{"id":24945,"date":"2019-09-19T07:29:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T15:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=24945"},"modified":"2022-03-07T07:16:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T15:16:53","slug":"chicago-casino-tax-damned-kerkorian-epoch-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/chicago-casino-tax-damned-kerkorian-epoch-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago casino tax damned; Kerkorian epoch ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

That Illinois<\/strong> casino expansion went back to the drawing board\u2014the Illinois Gaming Board<\/strong>, to be exact. The topic of its ire was the 33% “privilege tax” hung around the neck of the Chicago<\/strong> casino (bringing its effective tax rate to a usurious 72%<\/a>), ensuring it will never be profitable and scaring off developers. The board said that the Lege had better redraw the legislation if they have any hope of seeing a casino in the Windy City.<\/p>\n

According to a Union Gaming<\/strong> feasibility study, “total enterprise profit margin would, in a best-case scenario, likely equate to a few pennies on the dollar — and that would require the casino to be developed without incurring any debt as we believe no traditional financing would be available for such a development as debt servicing would likely well exceed any modest profits generated.” That’s a cruel irony, given that (according to Union) a Chicago casino would zoom past Rivers Casino Des Plaines<\/strong> to become #1 in the Land of Lincoln.<\/p>\n

The Lege reconvenes for a veto session in little over a month. Will they address the obviously flawed legislation? Given that “greed” and “lawmaker” seem to go hand in hand\u2014especially in Illinois\u2014we are not optimistic.<\/p>\n

* It’s the end of an era! Tracinda Corp<\/strong>., the holding company for the late Kirk Kerkorian<\/strong>, has liquidated the last of the billionaire’s stock position in MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, some 27 million shares-plus. That’s 5% of the company and we’ll be watching closely to see who snaps it up. MGM stock has appreciated considerably since Kerkorian’s death, up from $19.43 to $29.75. What a shame the quiet mogul wasn’t around to see it happen.<\/p>\n

Modest and generous, Kerkorian was the model of a modern Las Vegas<\/strong> casino owner. Long before anybody had heard of Steve Wynn<\/strong>, Kerkorian had invented the megaresort concept with the International<\/strong> (now the Westgate<\/strong>). He would go on to build two MGM Grand<\/strong>s, one that is now Bally’s Las Vegas<\/strong> and the other which still bears its name, although it is on the verge of being sold to a hedge fund. What one wouldn’t give to know what Kerkorian would think of that. He’d probably approve, provided\u00a0he made a good profit on the transaction.<\/p>\n

Speaking of MGM, we can add MGM Springfield<\/strong> to the list of upstate New York<\/strong> casinos that are struggling, even if it is in Massachusetts<\/strong> (one of its target markets is Albany<\/strong>). It also \"\"clearly overestimated its ability to reverse two decades of brand equity and customer loyalty at Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> and Mohegan Sun<\/strong>. In its first year it came in $144 million short<\/a> of projections (the dreaded Penn National Effect). Although the casino has brought in as much as $26 million a month, it generally hovers around $22 million, well shy of the $35 million, MGM execs told the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong> to expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to be pleased with how well we\u2019re being received in the market,\u201d insisted President Michael Mathis<\/strong>, harping on the four sold-out Aerosmith<\/strong> shows that played Springfield<\/strong>. How that will overcome people’s apparent reluctance to gamble remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

* Chik-Fil-A<\/strong>‘s conquest of Las Vegas<\/strong> continues as it opens an outpost in the Golden Nugget<\/strong>. That’s a good call on Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>‘s part (Tilman usually sticks to his own restaurant brands in his casinos). Meanwhile, kudos to Chik-Fil-A for standing tall against pressure to go to seven days a week service in Sin City. If the restaurant chain wants to observe the Sabbath, more power to them.<\/p>\n

* Want to get rid of obsolete slot machines of no resale value, some of them dating back to the last century? Give them away as “prizes.” That’s what the Plaza Hotel<\/strong> is doing. (CEO Jonathan Jossel<\/strong> scores points for creativity.) You can win a Joker Poker<\/em>, Deuces Wild<\/em> or Catch the Heat<\/em> if you enter a weekly video poker tournament at the Plaza and come out the winner.\u00a0“These machines are a part of Vegas history, and we wanted to give our locals a chance to have their own piece of our city\u2019s great legacy,” Jossel told Fox News<\/strong>. Sure beats having to stash them out in the parking garage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That Illinois casino expansion went back to the drawing board\u2014the Illinois Gaming Board, to be exact. The topic of its ire was the 33% “privilege tax” hung around the neck of the Chicago casino (bringing its effective tax rate to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[176,18,51,4,166,140,58,112,245,167,242,47,31,9,129,38,184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945"}],"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=24945"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30837,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945\/revisions\/30837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}