{"id":30566,"date":"2022-01-07T10:32:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T18:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=30566"},"modified":"2022-03-03T07:30:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T15:30:43","slug":"meet-the-new-national-harbor-boss-same-as-the-old-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/meet-the-new-national-harbor-boss-same-as-the-old-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the new National Harbor boss, same as the old boss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Maryland<\/strong> closed out 2021 hot, up 16% from 2019 with a gross of $173 million in December. As usual, MGM National Harbor<\/strong> was in the lead with $74.5 million. Maryland Live<\/strong> booked $62.5 million for a 20.5% gain and 36% market share. Hollywood Perryville<\/strong>‘s $7 million represented an 18.5% vault and Ocean Downs<\/strong>‘ $7 million was good for a 19% leap. Rocky Gap Resort<\/strong> grossed $5 million, up 18%. The only loser was\u2014you guessed it\u2014Horseshoe Baltimore<\/strong>\u2014down 9% to $17 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MGM employees can expect to see a familiar face in the C-suite. Borgata<\/strong> President Melonie Johnson<\/strong> has been demoted to her former post in Maryland, where she’ll return to the challenge of fending off hard-charging Cordish Gaming<\/strong>. We don’t mean to indulge in schadenfreude by saying we sensed something like this coming. (“Guess she’s finished reducing player’s benefits in AC,” wrote one wag.) Borgata has been struggling of late, despite being at the top of the Atlantic City<\/strong> heap, and November’s calamitous numbers must have been the last straw for MGM Resorts International<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The new man at the helm is Travis Lunn<\/strong>, promoted from the directorship<\/a> of Beau Rivage<\/strong> and Tunica<\/strong>‘s Gold Strike<\/strong>. This almost completes an extirpation of female chief executives on the Boardwalk, with only Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> General Manager Jacqueline Grace<\/strong> remaining. As for the new guy in town, The Associated Press<\/em>‘ Wayne Parry<\/strong> reported, “MGM said the two Mississippi<\/strong> casinos Lund [sic<\/em>] oversaw last year achieved record gambling revenue for multiple months while instituting strict COVID19-related health and safety protocols.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Speaking of player benefits from MGM, the latter jettisoned M Life<\/strong> yesterday, trotting out new MGM Rewards<\/strong> in the wee hours of the morning (6 a.m., EST). Four days earlier, MGM had conducted a jihad<\/em> on M Life tier credits, a move that went over like a lead balloon<\/a>. Vital Vegas<\/em> had heard “rumblings” of the rebrand some time earlier. Indeed, we don’t doubt that the green-eyeshade brigade had been crunching the numbers on a new loyalty club for weeks, if not months. But the speed and stealth with which the MGM Rewards reveal followed the Jan. 2 tier-credit massacre strongly suggests an attempt at damage control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most significant differences of MGM Rewards is that points can now be earned via non-gambling spending. (And Macao<\/strong> doesn’t qualify, BTW.) If you can spend your way up to the middle level, Gold, you qualify to have your resort fees waived. M Life tier credits earned this month can be rolled into MGM Rewards, while spending at Las Vegas<\/strong> properties results in your tier credits being doubled through the end of April (MGM giveth, MGM taketh away). The threshold for the second-lowest level, Pearl, is lowered by 5,000 tier credits, and perks from Hyatt Hotels<\/strong>, Southwest Airlines<\/strong> and Avis Rental Cars<\/strong> have been thrown into the mix. There’s more but we’re certain you can read about it on the company Web site. Wall Street<\/strong> was awfully keen on M Life (and how it synergized with BetMGM<\/strong>), so we don’t know how it will react to the democratization of loyalty points\u2014even if it’s hella harder to earn them now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow four online sports betting providers go live in New York State<\/strong>. The lucky quartet is BetRivers<\/strong>, Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong>, DraftKings<\/strong> and FanDuel<\/strong>. Lead analyst for PlayUSA<\/strong>, Dustin Gouker<\/strong>, risked understatement by saying \u201cNew York will be a fascinating test case for just how much states can tax sports betting without damaging the future of the industry. Launching with four of the best-known sportsbook brands in the U.S. shows that operators have not been dissuaded so far. And there is no doubt New Yorkers will respond in huge numbers, so long as operators can offer competitive products that sufficiently desensitize crossing state lines to place a bet.\u201d In other words, roll out some promo offers that are better than New Jersey<\/strong>‘s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Remember this guy?