{"id":21417,"date":"2018-03-30T07:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T15:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21417"},"modified":"2018-03-30T07:17:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T15:17:25","slug":"las-vegas-whales-to-the-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/las-vegas-whales-to-the-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas: Whales to the rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> gaming revenues far overshot projections for last month, finishing 11.5% higher, grossing $603.5 million. This is in large part due to baccarat revenues, a cosmic 82.5% higher on a staggering 59% increase in wagering, “likely reflecting some calendar benefit from Chinese New Year,” writes JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>. By contrast, non-baccarat table games yielded 13% less winnings on flat wagering. Slots were up 3% on 5% more coin-in and slightly looser hold. The flip side to this, on the locals front, was an overall 1% decline for February. Downtown<\/strong> ($53 million) was up 3%, the Boulder Strip<\/strong> ($64 million) lost a percentage point, as did miscellaneous Clark County<\/strong> ($89.6 million), while North Las Vegas<\/strong> ($23 million) was flat.<\/p>\n

Laughlin<\/strong> improved 4.5% to $46 million, while Reno<\/strong> (+7%) did even better, grossing $67 million. Lake Tahoe<\/strong> ($20 million) had one of its crazy months, up a whopping 32%. Elko<\/strong> ($23.5 million) was flat while the Carson Valley<\/strong> ($8 million) rose 3%.<\/p>\n

* The National Labor Relations Board<\/strong>\u00a0has certified the union election at Green Valley Ranch<\/strong>, which the Culinary Union<\/strong> won with a 79% mandate. This puts the ball firmly in Station Casinos<\/strong>‘ court to begin fair and balanced negotiations.<\/p>\n

* In New York State<\/strong>, locals are hoping Resorts World Catskills<\/strong> will do what three other new casinos have not: jump-start tourism. \u201cSome think the casino has arrived a little late because people have already sold their homes and gone on to do other things. But those of us who stayed are hoping the whole community benefits,\u201d boutique owner Patti Greco Sunshine<\/strong> told the New York Times<\/em>. It will certainly help restore hotel-room inventory to a region that has been decimated in that respect. (In the heyday of the Borscht Belt, the Catskills numbered some 500 hotels<\/a>, according to the NYT<\/em>.) There’s also hope that the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts<\/strong> and Resorts World can benefit one another.<\/p>\n

Empire Resorts<\/strong> CEO Ryan Eller predicts Resorts World<\/strong>, when complete, will bring 2,200 jobs to the area and brushes off warnings of competition from other upstate casinos (several of which aren’t doing so hot themselves). \u201cThis goes beyond pure gaming,\u201d he said of Resorts World. \u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the amount of visitation that we\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Hotel developers say some benefits will be indirect. After being introduced to the area, guests could be inspired to buy second homes, they say” to the Grey Lady. “Buying a weekend retreat certainly would not be a new trend. As it is, the population of 70,000 in Sullivan County<\/strong> almost doubles when weekenders are counted …\u00a0Some part-timers even live in old-time bungalow colonies that went co-op years ago.” Will Resorts World jump-start the real estate market? That’s asking a lot of it. Right now it has to prove that Upstate New York has room for more casinos.<\/p>\n

* Pechanga Resort Casino<\/strong>\u00a0has emerged from a renovation that makes it California<\/strong>‘s largest casino-hotel. The aesthetic of much of the redesign is very busy (dig that bedroom carpet<\/a>) so it would make me restless, but check out the pictures and see what you think.<\/p>\n

* The big amenity for poker players at Sam’s Town<\/strong> is — get this — free coffee<\/a>. Woo hoo! Let the games begin!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Strip gaming revenues far overshot projections for last month, finishing 11.5% higher, grossing $603.5 million. This is in large part due to baccarat revenues, a cosmic 82.5% higher on a staggering 59% increase in wagering, “likely reflecting some … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[88,60,34,151,51,14,120,131,76,126,101,78,79,57,9,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21417"}],"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=21417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21418,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21417\/revisions\/21418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}