{"id":19254,"date":"2017-01-09T11:50:42","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T19:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=19254"},"modified":"2023-03-08T08:29:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T16:29:52","slug":"cheerless-christmas-in-illinois-whitewash-at-caesars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/cheerless-christmas-in-illinois-whitewash-at-caesars\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheerless Christmas in Illinois; Whitewash at Caesars?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite two extra weekend days, gaming revenues in Illinois<\/strong> were down 5% last month. For all we know, gamblers may have been saving up for Christmas but we think this points \"Aurora\"to the increasing prevalence of slot routes (many owned by Penn National Gaming<\/strong>,) Foot traffic was way off (11%), although gamblers spent only 7% less … guess they weren’t saving that<\/em> much up for Christmas, Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Par-A-Dice<\/strong> took it upside the head, off 9%. ($6 million). Speaking of Penn, its three properties were flat in the aggregate, a 4% drop at Empress Joliet<\/strong> ($9 million) balanced by steady numbers at Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> ($10 million) and a 3% bump at Argosy Belle<\/strong> ($3.5 million).<\/p>\n

MGM Resorts International<\/strong>‘s Grand Victoria<\/strong> grossed $13 million but that was a 15% plunge from last year. Jumer’s Casino Rock Island<\/strong> fared worse still, down 18% on a $5 million gross. A weak month at Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> (-10%, $7 million) was ameliorated by Harrah’s Joliet’s<\/strong> $15 million (-3%) performance. Casino Queen<\/strong> ($9 million, -2%) was a tad under the weather while a 1% dip at Rivers Casino<\/strong> was relatively insignificant in the face of a state-best $35 million gross. Neil Bluhm<\/strong> may not be a household name as casino developers go but he builds better mousetraps.<\/p>\n

* New Jersey<\/strong> Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R) is trying a new and ingenious tack to get the Supreme Court<\/strong> to overturn the ban on sports wagering, The state is making the argument that state laws are constitutionally immune from being rescinded by order of the federal government. Say what you like about the merits of the case, Christie is not going down without one helluva fight.<\/p>\n

* You’ve heard of “advantage players.” Now prepare to meet “advantaged dealers.” These are dealers who are alleged to get preferential treatment<\/a> from management. The practice is supposedly taking place at Caesars Palace<\/strong>, where three AARP-vintage dealers are \"Caesarssuing management, accusing it of steering shifts toward younger dealers, preferably ones of the female persuasion and Asian or Caucasian in appearance. (Caesars had no comment.) According to the lawsuit, the whitening of Caesars’ staff has taken place through a process of hiring \u201cvery few dealers over the age of 40, very few black or African-American dealers, and no African-American or black dealers at all in recent years.\u201d Complainant William Berry<\/strong> was sacked by Caesars, possibly (if his claims are true) because he was made to \u201ccommit illegal discrimination by excluding black dealers from a particular game based on the demand of a particular customer.\u201d Caesars is entitled to its day in court but, knowing the lengths casino companies will go to placate high rollers, the charges have the ugly ring of veracity.<\/p>\n

* Carl Icahn<\/strong> seems to have an exaggerated idea of Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong>‘s worth. He’s putting a $300 million price tag on it, claiming to have invested that much in the property. (Not from what we’ve chronicled.) When Atlantic City<\/strong> Mayor Don Guardian<\/strong>\u00a0challenged Icahn to put the Taj on the market, Icahn asked for the 300 mil, petulantly adding that the city should have helped him break the Unite-Here Local 54<\/strong> strike. Considering that Guardian has collective-bargaining agreements of his own to uphold, he could hardly be expected to assist Icahn in screwing the latter’s workforce.<\/p>\n

* Casino at Ocean Downs<\/strong> is a minor player in Maryland<\/strong>‘s casino industry. But it’s attractive enough that a partnership of Churchill Downs<\/strong> and Saratoga Casino Holdings<\/strong> have swooped in<\/a> and bought it. In addition to a racing, Ocean Downs has several months of trotting-horse racing and year-round simulcasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite two extra weekend days, gaming revenues in Illinois were down 5% last month. For all we know, gamblers may have been saving up for Christmas but we think this points to the increasing prevalence of slot routes (many owned … 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":[23,60,82,176,190,7,67,58,11,91,69,111,92,74,9,196],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19254"}],"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=19254"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32440,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19254\/revisions\/32440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}