{"id":27058,"date":"2020-05-13T09:53:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T17:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27058"},"modified":"2020-05-13T09:53:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T17:53:11","slug":"new-york-state-of-mind-moody-blues-for-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-york-state-of-mind-moody-blues-for-las-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"New York state of mind; Moody blues for Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like Massachusetts<\/strong> casinos, those in New York<\/strong> are not expected to reopen<\/a> until July. Lago Resort & Casino<\/strong> General Manager Lance Young<\/strong> told journalist James Rutherford<\/strong> he’s monitoring reopening protocols as far \"\"away as Macao<\/strong> but has received no concrete guidance from the Empire State yet.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re all kind of talking back and forth about the things we hear from around the country, making sure we\u2019re all aware of best practices,\u201d he said. All told, 20 casinos and racinos in New York State have been idled by the Coronavirus<\/strong> pandemic, which has been at its worst<\/a> in N.Y. MGM Resorts International<\/strong> has already indicated that its Empire City<\/strong> racino in Yonkers<\/strong> will be the Tail-End Charlie of its reopenings and Rivers Casino<\/strong> in Schenectady<\/strong> has furloughed staff through the end of June. That would make for a three-and-a-half-month hiatus. It’s also $387 million lost in VLT taxes and $34 million in casino levies. As Young tells Rutherford, they’re just hanging in there.<\/p>\n

* Do you know the way to San Jos\u00e9<\/strong>? Or Washington, D.C.<\/strong> or Durham<\/strong>, for that matter? For those are among the cities that Moody’s Analytics<\/strong> posits are best-poised to recover quickly from the Covid-19<\/strong> fallout\u00a0(whenever \"\"it dispels). Who isn’t in the elite? Who’s down at the very bottom of the chart<\/a>? Las Vegas<\/strong>, that’s who. Even Coronavirus-swept Boston<\/strong> is far better positioned, as is Detroit<\/strong>. Low “educational attainment” is\u00a0largely to blame. Yes, Nevada’s scorn for educating its citizens has finally bit it in the ass. Kind of hard to diversify the economy when you raise your children to clean hotel rooms. As though to drive the point home, in the current recession the hospitality industry has shed 47% of its jobs<\/a>. Nationally, the jobless rate stands just shy of 15%, a modern worst. That includes 1 million casino workers.<\/p>\n

Moody’s projects Nevada to have a 20% unemployment rate in July (by which time casinos should be reopened), making it the state estimated to be #1 economic victim of Covid-19<\/a>. Why? It has the highest percentage of workers in high-risk industries (33.5%), is 18th in Coronavirus deaths as \"\"of April 27 and sixth-highest in unemployment claims (343,075) since mid-March. It’s also likeliest to have one of the most poorly served populaces as huge cuts in state and local programs are inevitable in the wake of the tax hole eaten by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Added\u00a0Senior Research Economist Adam Kamins<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cbig densely populated cities \u2026 are going to be viewed as inherently risky.\u201d Unlike Durham and Madison<\/strong>, Las Vegas isn’t built around a major university (sorry, UNLV<\/strong>). As for probable comeback kids Omaha<\/strong> and Des Moines<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cBut both of those actually have a pretty strong financial services sector, a fairly well educated population, especially compared to the kind of surrounding regions at lots of opportunity to kind of spread out.\u201d Maybe the casino industry should be investing a bit more in those markets\u2014and continuing to promote higher education at home.<\/p>\n

* Regional casinos are expected to bounce back far more quickly than Las Vegas, apparently on the strength of young players. Synergy Blue<\/strong>\u00a0has found that two-thirds of those under 29 are ready to play again<\/a>, while the Baby Boomer crowd is much more cautious: Only 40% are primed to gamble soon. Since Boomers are the most at-risk demographic that only makes sense. The dark lining of the silver cloud: respondents plan to curtail their casino\u00a0budget and only 22% are inclined to visit a casino if it entails air travel. (Good news for Atlantic City<\/strong>, bad news for Vegas.) Health is not the only concern. Some 58% of respondents cited unease about the economy, an understandable concern. Why gamble money you don’t know you’ll have?<\/p>\n

*\u00a0It’s official: Six to a craps table, four to roulette and poker, and three to blackjack, as the Nevada Gaming Commission<\/strong> handed down its reopening \"\"rules. It’s not at all entirely bad news. Small meetings (249 people or fewer) are permissible under the new regimen. No nightclubs or day clubs, however, even with reduced capacity.\u00a0“These are unprecedented times that require unprecedented measures,” NGC Chairwoman Sandra Morgan<\/strong> told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>.\u00a0“We are confident that these policies are sound, not only for our licensees but for our employees and guests.” Casinos have to have their paperwork in seven days before reopening<\/a>, so better start filing it now.<\/p>\n

* Making one-off compacts with Oklahoma<\/strong> Gov. Kevin Stitt<\/strong> (R) comes with a price: Both the\u00a0Comanche Nation of Oklahoma<\/strong>\u00a0and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe<\/strong> have been suspended<\/a> from the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association<\/strong>. Chairman Matthew L. Morgan<\/strong> rationalized that OIGA “works best when its membership can speak frankly and with the trust that all members are working together to support our industry as a whole.” For his part, Stitt has vowed to wallop tribes near major thoroughfares with much higher exclusivity fees than those he negotiated with the Comanche and Otoe-Missouria bands.<\/p>\n

Jottings: If Poker News Daily<\/em> wants reliable projections on when MGM Resorts International<\/strong> Strip resorts will reopen, perhaps it should ignore<\/a> Facebook<\/strong> postings by “Kurt Coleman” and read Joseph Greff<\/strong>‘s earnings reports instead … On his 1Q20 earnings call, Penn National \"\"Gaming<\/strong> CEO Jay Snowden<\/strong> announced\u00a0\u201ctragically, we have lost three of our own valued team members to the coronavirus.\u201d Penn also lost $608.5 million but shares jumped 15.4%<\/a> perhaps boosted by the company’s strong online performance, perhaps because Penn’s overall performance was better than expected … Following the Golden Gate<\/strong>‘s lead, South Point<\/strong> has set up drive-through registration<\/a> for sports-wagering accounts. With the UFC<\/strong>, NASCAR<\/strong> and PGA<\/strong> coming back, bettors have a more appealing menu of wagers to tempt them … The Preakness<\/strong> is safe, Maryland<\/strong> Gov. Larry Hogan<\/strong> (R) having approved a bill that will see the issuance of $375 million in bonds<\/a> for renovations of\u00a0Pimlico Race Course<\/strong>. The monies will be repaid out of lottery proceeds and casino taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like Massachusetts casinos, those in New York are not expected to reopen until July. Lago Resort & Casino General Manager Lance Young told journalist James Rutherford he’s monitoring reopening protocols as far away as Macao but has received no concrete … 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":[14,283,67,37,264,72,245,122,207,101,115,69,25,242,74,243,31,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27058"}],"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=27058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27061,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27058\/revisions\/27061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}