{"id":22657,"date":"2018-10-11T06:47:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=22657"},"modified":"2018-10-11T06:47:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:47:30","slug":"churchill-downs-stands-pat-borgata-honored-at-g2e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/churchill-downs-stands-pat-borgata-honored-at-g2e\/","title":{"rendered":"Churchill Downs stands pat; Borgata honored at G2E"},"content":{"rendered":"

JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Daniel Politzer<\/strong> met with top execs from Churchill Downs<\/strong> and found a company pretty satisfied with where it is now. It “has yet to see any cracks in fundamentals at its \"\"regional casino properties or among its customer base. Management is upbeat on the company\u2019s growth trajectory and is confident it can continue running its casinos at an efficient pace; it views its casino portfolio as underappreciated given the pace of both revenue growth … and EBITDA growth.” Management was skeptical of the trend to split companies into REITs and operating companies. Churchill Downs likes owning its real estate.<\/p>\n

As for mergers and acquisitions, “seller expectations remain high” and “a transaction would need to have a strategic component (and an attractive multiple).” CHDN just opened Derby City<\/strong>, near its titular race course, with 900 “historical racing” machines, though Derby City has the infrastructure to upscale to 1,100 VLTs. As for sports betting, Churchill Downs’ opinion has it “being in the very primitive stages and sees it taking time to reach level of sophistication\/technology seen in the U.K<\/strong>.\/Europe<\/strong>.” No argument there.<\/p>\n

* Although it risked getting lost in other news, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment<\/strong> used Global Gaming Expo<\/strong> week to announce that it had extended its partnership with Live Nation<\/strong> to encompass Inspire<\/strong>, near Incheon International Airport<\/strong>, in South Korea<\/strong>. Said MGE\u00a0CEO Mario Kontomerkos<\/strong>,\u00a0his \"\"company “and Live Nation have been long-time partners in creating one of the most successful arena venues in the world for its size, the Mohegan Sun Arena<\/strong> in Uncasville<\/strong>, Connecticut<\/strong>.\u00a0Now, we are partnering again to do the same, only this time it will be at the Inspire Super Arena<\/strong> at the Incheon International Airport, right in the heart of the burgeoning Northern Asia entertainment market.” The jury’s still out on whether a mega-budget casino can succeed on tourist-only business but MGE just wisely hedged its bet.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0The era of legal sports betting in New Mexico<\/strong> begins October 16 when\u00a0Santa Ana Star Casino & Hotel<\/strong> begins taking wagers. It’s teaming with Las Vegas<\/strong>-based\u00a0USBookmaking<\/strong> to run the sports book, where you can even bet on minor-league baseball if that’s your thing.\u00a0\u201cThere will be action taken on the colleges, so the University of New Mexico<\/strong>, New Mexico State<\/strong> \u2014 those will be available to wager,\u201d according to USB’s John Salerno<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Moe Maestas<\/strong> (D) played down the economic significance <\/a>of the change, saying,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s zero revenue boost to the \"\"state. Zero.\u00a0The tribes do not have to give a dime to the state. It doesn\u2019t affect the state coffers at all. It may help tourism.\u201d Since sports betting was illegal until recently, New Mexico lawmakers never thought to put regulatory language into tribal contacts, creating a loophole through which Santa Ana could herd an army of bison. Still, Maestas was forgiving, saying,\u00a0\u201cI would rather that bettors bet with a local entity than with all these internet sites from the Bahamas<\/strong>.\u00a0The key is allowing tribal entities to have exclusive rights to the New Mexico market.\u201d Amen.<\/p>\n

* Still going strong at 15 years of age, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa<\/strong> was honored with a “Best Property” award at Global Gaming Expo. In accepting the award MGM Resorts International<\/strong> CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> developed selective amnesia<\/a> with regard to Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s role in shepherding the property to completion and with running it on MGM’s behalf until relatively recently.\u00a0\u201cThis award is a testament to Borgata\u2019s world-class offerings and showcases MGM Resorts\u2019 leadership in markets throughout the United States<\/strong> and around the world,\u201d said Murren, giving himself a hearty pat on the back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JP Morgan analyst Daniel Politzer met with top execs from Churchill Downs and found a company pretty satisfied with where it is now. It “has yet to see any cracks in fundamentals at its regional casino properties or among its … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,60,176,4,140,245,167,111,187,243,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22657"}],"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=22657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22659,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22657\/revisions\/22659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}