{"id":27540,"date":"2020-07-16T10:53:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T18:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27540"},"modified":"2020-07-16T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T18:53:08","slug":"cosmofusion-mgm-springfield-wants-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/cosmofusion-mgm-springfield-wants-new-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosmofusion; MGM Springfield wants new deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are some mighty mixed signals coming out of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/strong>. The megaresort informed its thousands of employees that no layoffs are planned. However, it wrote the state that \u201cThe layoff and furloughs which began on or about March 24, 2020, and April 17, 2020, may continue beyond six months and\/or could become permanent.” So which is it? A Cosmo spokeswoman pooh-poohed the governmental memo as “an administrative notice to the state should a business be forced to make staffing adjustments.” Given the present trajectory of business on the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>, you’d think those adjustments would be made sooner rather than later, when lean times are expected to fatten. What is the Cosmo really saying? Your guess is as good as ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever’s happening at the Cosmo pales in comparison to the job losses at regional casinos<\/a>. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> sacked 903 employees of IP Biloxi<\/strong> alone, while Boomtown Biloxi<\/strong> dumped 149 and Hollywood Bay St. Louis<\/strong> let go another 167. Louisiana<\/strong> casinos are being hit hard, too, with an aggregate of 1,375 being pink-slipped by Margaritaville<\/strong>, Boomtown New Orleans<\/strong>, L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong> and L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong>, as well as at tribal Cypress Bayou Casino<\/strong>. This brings unemployed casino workers in the state to a dismal 3,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Investors are liking Penn National Gaming<\/strong>. (Maybe it’s all those job cuts.) Its stock has risen 117% over the last three months. Once on the ropes from Coronavirus<\/strong>, Penn is almost completely back in action, with only four of its 41 casinos still closed. Hollywood Casino Bangor<\/strong> is the most recent<\/a> to reopen. Reports Seeking Alpha<\/em>, “Penn National has implemented comprehensive social distancing and safety protocols at all of its reopened properties, developed in close consultation with state regulators and local and state public health officials.” Good to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caught between underwhelming revenues and a four-month Covid-19<\/strong> closure, MGM Springfield<\/strong> is pleading poverty to the city of Springfield<\/strong>. Bottom line, it wants to renegotiate the host-community agreement it executed several years ago. \u201cI don\u2019t know what customers will show up,\u201d sighed MGM Resorts International<\/strong> general counsel Seth Stratton<\/strong> whilst showing reporters around the reopened casino. Talks between MGM and the city are described as “on hold.” However, MGM’s desire is to cut the amount of revenue it shares<\/a> with the city or at least defer payment until sometime down the road. Considering that MGM hasn’t been able to live up to its lofty revenue projections ($35 million a month versus an actual $21.5 million), we don’t know how tractable to the city fathers will be to taking even less<\/em> money from the gaming giant. They definitely won’t be pleased that a 3,000-person workforce has wilted to 700.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston College<\/strong> gaming boffin Richard McGowan<\/strong> projects a gloomy future for most Massachusetts<\/strong> casinos, predicting that Plainridge Park<\/strong> will close and that MGM Springfield will either permanently operate on a smaller scale or be sold. \u201cFor them to operate at one-third of their capacity\u2014they are facing a really, really difficult situation. No doubt about it,\u201d\u00a0he told a reporter. \u201cAlmost all their revenue is going to be gambling. It\u2019s going to be day hoppers. Period.” MGM is offering little dining and no entertainment, having banked heavily on the latter before the pandemic. It will have to eke out its nut on the 50% of revenue derived from the casino. As for the renegotiations, \u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing collaboration,\u201d said Stratton. Given the bleakness of the revenue picture, Springfield may well have to bite the bullet and take less. They’re all in it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Derek Stevens<\/strong> is taking out new financing on Circa<\/strong>. He has reconstituted<\/a> his privately held Drock Gaming<\/strong> as 3 Corners LLC<\/strong>. At the same time, he has pledged both The D<\/strong> and Golden Gate<\/strong> as collateral against his new project. If he defaults, a Credit Suisse<\/strong> branch in the Cayman Islands<\/strong> becomes the new owner. We can see why Stevens is so eager to get Circa open as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Chinese political bigwigs turned out for the funeral<\/a> of Stanley Ho<\/strong> last Friday, Feckless Hong Kong<\/strong> Chief Executive Carrie Lam<\/strong> was in attendance, as was former Macao<\/strong> CEO Edmund Ho<\/strong> (no relation). Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/strong> and Premier Li Keqiang<\/strong> sent obsequies (old Stan having known well how to suck up to Beijing<\/strong>), which were led by heir apparent Pansy Ho<\/strong>. Given Pansy’s recent coup d’etat<\/em> at MGM China<\/strong>, the Ho children now control well over half the casinos in Macao, with Pansy running MGM and Socieadade de Jogos de Macau<\/strong>, son Lawrence Ho<\/strong> atop Melco Resorts & Entertainment<\/strong> and Daisy Ho<\/strong> chairing SJM, all of which seems to leave fourth wife and legislator Angela Leong<\/strong> out in the cold. Despite Stanley Ho’s ubiquity in Macanese politics and business he will be laid to rest in his native Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are some mighty mixed signals coming out of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The megaresort informed its thousands of employees that no layoffs are planned. However, it wrote the state that \u201cThe layoff and furloughs which began on or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,66,155,51,14,283,84,62,147,112,222,245,35,110,69,213,61,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27540"}],"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=27540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27541,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27540\/revisions\/27541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}