{"id":21374,"date":"2018-03-20T05:57:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T13:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21374"},"modified":"2018-10-24T09:01:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T17:01:58","slug":"fertitta-conquers-lake-charles-parking-fees-rise-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/fertitta-conquers-lake-charles-parking-fees-rise-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Fertitta conquers Lake Charles; Parking fees rise again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gambling revenue in Louisiana<\/strong> was flat last month, but the bottom-line number doesn’t tell the whole story. For instance, Lake Charles<\/strong> was up \"\"8.5% and trouble-plagued Baton Rouge<\/strong> was 10.5% down. In the former market, Golden Nugget<\/strong> vaulted 21%, to finish February at $25 million, edging past L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong> ($24.5 million), up 6% but not enough to stave off a hard-charging Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>. We submit that Eldorado Resorts<\/strong> should rethink its planned sale of Isle Grand Palais<\/strong>, good for $9.5 million (+1.5%). Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Delta Downs<\/strong> was flat at $15 million. Boyd’s outlying Evangeline Downs<\/strong> slipped 7% to $7 million, while Amelia Belle<\/strong> was flat at just under $4 million.<\/p>\n

In New Orleans, a $5 million month was good enough for Churchill Downs<\/strong>‘ Fair Grounds<\/strong> racino to lead the market percentage-wise with a 5% gain. In dollars, Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> ($23.5 million) was predictably tops, with a 4.5% gain. Treasure Chest<\/strong> was 2% shallower, at $9 million while Boomtown Belle<\/strong> was flat at $10.5 million. Nobody had a good month in Baton Rouge, although L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> was the least-bad, down 7% to $13.5 million. Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s Casino Rouge<\/strong> fell 14% to $5.5 million and Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>‘s Belle of Baton Rouge<\/strong> tumbled more than 16% to $4.5 million. As ever, L’Auberge made more than all its competition combined.<\/p>\n

Finally, in Shreveport<\/strong>\/Bossier City<\/strong>, Horseshoe Bossier<\/strong> has a very bad month, down 15% but still hanging onto first place with $14 million. Close \"\"behind is Margaritaville<\/strong>, up 6% and grossing over $13 million. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> also sucked wind at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs<\/strong>, falling 10.5% to $3 million. Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> gained 2% at Boomtown Bossier<\/strong>, for almost $5 million, while Boyd Gaming<\/strong> had a mediocre month at Sam’s Town Shreveport<\/strong>, grossing $6.5 million, a 1.5% decline. As though to make its case for moving to another market, Diamond Jacks<\/strong> sank 8%, to $3 million.<\/p>\n

* “Welcome to the party,” gloated MGM Resorts International<\/strong> CEO Jim Murren<\/strong>, when informed of resort-fee increases at Caesars Entertainment’s Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> casinos. The Caesars imposts vary from \"\"$32 to $39, while MGM runs the $30-$39\/night gamut. Downtown is far from immune, either. Over at The D<\/strong> and the Golden Gate<\/strong>, owner Derek Stevens<\/strong> will sock you for $25<\/a>, up from $20. According to USA Today<\/em>, a $35\/night resort fee doubled a $35\/night stay at Luxor<\/strong> while Circus Circus<\/strong> room prices increased in excess of 100% once resort fees were added to the equation. MGM also continues to gouge the customer who drives to their properties, raising parking fees by 25%. That’s self-parking, mind you. Valet parking is far worse still, having gone from $20 to $24, and even pricier Bellagio<\/strong>, Aria<\/strong> and Vdara<\/strong>, where valet service that once set you back $18 is now $30. Las Vegas<\/strong>: Where the customer almost matters.<\/p>\n

Postscript<\/strong>: The graphic showing Wynncore<\/strong> renamed “Elaine” was mis-credited. It is the handiwork of VitalVegas<\/em> author Scott Roeben<\/strong>. He also wants you to know it took him all of six minutes to do it. Good. It would take me six hours and that’s if I’m lucky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gambling revenue in Louisiana was flat last month, but the bottom-line number doesn’t tell the whole story. For instance, Lake Charles was up 8.5% and trouble-plagued Baton Rouge was 10.5% down. In the former market, Golden Nugget vaulted 21%, to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,176,56,155,51,199,190,7,85,84,11,69,30,234,9,129,21,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374"}],"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=21374"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22741,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions\/22741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}