{"id":22663,"date":"2018-10-12T07:56:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T15:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=22663"},"modified":"2018-10-12T07:56:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T15:56:45","slug":"indiana-fails-to-impress-big-setback-for-non-smokers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/indiana-fails-to-impress-big-setback-for-non-smokers\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana fails to impress; Big setback for non-smokers"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s too soon to say that regional gaming’s economic honeymoon is over but Indiana<\/strong> was down 4% last month, grossing $177.5 million. (It was up 6% this time last year.) Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s Hollywood Lawrenceburg<\/strong> took a 15% header, \"\"grossing $13 million. Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>‘s two new racinos didn’t impress, with Hoosier Park<\/strong> up 1.5% ($16 million), while Indiana Downs<\/strong> was flat at $20.5 million. Horseshoe Southern Indiana<\/strong> grossed $19.5 million, a 10% stumble. Horseshoe Hammond<\/strong> took in $32 million (glass half-full) but slipped 7% (glass half-empty). Ameristar East Chicago<\/strong>, however, was up 4% to $18 million.<\/p>\n

Belterra<\/strong> was up 1.5% to $9.5 million. Blue Chip Casino<\/strong> took a 7% hit, grossing $13 million, while Majestic Star<\/strong> was off 6.5% to $7 million and Majestic Star II<\/strong> yielded 3.5% to $5 million. Tropicana Evansville<\/strong> continued to beat the odds, rising 9% to $12 million. Rising Sun<\/strong> however, was setting, down 9% to $4 million. French Lick Resort<\/strong> was off 2.5% to $8 million. Full House Resorts<\/strong> CEO Dan Lee<\/strong> must be really chafing that he wasn’t able to clone Rising Sun in the Indianapolis<\/strong> market.<\/p>\n

* Non-smokers lost and important battle in Hancock County<\/strong>, West Virginia<\/strong>, where the Board of Health<\/strong> voted to rescind its ban on smoking in public places. That means the odor of tar and nicotine will soon be returning to Mountaineer Casino<\/strong> today. \"\"Revenues at Mountaineer had plunged 19% during the first year in which the ban was in force. Players fled to Meadows Casino<\/strong> (+6%) near Pittsburgh<\/strong> and Wheeling Island Casino<\/strong> (+4%) in search of a good smoke along with their casino play.<\/p>\n

“Given recent legislation that implements\/proposes to implement smoking bans (e.g., St. Louis<\/strong>, Baton Rouge<\/strong>, and New Orleans<\/strong>), we are surprised to see legislation that moved the opposite direction,” wrote JP Morgan<\/strong>‘s Daniel Politzer<\/strong>. You can open a nonsmoking casino and actually exceed the foot traffic you were expecting, as is happening at MGM Springfield<\/strong>, but take the cigarettes and cigars out of a smoking properties, and there’s hell to pay.<\/p>\n

* Global Gaming Expo<\/strong> really needs to get with the times, at least where entertainment is concerned. It gave its Entertainer of \"\"the Year award to Chubby Checker<\/strong>, Casino Musical Artists of the Year to The Commodores<\/strong> and Casino Entertainment Legend to the Righteous Brothers<\/strong> (along with Victor Drai<\/strong>). What’s wrong with this picture? These were the guys who were playing Vegas when I got there, almost 20 years ago! Can’t G2E find some fresher talent to honor? For example, Boyz 2 Men<\/strong> may not be fresh as a daisy but it’s not as old as Methusaleh<\/strong> either.<\/p>\n

* G2E’s Shark Tank<\/em> presentation was wan\u00a0by DoorPro Doorstop<\/strong> founder Bill Hengler<\/strong> for his hinge-based doorstop, largely on the strength of having already sold 200,000 units and having MGM Resorts International<\/strong> for a client. Can’t argue with that, even though we like the ideas behind also-rans Inside Injuries<\/strong> and Shield Card Shoe<\/strong> better.<\/p>\n

* Congratulations to Cami Christensen<\/strong>, newly named General Manager of Westgate Las Vegas<\/strong>. Why is this a big deal? Because \"\"Christensen joined the property in mid-2001, when it was still the Las Vegas Hilton<\/strong>. That means she’s survived Colony Capital<\/strong>, Navegante Group<\/strong> and the Great Recession<\/strong> (not in that order). Also, her appointment represents another crack in gaming’s glass ceiling. Said Westgate Resorts<\/strong> CEO David Siegel<\/strong>, \u201cCami is a rare talent and an incredible role model for all 2,000 of our team members. I can\u2019t think of a better person to lead us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s too soon to say that regional gaming’s economic honeymoon is over but Indiana was down 4% last month, grossing $177.5 million. (It was up 6% this time last year.) Penn National Gaming‘s Hollywood Lawrenceburg took a 15% header, grossing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,60,244,3,199,4,117,198,104,68,84,191,245,39,69,30,8,38,139,184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22663"}],"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=22663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22666,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22663\/revisions\/22666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}