{"id":28936,"date":"2020-12-16T07:47:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T15:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28936"},"modified":"2021-07-25T05:34:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T13:34:24","slug":"its-lonely-in-massachusetts-a-dose-of-realism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/its-lonely-in-massachusetts-a-dose-of-realism\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s lonely in Massachusetts; A dose of realism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Massachusetts<\/strong> gamblers are night owls. When Gov. Charlie Baker<\/strong> (R) ordered casinos to close at 9:30 p.m. it took a big bite<\/a> out of November revenues, particularly Encore Boston Harbor<\/strong>, which makes half its revenue after dark. At least you can gamble in Massachusetts still (albeit at reduced capacity). Rhode Island<\/strong> Gov. Gina Raimondo<\/strong> (D) has shut down<\/a> both of Bally<\/strong>‘s two Twin River-branded casinos. As for the Bay State, MGM Springfield<\/strong> took it pretty hard, falling 40% to $10.5 million, with table game revenue more than halved. Percentage-wise, Plainridge Park<\/strong> suffered least, off 25% for a $7.5 million gross. Encore tumbled 35%, grossing $47 million, with only $15.5 million of that derived from the slots. As for what to expect in Massachusetts casino, the Boston Globe<\/em> reports that they “have spent large sums of money preparing their facilities to operate during a pandemic. Visible measures include plexiglass dividers, aggressive cleaning of gambling equipment, and stringent enforcement of mask-wearing requirements. Massachusetts casinos also have state inspectors on scene monitoring compliance with health regulations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

While the distribution of vaccines may look like a panacea for the economy, Terry Monroe<\/strong>, founder of American Business Brokers & Advisors<\/strong> begs to differ, predicting that it will take into March just to immunize healthcare workers and other high-priority individuals. (Michael Beschloss<\/strong> reported that White House<\/strong> staffers were stepping all over each other to get vaccinated. Totally predictable.) “That would leave well over  200 million Americans still in need of the vaccine as we head into spring,” writes Monroe. The stock market continues to levitate above 30,000, as Wall Street<\/strong> whistles past the graveyard. But for small business (including hole-in-the-wall casinos) it may be a different story. Says Monroe, “Outside of government, companies with less than $7 million in sales and fewer than 500 employees are widely considered small businesses by the U.S. Small Business Administration<\/strong>. And the expectation for small businesses to return to what we considered normal pre-pandemic is not going happen anytime soon.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is in part due to the restriction and sometimes (17%) outright closure of restaurants across the country. Continues Monroe, “In November 2020, the national unemployment level of the United States<\/strong> stood at about 10.74 million unemployed persons, which equates to a little over 10%. However, this number only tracks the number of people who are unemployed. It doesn\u2019t record the people who are not drawing unemployment benefits and are out of work. So, in reality the number is larger than the 10.74 million. With businesses closing and laying people off, no jobs for people to replace what they lost, and no income for the owners of the businesses, vaccine or no vaccine there is not going to be anyone working to turn the economy around. It will take most of 2021 to make the vaccine available to the millions of people who will want it, but many of the unemployed still will have no work to go to after they get the vaccine and the economy continues to sit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author takes issue with the popular contention that vaccine = economic surge. Habits have changed during the pandemic, Monroe says, and with fewer entertainment and dining options (sound familiar?), why go out? And why get dressed up when you have no place to go. (Adios, clothing sales.) Plus “states keep changing the rules”\u2014see above\u2014engendering volatility in the marketplace. “It is obvious that small businesses are not going to return to pre-pandemic levels with so many businesses closed in such a short time period.” In other word, normality will not return until 2022, which squares with most of what we’ve been reading about the casino biz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Derek Stevens<\/strong> is betting that Gov. Steve Sisolak<\/strong>‘s capacity restrictions will have eased by Feb. 7. What’s so important about that date? The Super Bowl<\/strong>, of course! \u201cWith the biggest game in sports right around the corner, we are gearing up for an epic takeover in Downtown<\/strong>,\u201d Stevens was quoted as saying. \u201cNo matter what team you\u2019re rooting for on February 7, one thing is for sure: you\u2019re going to have the time of your life.