{"id":21696,"date":"2018-05-15T08:47:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=21696"},"modified":"2018-09-14T09:19:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T17:19:39","slug":"atlantic-city-calm-before-the-storm-stormy-weather-in-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-calm-before-the-storm-stormy-weather-in-louisiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City: Calm before the storm; Stormy weather in Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlantic City<\/strong> was stable last month, defying an unfavorable calendar (one less weekend day) and grossing $191.5 million, while online gambling had its second-best-ever month, pulling in $23 million \"\"(+10.5%). Slot handle was down 3.5%, as was revenue, while a tiny increase in table wagering produced 12.5% more winnings for the casinos. Borgata<\/strong> stumbled, down 9% to $53 million, although all Atlantic City casinos would like to trip so badly. The culprit was a 39% plunge in table winnings ($9.5 million), while slot revenue grew 2% to $42 million. It had the second-best share of Internet-gambling revenue — 20% — although well behind Golden Nugget<\/strong>‘s 35% share.<\/p>\n

Both Harrah’s Resort<\/strong> and Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> clocked in at $29 million, 8% and 4% gains respectively. Bally’s<\/strong> didn’t have it so good, down 11% to $15 million, last place. Despite a 2.5% decline, Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong>\u00a0threatened to crash Caesars’ party, with a $27.5 million gross. (It’s come a long way up from the spare-every-expense Columbia Sussex<\/strong> era.) Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> continues to climb the charts with a $17 million gross and 23% gain. Golden Nugget grossed $20 million, up 11.5%. \"\"While I doubt that the threat of a Showboat<\/strong> casino has anyone shaking in their boots, the double-whammy of Hard Rock Atlantic City<\/strong> and Ocean Resort<\/strong> on June 28 makes this time to gather ye rosebuds while ye may.<\/p>\n

* Dan Gilbert<\/strong> had a relatively good April at Jack Detroit<\/strong>, which was flat last month, grossing $29 million. That paled, however, next to MotorCity<\/strong>‘s $44 million (up 4%), to say nothing of MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong>‘s 51% (+3%).<\/p>\n

* I’ll never understand why Pennsylvania<\/strong> doesn’t report slot and table-game numbers simultaneously but the slot numbers are out, and there wasn’t much cause for celebration. Predictably, Parx Casino<\/strong> was tops in \"\"slots, up 6% to $35.5 million. Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>, by contrast, was down a point to $26 million. Rivers Casino<\/strong> rounded up the top three, up 4% to $24 million. Penn National<\/strong>‘s flagship racino logged $18.5 million, down 2%. Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong> (down 3%), The Meadows<\/strong> (off 8.5%) and Mohegan Sun<\/strong> (down 3.5%) were all bunched around the $17.5 million mark. Among the smaller casinos, Presque Isle Downs<\/strong> was up 7% to $10 million while Mount Airy<\/strong> was flat at $12.5 million. Normal urban strongman SugarHouse<\/strong> was down a point to $16 million. Elsewhere in the Philadelphia<\/strong> area, Valley Forge<\/strong> gained 9% for an $8 million gross, while out in the sticks Lady Luck Nemacolin<\/strong> fell 11% to $12 million.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Valley Forge, Boyd Gaming<\/strong> expects to generate $21 million a year in free cash flow from the pocket-sized casino. Boyd’s acquisition of Illinois<\/strong> slot-route operator Lattner Entertainment<\/strong> played to a positive review from JP Morgan<\/strong> analysts who bumped the price target for the stock up a dollar to $40. Lattner represents only a drop in the bucket of Illinois slot routes but we’re glad to see Boyd getting into the game and only wish it had done it sooner, before Par-A-Dice<\/strong> bled so much revenue.<\/p>\n

* “Harsh weather” is being blamed for an 8% decline in Louisiana<\/strong> gaming receipts last month, with New Orleans<\/strong> (-19%) having the worst of it. Lake Charles<\/strong> (-2%) was relatively unscathed while Baton Rouge<\/strong> tumbled 12% and Bossier City<\/strong>\/Shreveport<\/strong> was dinged 5.5%. Somehow, Boyd managed to emerge from this with a 2.5% uptick while Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> was punished to the tune of 21%. Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> (-10%) and Eldorado Resorts<\/strong> (-13.5%) also absorbed their share of punishment. The New Orleans numbers were somewhat distorted since Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> was coming off a stellar May 2017 (a moonshot +42.5%), so its 32% decline looks that much worse.<\/p>\n

Pinnacle’s Boomtown New Orleans<\/strong> was off 2% ($10 million), its Boomtown Bossier<\/strong> ($4.5 million) plummeted 15%. L’Auberge Lake Charles<\/strong> slid 9% ($27 million) while L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> ($13 million) skidded 15%. Eldorado Resorts had a bad month at Eldorado Shreveport<\/strong> (-8%, $10 million) and a terrible one at Isle Grand Palais<\/strong> (-20%). As indicated, Boyd beat the odds in every market. Sam’s Town Shreveport<\/strong> was up 5% to $6 million, Treasure Chest<\/strong> grew 2% to $9.5 million and Delta Downs<\/strong> jumped 7.5% to $15.5 million. Evangeline Down<\/strong>s was flat but Amelia Belle<\/strong> was up 3%. As for everybody else, we reckon they’re happy to see April in their rearview mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlantic City was stable last month, defying an unfavorable calendar (one less weekend day) and grossing $191.5 million, while online gambling had its second-best-ever month, pulling in $23 million (+10.5%). Slot handle was down 3.5%, as was revenue, while a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,60,239,15,154,44,199,190,172,165,7,58,37,85,84,11,167,91,69,95,30,12,92,129,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21696"}],"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=21696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22450,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21696\/revisions\/22450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}