{"id":18801,"date":"2016-08-31T09:38:52","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T17:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18801"},"modified":"2023-01-28T08:24:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T16:24:49","slug":"hot-july-on-the-strip-alon-stayin-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/hot-july-on-the-strip-alon-stayin-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot July on the Strip; Alon: Stayin’ alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whales returned to the Strip with a vengeance in July, with baccarat play spurring a 17% revenue increase. The month was probably even bigger but, due to a peculiarity of Nevada<\/strong> \"Stripcasino accounting, slot revenues from the last weekend of the month will be counted as part of August’s total. Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> snapped a 10-month baccarat slump, as wagers grew 13% and the house won 41% more than last year. Players were similarly unlucky at other table games: Wagering was flat but casinos still won 21% more. A 4% increase in slot handle produced a corresponding uptick in revenue, good for $273 million. The lack of revenue data on final-weekend slot play may have hurt locals casinos more, as they were down 5% in July. Slot revenues dropped 7% (despite 2% more coin-in) while table game play saw 4% less betting but 14.55 more win for the house.<\/p>\n

The Strip wasn’t the only market where players defied the blistering heat. Reno<\/strong> saw an 11% increase in gaming revenue while Lake Tahoe<\/strong> rose 20%, grossing $56 million and $28 million, respectively. Downtown Las Vegas<\/strong> ($42 million) also benefited from stronger play, up 2.5%, while Laughlin<\/strong> was a bit off its feed, down 2% ($37 million). The Boulder Strip<\/strong> dropped 8% and North Las Vegas<\/strong> was off 4%, while the state’s second-largest jurisdiction, “Balance of Clark County<\/strong>,” which includes Primm<\/strong> and Mesquite<\/strong>, was down 2.5%, to $90.5 million. Outlying Elko had a good month, though, up 6%.<\/p>\n

Convention business was booming, up 16.5% (and to think Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> says Las Vegas doesn’t need any more meeting space), while hotel occupancy increased 2% and Strip room rates increased 14% — the serendipitous consequence of the market having added virtually no new rooms. Over 3.8 million visitors passed through Sin City, a 2.5% increase from last year. Drive-in traffic was up 4%, including a 2% increase in California<\/strong> visitation.<\/p>\n

* Speaking of Mesquite, Michael Gaughan<\/strong>‘s people may have finally cracked the riddle of how to market it as a viable destination alternative to Las Vegas. They’re running a big TV push emphasizing the six golf courses within reach of guests at the CasaBlanca Hotel, Resort, Casino, Golf & Spa<\/strong> (whew!), a pitch that evokes the days when golf courses lined the Strip. Now, with Steve Wynn<\/strong> preparing to rip up the last one of them, Gaughan’s promotional campaign couldn’t feel more timely.<\/p>\n

* Scientific Games<\/strong>, which seems to have purchased half the game manufacturers in existence, isn’t calling it a day. It’s just snapped up DEQ Systems<\/strong> for $21 million. DEQ’s installed base is “in over 300 casinos in 30 countries and the acquisition, particularly DEQ\u2019s Baccarat brand which is installed in 150 casinos worldwide (~800 tables), is expected to complement SGMS\u2019s table game business,” according to Deutsche Bank<\/strong>‘s Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>. The announcement more than doubled<\/a> DEQ’s share price.<\/p>\n

* According to CEO Andrew Pascal<\/strong>, the mystery-shrouded Alon<\/strong> is alive and well, albeit taking a long time to secure financing (which might explain James Packer<\/strong>‘s recent sell-down of Crown Resorts<\/strong> stock,\u00a0but Pascal says otherwise<\/a>) due to the nature of the project<\/a>. Pascal says Alon\u00a0has enough money in the till to stay on life support through the end of 2017, by which point you’d expect Packer to have financing in line. In light of Genting Group<\/strong>‘s constant procrastination regarding Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong>, Alon still has a chance to beat it to the finish line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whales returned to the Strip with a vengeance in July, with baccarat play spurring a 17% revenue increase. The month was probably even bigger but, due to a peculiarity of Nevada casino accounting, slot revenues from the last weekend of … 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":[88,34,51,4,120,22,96,76,49,53,126,122,207,78,79,160,74,8,9,19,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18801"}],"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=18801"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32262,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18801\/revisions\/32262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}