{"id":27350,"date":"2020-06-18T12:19:02","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T20:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27350"},"modified":"2020-06-23T08:29:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T16:29:52","slug":"louisiana-sees-fewer-richer-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/louisiana-sees-fewer-richer-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana sees fewer, richer players"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gambling re-started in Louisiana<\/strong> May 18, albeit with some significant casualties. Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> and Fair Grounds<\/strong> racino weren’t able to wade in until the end of the month and Diamond Jack’s<\/strong> is kaput. Despite mad business early in reopening, casino revenues were down 68%, with same-store business off 5%. Admissions per day were down 38% but individual spending rose 57%. “Our net takeaway here is that the May data from Louisiana supports recent company commentary that they are seeing the benefit from better quality\/higher volume players, but it does seem that benefit is being offset by lower levels of visitation,” wrote JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

New Orleans<\/strong> was reeling, down 87%, while Lake Charles<\/strong> was off only 57%. Shreveport<\/strong>, Bossier City<\/strong> and Baton Rouge<\/strong> were all in the -65% range. In terms of admissions per day, Margaritaville<\/strong> did best, with 6,870, while Belle of Baton Rouge<\/strong> managed a mingy 476. Take note of that, Tom Reeg<\/strong>. It grossed much less than a million dollars, compared to $2 million at Casino Rouge<\/strong> and $5 million at L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong>. Dominating the Lake Charles market was Golden Nugget<\/strong> with $15.5 million, followed by L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong> ($9 million), Delta Downs<\/strong> ($6 million) and Isle Grand Palais<\/strong> ($3 million), another Eldorado Resorts<\/strong> problem child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Fair Grounds and Harrah’s New Orleans getting zeroed out, Amelia Belle<\/strong> barely registered with its 400 dimes. Boomtown New Orleans<\/strong> grossed $4 million, Treasure Chest<\/strong> did $2.5 million and the rest was silence. Margaritaville ($8 million) easily led an emaciated Shreveport\/Bossier City, market finally clobbering Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong> ($6.5 million). Sam’s Town<\/strong> hardly got out of the starting blocks with half a million bucks, Harrah’s Louisiana Downs<\/strong> did $2 million, Boomtown Bossier<\/strong> grossed $1 million and Eldorado Shreveport<\/strong> $2 million. Small wonder that Boyd Gaming<\/strong> is talking about downsizing its Louisiana operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* May was good for Pennsylvania<\/strong>‘s online sports books, although the absence of retail is thought to have cost the Keystone State $275 million in handle. Online-gambling analyst Dustin Gouker<\/strong> found a silver lining: \u201cThe casinos that have recently reopened appear to be experiencing relatively strong traffic and sports bettors are finding increasingly more to bet on. Recovery for the entire industry will be a long road but there are reasons for optimism.\u201d Handle was $77.5 million, which translated into $5 million revenue. \u201cPennsylvania\u2019s online sportsbooks have been savvy in keeping their customers engaged with sports well outside the mainstream,” said analyst Valerie Cross<\/strong>. “That will only help when things begin to return to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyd had good news as FanDuel Sportsbook<\/strong> at Valley Forge Casino Resort<\/strong> led the state in handle, $29.5 million. Reasonably close behind was DraftKings<\/strong> at The Meadows<\/strong> ($22 million), while Rivers Casino Philadelphia<\/strong> ($8.5 million) and Mount Airy<\/strong> ($8 million) were also in the hunt. Farther back were Rivers Casino Pittsburgh<\/strong> ($5 million) and Parx Casino<\/strong> ($4 million). Online casinos grossed $56 million, a record amount, which especially redounded to the benefit of Mount Airy\/PokerStars<\/strong>, which raked $5 million off online poker, enjoying a monopoly in the state. In house games, Rivers Philadelphia was first with $17.5 million, followed by a DraftKings-branded Internet casino launched under the auspices of Penn National Gaming<\/strong>, which grossed $9 million. Said Gouker, \u201cDraftKings\u2019 online casino is a well-designed product and bettors obviously reacted positively.\u201d We bet Wall Street did too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Closure of 26 casinos in Michigan<\/strong> for three months has eaten a $96 million hole in the state budget. Opines Gouker, \u201cIt shows just how difficult the road that lies ahead is as the state begins to recover from the COVID-19<\/strong> pandemic.\u201d The pain was spread about, with Detroit<\/strong> $44.5 million the poorer, the State of Michigan almost as badly off, down $44 million, and local governments $7.5 million out of pocket from the loss of tribal subsidies. Motown’s three major casinos are estimated to have lost $375 million in revenue. Since casinos are only beginning to reopen, the bottom of the tax chasm hasn’t been seen yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer<\/strong> (D) hopes to reopen the Detroit gambling halls in time for the Fourth of July but they will be under very strict conditions: no smoking and only 15% capacity. The closures fell particularly heavily on sports books, which only just launched in the state. They did only $600K in handle before the shutdown came. \u201cThe response to the pandemic was swift and understandable, but the toll has been significant in terms of tax revenue,\u201d Gouker said. \u201cAnd that is just one facet. Operator revenue has completely dried up, and that will have long-term ramifications, too, including job losses.\u201d It’s going to be a long, painful road back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gambling re-started in Louisiana May 18, albeit with some significant casualties. Harrah’s New Orleans and Fair Grounds racino weren’t able to wade in until the end of the month and Diamond Jack’s is kaput. Despite mad business early in reopening, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,244,176,44,277,199,278,190,287,172,283,37,84,259,69,95,178,242,243,31,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27350"}],"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=27350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27394,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27350\/revisions\/27394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}