{"id":26220,"date":"2020-02-28T10:47:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=26220"},"modified":"2020-02-28T10:49:54","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:49:54","slug":"big-january-for-the-strip-mega-jottings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/big-january-for-the-strip-mega-jottings\/","title":{"rendered":"Big January for the Strip; Mega-jottings"},"content":{"rendered":"

January was very good for the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, up 7.5% to $572 million. Baccarat played a big role, with winnings up 16% on 24% greater \"\"wagering. (In fairness, January 2019 was terrible for baccarat.) Other table games didn’t do too badly, up 5.5% (despite 31% more wagering) and while coin-in at the slots rose 11%, casinos just won 5%, thanks in part to looser hold. February should be easy pickings for the Strip, coming off a 2019 that was 2% and in which the house got its clock cleaned at baccarat (-26%). Speaking of slot win, some of that at Las Vegas<\/strong> locals casinos may have been rolled into February reporting. Otherwise it’s hard to account for a 2% diminution in locals-casino revenue. Coin-in was 3% but slot win 4% less. At least as far as the Strip was concerned, an extra weekend day didn’t hurt.<\/p>\n

On the Strip visitation was up 4%, convention attendance grew 5% and room revenues were 2% higher despite rates dipping 2%. Downtown<\/strong>, firmly on the comeback trail, rocketed\u00a0up 13.5%, for a $59 million gross. North \"\"Las Vegas<\/strong> took a 9% hit, grossing $26.5 million, while the Boulder Strip<\/strong> tumbled 12% to $72 million. (One hopes February will be better because locals-casino revenues are the canary in the Vegas coal mine.) At least miscellaneous Clark County<\/strong> was robust, up 8% to $115.5 million. Laughlin<\/strong> was flat at $47 million but snowbirds came out to play in Reno<\/strong> and Lake Tahoe<\/strong>. The former rose 7.5% to $47.5 million while the latter shot up 18% to $20 million. Elko<\/strong> gained 7% to $25 million but Carson Valley<\/strong> ceded 2% to $9 million. As far as Nevada<\/strong> as a whole, that reliable economic barometer, Wendover<\/strong>, vaulted 12% (to $2 million), atop an 8.5% jump last year. Slots drove the bus, zooming 13.5%. As Wendover goes, so goes the Silver State.<\/p>\n

In related news, McCarran International Airport<\/strong> notched its 11th straight month of four million-plus passengers arriving or departing. Some 4,154,165 souls passed through McCarran, a 6.5% increase from last January. The strongest growth (7%) was in domestic, with international passengers numbering 309,091, a 3% bump. Southwest Airlines<\/strong> dominated the market, despite losing 7% of its share, as Delta<\/strong> (+13%), Spirit<\/strong> (+12%), American<\/strong> (+8%) and United<\/strong> (+7%) all took up the slack.<\/p>\n

\"\"* Anybody remember short-lived Margaritaville Casino<\/strong> in Biloxi<\/strong>? Probably not. Well, it will soon be back with a decidedly less-mellow brand. Rock group Kiss<\/strong> is going in on a $200 million rebrand of the property. The 200 mil question is whether access issues that killed Margaritaville have been solved.<\/p>\n

Jottings<\/strong><\/em>: Caesars Rewards<\/strong> is being remade in the image of Eldorado Resorts<\/strong>‘ Club One<\/strong> program, at least at non-Vegas properties. We don’t have much information at this point but there will be five tiers and the top one is by invitation only … China<\/strong> is revoking the passports of citizens alleged to have traveled to the Philippines<\/strong> to work in the online-gaming industry. The cancellations reportedly fall upon those currently working in ‘POGO’ centers, meaning they’ll have a hard time getting home … The Downtown Grand<\/strong> has topped off its new, third hotel tower. We’re \"\"always glad to see the Grand doing well … Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong>\u00a0(left<\/em>) lost two business days (including a Sunday) to rising flood waters. It has now reopened … If you had money with British online bookie MoPlay<\/strong>, tough luck. The sports book has declared insolvency and ceased processing withdrawals … MGM Resorts International<\/strong> is being sued over the data breach that led to information on over 10.5 million customers being revealed. Former patron John Smallman<\/strong> has filed the litigation and we expect\u00a0there will be others … The merger between Flutter Entertainment<\/strong> and The Stars Group<\/strong> has been approved in Australia<\/strong>. TSG has also invested $40 million into establishing its relationship with Fox Bet<\/strong> … Finally, as a service to our readers, here’s how you know<\/a> if you’ve got coronavirus<\/strong>\u00a0(which continues to roil<\/a> stock markets) and how to treat it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January was very good for the Las Vegas Strip, up 7.5% to $572 million. Baccarat played a big role, with winnings up 16% on 24% greater wagering. (In fairness, January 2019 was terrible for baccarat.) Other table games didn’t do … 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":[103,88,244,275,274,51,226,199,283,58,22,37,76,49,53,245,35,78,192,178,25,79,8,9,19,100,247],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220"}],"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=26220"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26226,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220\/revisions\/26226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}