese gambler is turning into a low roller, with more of them (52%) keeping their gambling budget to $125, whereas only 38% did so a year ago. (The average Las Vegas<\/strong> gambler spent\u00a0$578.54<\/a> last year.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter, if you can believe it, is being blamed for a 2% decline in Illinois casino revenues last month. Argosy Belle continued to be the problem child of the state, down 13% (to $5 million). Slot-route competition continued to do … 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":[60,70,154,190,7,58,22,37,49,189,62,72,11,69,111,25,55,9,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051"}],"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=18051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18054,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions\/18054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}