\u201d Assuming a best-case scenario, the Super Bowl will be the acid test of the drawing power of Stevens’ two crucial venues, Stadium Swim (with five different admission packages, all pretty elite) and the epic sports book, with its four game-viewing areas. Good luck, Derek. If anybody can pull this off it’s him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time for our Bad Beat of the Week. This one goes to a bettor who’s $40,000 lighter in the wallet after a series of wing-and-a-prayer laterals by the Cleveland Browns<\/strong> ended in a safety, sealing a 47-42 win by the Baltimore Ravens<\/strong>. There went the three-point spread, at least for Cleveland fans. The big loser had placed an additional bet for the Browns to cover 4.5 points. Whoops. The safety left him a half-point short. Easy come, uneasily go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Speaking of such things, the Mob Museum<\/strong> has made two remarkable acquisitions. One is a document from March 19, 1947 transferring the Flamingo<\/strong> to Bugsy Siegel<\/strong> and expelling Billy Wilkerson<\/strong>. “This document bolsters the true story that Wilkerson actually conceived and started building the Flamingo.” So does a check signed by Wilkerson to pay for the original 33 acres on which the Flamingo would be built, dated March 5, 1945. It made Margaret Folsom<\/strong> $9,500 richer\u2014later $84,000 when Wilkerson finished paying for the parcel. Try buying Strip acreage for those prices today. And hurry to see the artifacts: They’re only on display through Jan. 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Resorts World New York<\/strong> is holding a series of thank-you events for frontline workers, including a coat drive, fundraiser, breast-cancer donations and several food drives. Thank you, Genting<\/strong> … Miss the old El Cortez<\/strong> floral carpet? It’s not gone, just in storage and soon you will be able to buy pieces of it, if you’re so inclined … Culinary Union<\/strong> members at Wynncore <\/strong>could join 1,000 of their Encore Boston Harbor fellows on the breadline. Wynn Resorts<\/strong> has been trying a more-workers\/fewer-hours regime. The Culinary wants more hours. Wynn is threatening layoffs if this continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Massachusetts gamblers are night owls. When Gov. Charlie Baker (R) ordered casinos to close at 9:30 p.m. it took a big bite out of November revenues, particularly Encore Boston Harbor, which makes half its revenue after dark. At least you … 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":[293,24,151,155,51,14,270,4,36,120,283,140,112,245,101,69,141,74,243,9,38,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28936"}],"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=28936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29883,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28936\/revisions\/29883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

In a totally counterintuitive development, the population of Las Vegas<\/strong> has actually been growing during the Covid-19<\/strong> pandemic. For every person who has moved away from Sin City, 1.3 have relocated to the are<\/a>a, putting us #9 for growth. Other casino-enabled cities in the top 10 are Phoenix<\/strong> (#2) and Tampa<\/strong> (#4). Casino-less Austin<\/strong> leads everybody, in case you’re curious. Those moving into Vegas will find four new attractions from entrepreneur Ryan Doherty,<\/strong> who is investing heavily in Downtown’s Fremont East. His headline offering is, er, Discopussy<\/strong>. Its name is justified by a giant, animatronic octopus whose tendrils entwine above the dance floor. Then there’s Lucky Day<\/strong>, <\/strong>a tequila bar “with a canopy of 15,000 custom handmade programmable LED lights in all shapes and sizes” and Oddwood<\/strong>, a cocktail bar with a “digital maple tree.” (Doherty is big into overhead d\u00e9cor.) Finally there’s Museum Fiasco<\/strong> “an assault on the senses, offering art you can feel, curated to within an inch of its life.” Sounds like a must-see destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n