{"id":30506,"date":"2021-12-21T10:36:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T18:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=30506"},"modified":"2022-01-03T07:48:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T15:48:37","slug":"mixed-signals-in-pennsylvania-atlantic-city-casinos-get-their-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mixed-signals-in-pennsylvania-atlantic-city-casinos-get-their-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed signals in Pennsylvania; Atlantic City casinos get their wish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Despite fewer weekends than in 2019, Pennsylvania<\/strong> casino revenues nudged up 3% last month, albeit not a same-store comparison, what with three new casinos having opened in the interim (that<\/em> would make it -9%). Slots won $185.5 million and table games $73.5 million. High hold was good for sports-betting revenues, which came in at $85 million ($64 million after promotional outlays) on handle of $762 million, holding up well in comparison to five-weekend October. Internet gambling brought in another $94 million. Alas, only two casinos were revenue-positive for the month, which will continue to fuel fears of saturation (with slot routes just over the horizon). Valley Forge Resort<\/strong> was up 6% to $11.5 million and Wind Creek Bethlehem<\/strong> grew 5% to $41.5 million. No 2019\/21 comparisons are available for Philadelphia Live<\/strong> ($16 million), Pittsburgh Live<\/strong> ($8 million) or Hollywood York<\/strong> ($7 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the Philadelphia<\/strong> area, Cordish Gaming<\/strong> continues to siphon players away from Rivers Philadelphia<\/strong> (-20%) but falls further and further behind, as the latter grossed $20 million to Cordish’s 16 million clams. What was that about the stadium district being a can’t-miss location? Harrah’s Philadelphia<\/strong> is bleeding players to Cordish, down 27% to $14.5 million, while Parx Casino<\/strong> slipped 4% but grossed a mammoth $49 million. Across the state, Rivers Pittsburgh<\/strong> was down 5% to $29 million and Hollywood Meadows<\/strong> shed 13% to $15 million. Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs<\/strong> dipped 8% to $17 million, Presque Isle Downs<\/strong> slid 21.5% to $8 million and Mount Airy<\/strong> was down 8% to $14.5 million. Hollywood Penn National<\/strong> fell 16.5% to $15.5 million and Lady Luck Nemacolin<\/strong> plunged 35.5% to $2 million. At least that’s enough to keep the lights burning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the impressive sports wagering results, PlayUSA<\/strong> analyst Katie Kohler<\/strong> said, \u201cNovember had one less weekend of football than in October, but the NBA<\/strong> and college basketball have proven to be formidable bet generators, too.” Revenue was actually at a record-setting level … or would have been without all the promotional spending. PlayUSA didn’t aggregate online and retail numbers but OSB was led by FanDuel<\/strong>‘s $37 million in win, followed by DraftKing<\/strong>s’ $16 million and Barstool Sports<\/strong>‘ $8 million. BetMGM<\/strong> edged Barstool very slightly in handle but took home $6 million. Online gambling flagged a bit from October and was led by Rush Street Interactive<\/strong>‘s consortium with $30.5, then Penn National<\/strong>‘s four-skin congregation with $16 million. Online poker continues to be Mount Airy’s province with $2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The last time you’ll see this guy.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

State Sen. Stephen Sweeney<\/strong>‘s controversial PILOT-revenue reduction bill passed out of the New Jersey<\/strong> Lege late last night and heads for Gov. Phil Murphy<\/strong>‘s desk and an inevitable signature. Sweeney got the bill through largely via scare tactics, invoking the specter of closed casinos in Atlantic City<\/strong>. However, as The Press of Atlantic City<\/em> observes, “He has offered little evidence for the statement, and no casino has publicly made that claim.” Casinos will still pay more in property taxes<\/a> next year\u2014just not nearly as much. This is accomplished by exempting sports betting and Internet gaming from “casino revenues,” in a bit of ledger-demain. The Casino Association of New Jersey<\/strong> claims in-person revenue in down 22% in the last two years but, when one considers that pandemic-laden 2020 is included in those figures, a grain of salt is in order. Meanwhile, casino workers are getting left behind in the legislative queue, as legislation to close the casino-smoking loophole languishes. Murphy has said he’ll definitely sign it if it passes but that’s a big “if.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Despite the headlines, there are some good\u2014even exemplary\u2014actors among California<\/strong> card rooms. Club One Casino<\/strong> in Fresno<\/strong> shows how it’s done<\/a>, in a lesson for the industry … Seems like the Las Vegas Raiders<\/strong> finally learned the phrase “must-win game,” narrowly beating the Cleveland Browns<\/strong> (admittedly, an unsurprising outcome) to keep their playoff hopes alive. Next up are the Denver Broncos<\/strong>, with sports books giving the Raiders a 1.5-point edge … BetMGM<\/strong>‘s role as official wagering partner of the PGA Tour<\/strong> has been extended through 2024<\/a>. Said the lion’s Matt Provost<\/strong>, “In the last year we\u2019ve seen an increase in our players betting on golf and are excited to now be the exclusive odds provider for pgatour.com\u201d … A decision on a long-delayed Muskegon County<\/strong> tribal casino has been punted into May by Michigan<\/strong> Gov. Gretchen Whitmer<\/strong> (D). The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians<\/strong> seeks to build a 149,000-square-foot casino and 220-room hotel at a former horse track site. \u201cWe\u2019ve been at it 12 years and another six months seems like a long time,\u201d tribal Chairman Larry Romanelli<\/strong> said. \u201cBut I understand the reasoning,\u201d citing ongoing Covid-19<\/strong> crises. The real sticking point<\/a> is that the casino would be 92 miles off-reservation … Speaking of Covid, casinos in Quebec<\/strong> have been ordered<\/a> to close (again). Meanwhile, F&B service has been suspended<\/a> at Ontario<\/strong> casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite fewer weekends than in 2019, Pennsylvania casino revenues nudged up 3% last month, albeit not a same-store comparison, what with three new casinos having opened in the interim (that would make it -9%). Slots won $185.5 million and table … 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":[23,291,300,60,244,34,266,289,176,70,277,278,283,255,259,167,69,95,33,242,74,243,31,20,308],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30506"}],"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=30506"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30511,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30506\/revisions\/30511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}