{"id":25031,"date":"2019-10-02T10:01:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T18:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=25031"},"modified":"2020-10-19T06:56:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T14:56:00","slug":"dog-ate-parxs-homework-atlantic-city-hilton-sold-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/dog-ate-parxs-homework-atlantic-city-hilton-sold-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog ate Parx’s homework; Atlantic City Hilton sold … again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parx Casino<\/strong> is out $1 million after overpaying its taxes and missing the deadline to file for a refund. So says a Pennsylvania<\/strong> judge. Parx had three years to rectify\u00a0the overpayment and \"\"missed the deadline by a whopping six months. Hey, when you’re rolling in dough as Pennsylvania’s top casino it’s easy to get amnesiac\u00a0like that. The overage was\u00a0$1,122,654.89, Parx having apparently miscalculated its slot revenue. It was an error that stretched over a two year period, 2009-11. Parx parent Greenwood Racing<\/strong>\u00a0belatedly came around an applied for a refund in mid-2014, too late to get its money back.<\/p>\n

Ruled Commonwealth Court Judge Kevin Brobson<\/strong>, “As reflected in the Court\u2019s Memorandum Opinion, we sided with \u2026 Commonwealth\u2019s position and held that Taxpayer\u2019s petition for refund was untimely.\u201d That missing tax money could go a long way toward paying for Parx’s new, $10 million sportsbook. Meanwhile the company is shopping for new locations in Shippensburg Township<\/strong> for its satellite casino. Site #1 proved to be susceptible to sinkholes, so it was back to the drawing board. Greenwood got the $8 million license over a year and a half ago and still hasn’t identified a viable site.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Pittsburgh<\/strong>, Steelers fans who were ready for some football were in luck last Monday. Not only did the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/strong> obliterate the Cincinnati Bengals<\/strong> 27-3, fans could watch the destruction from the $5 million comfort<\/a> of a new sportsbook at Rivers Casino<\/strong>, opened within hours of \"\"game time. Said General Manager Bill Keena<\/strong>, “I can tell that, day to day, my table, slot and food and beverage revenue are up …\u00a0I think it brings in a younger demographic but also people we have not seen before. It brings in all age groups.\u201d Even before the official opening, the 195-seat venue was playing to standing-room-only crowds.<\/p>\n

The book as six staffed betting kiosks, 27 more self-service ones, plus six more on the casino floor. The 26 HDTV sets are effectively 30, as the two 50.5-foot-by-seven-foot LED monitors can be subdivided between four different video feeds. Heck, and I can barely keep up with all the onscreen graphics on one<\/em> TV set.<\/p>\n

* Rep. Dina Titus<\/strong> (D) ducked the question when asked if she would support a bipartisan bill to ban resort fees. Considering \"\"that the casino industry gave her precious little support during her first term in Congress, her circumspection is strange. Some Wall Street<\/strong> analysts have come out against the bill, contending that it would hurt business if hotels were forced to disclose resort fees as part of the upfront cost of a room. Maybe but … isn’t that the free market at work? Mind you, the lodging industry is prepared to spend megabucks cultivating addicts, er, supporters on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

On one side you have companies like Marriott<\/strong>, which sprinkled both sides of the aisle with $330,000 in the 2016 election cycle. Then you have the American Hotel & Lodging Association<\/strong>, which admirably maintains that “transparency and guest satisfaction are at the core of the industry\u2019s business model. Making sure guests have all the necessary information prior to booking their reservation is paramount.\u201d Analyst agree that MGM Resorts International<\/strong> and Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> are watching the Johnson-Fortenberry bill with trepidation, as they confiscate\u2014er, earn\u20143% of their revenue through resort fees. I’m surprised it’s not more, given what they charge.<\/p>\n

* Colosseo Atlantic City<\/strong> President Rocco Sebastiani<\/strong> said he couldn’t resist “the challenge” of reviving the Atlantic Club<\/strong> hotel, once the Atlantic City Hilton<\/strong> before Tom Barrack<\/strong> screwed it up. The place has been closed for five years and three \"\"previous sales have collapsed but if Sebastiani is as eager as he says he is, then maybe this one will close. \u201cIt\u2019s got a lot of renovating that needs to be done; that\u2019s what we do. We buy assets that need a lot of work and bring them up to market,\u201d Sebastiani said of his business model.<\/p>\n

Of the Atlantic Club, which has been pitched without success as condos, a waterpark and a Stockton University<\/strong> extension campus, Sebastiani predicted, \u201cWe\u2019re going to renovate the property and reopen it as an 800-room hotel with new retail, and new food and beverage offerings”\u2014and no casino. The purchase price was undisclosed but the last time the Atlantic Club changed hands it brought only $13.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* Genting Singapore<\/strong> is raising $29.5 million in debt to fund a casino in Japan<\/strong>. Of course, that’s peanuts compared to what the eventual cost would be, were Genting to be chosen. However, the Japanese are said to like companies that are long \"\"on cash, short on leverage, which describes Genting\u00a0(a cash-to-debt ratio of 4:1)\u2014but doesn’t characterize its American rivals. Japanese politicians have also taken Singapore<\/strong> as their model for the kind of megaresorts they want and Genting has plenty of experience in that market. Fitch Ratings<\/strong>\u00a0now pegs the cost of Japanese megaresorts as much as $15 billion, a number that will be hard for Genting (or anyone) to achieve much of an ROI upon.<\/p>\n

* I don’t want facial-recognition technology being used on me when I travel, so why should I want it on my slot machine<\/a>? That’s one of the more dubious products being pitched at Global Gaming Expo<\/strong>. If casinos really want to spend their money where it will do the most good, they might to eradicate the radio dead zones that became notorious after they hampered attempts to stop domestic terrorist Stephen Paddock<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cThat communication is really the only lifeline [first responders]\u00a0have,\u201d said\u00a0Safer Buildings Coalition<\/strong> Managing Director John Foley<\/strong>. Buildings built prior to 2009 fall outside of a requirement that 95% of each high-rise should have “reliable radio communications for first responders.”<\/p>\n

Mandalay Bay<\/strong> was completed in 1999, hence the notorious (and all-too-aptly named) dead zones. Reports Casino.org<\/strong>, “Clark County Fire Department<\/strong> requested last year that 28 Strip properties undergo radio tests to determine if adequate communications are available. But it\u2019s unclear how many have done so, and whether steps have been taken to improve radio and cell phone functionality.” Shouldn’t this be a priority? If nothing else, it’s sound business practice\u2014especially considering how long it took Vegas tourism\u00a0to recover from Pollock’s rampage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parx Casino is out $1 million after overpaying its taxes and missing the deadline to file for a refund. So says a Pennsylvania judge. Parx had three years to rectify\u00a0the overpayment and missed the deadline by a whopping six months. … 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":[23,244,3,104,120,172,140,171,228,245,33,234,242,231,108,74,243,31,8,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25031"}],"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=25031"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28601,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25031\/revisions\/28601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}