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PlayUSA may not have meant to be understatedly witty when it said it would “difficult” for the Empire State to hit Andrew Cuomo<\/strong>‘s $500 million tax haul in 2024, even at a usurious 51% rate. Before being shamed out of office, Cuomo laid out a sliding scale of projections starting at $99 million this year and escalating sharply to $357 million next year. \u201cFor New York to reach $500 million in annual tax revenue, it will take a groundswell of demand that would be unprecedented in U.S. sports betting history,\u201d responded analyst Eric Ramsey<\/strong>, although he stopped short of calling it impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it might as well be. No U.S. state has ever booked $1 billion in gross sports betting revenue in a year and we fail to see why New York will be any different. We’re talking about $13 billion in annual handle, $2 billion more than New Jersey is slated to generate this year and more than double Pennsylvania<\/strong>. \u201cBettors will have a variety of sportsbooks to choose from, fostering a healthy market and competitive pricing,” says Ramsey. We wonder. With such narrow profit margins staring them in the face, how competitive and generous can OSB providers afford to be? We’re with Global Market Advisors<\/strong>‘ Brendan Bussmann<\/strong>, who yesterday was downright scathing about the New York model, calling it a disaster for competition and free enterprise, one copied from a state (New Hampshire<\/strong>) which runs an OSB monopoly. Even PlayUSA concedes “that New York will likely not be a profitable environment.” That’s a high price to pay for wider brand recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Omicron<\/strong> variant of Covid-19<\/strong> isn’t making itself felt in the casino industry yet, says Deutsche Bank<\/strong> gaming guru Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>. The only state facing adversity, in his projections, is Louisiana<\/strong>, which is tracking -4% for December. Indiana<\/strong> will slow a bit, up 4%, Missouri<\/strong> should be 6% higher than 2019, Ohio<\/strong> will continue to bustle along at +12%, Las Vegas locals are expected to lose 6% more and the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> is forecast to be up 26%. One caveat: December 31 was a Friday, meaning that Nevada<\/strong> slot revenue for New Year’s weekend will be rolled into January. That being said, it looks pretty good on the whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the extremely unlikely event that the NFL<\/strong>‘s most contemptible team, the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/strong>, beats the Indianapolis Colts<\/strong> this weekend (they are 15.5-point underdogs, presumably because bookies can’t use the infinity symbol), Sunday night’s Los Angeles Chargers<\/strong>\/Las Vegas Raiders<\/strong> tilt could become moot. How? If the game ends in a tie<\/a>, both the Bolts and the Raiders make the playoffs. Some economists are already suggesting that The Fix Is In. Such outright collusion isn’t considered implausible, although the Wall Street Journal<\/em> notes, “The NFL might decide that such a sham violates the league\u2019s competitive principles and force both teams a forfeit. The teams could face the social pressure of becoming laughingstocks.” At least Chargers coach Brandon Staley<\/strong> has dismissed the idea of tanking the game. What’s more likely is that, with the score close toward the end of regulation (as Raiders games tend to be), both teams stop playing to win. \u201cThey\u2019re both going to play the cautious strategy,\u201d predicts MIT<\/strong> economist Glenn Ellison<\/strong>. Of course, all of this is predicated on a Jaguars win Sunday, a scenario that is closer to science fiction than sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quote of the Day<\/strong>: “Making COVID testing a perk for players, casinos will throw in a free testing kit with each jackpot. If you test positive, your room is free during the duration of your quarantine.”\u2014proposed new year’s resolution<\/a> for Las Vegas<\/strong> from Ira David Sternberg<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maryland closed out 2021 hot, up 16% from 2019 with a gross of $173 million in December. As usual, MGM National Harbor was in the lead with $74.5 million. Maryland Live booked $62.5 million for a 20.5% gain and 36% … 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":[235,109,23,60,244,34,176,18,277,14,278,97,283,194,68,255,84,62,53,72,245,35,39,207,163,248,101,71,115,69,95,242,54,74,243,31,8,295,9,19,20,38,132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566"}],"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=30566"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30814,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566\/revisions\/30814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Jottings<\/strong>: We haven’t heard from Alex Meruelo<\/strong> for a while but he’s reinventing himself as a sports betting operator. His SaharaBets<\/strong> has just partnered with the Arizona Coyotes<\/strong> of the NHL<\/strong> and is expected to launch later this month … Late 2023 is the target date for the land-based iteration of Treasure Chest<\/strong> in Kenner<\/strong>. Owner Boyd Gaming<\/strong> plans to spend $90 million<\/a> adding 47,000 square feet of gaming floor and a FanDuel<\/strong> sports book. Hard to believe Treasure Chest is 27 years old but so it is … Sports betting in Tennessee<\/strong> in November engendered $37 million in revenue<\/a> on $366 million in handle. OSB is taxed at 20% in the Volunteer State … Congratulations to Choctaw Casino & Resort<\/strong> in Durant<\/strong>, Oklahoma<\/strong>, on hosting 2022’s first World Series of Poker<\/strong> tourney. Said one player<\/a>, \u201cThose of us that have had children you\u2019ve got a toddler that\u2019s 18 months old you know when the child is hungry, wet, tired and it\u2019s the same instincts that I use at the table when reading my opponents\u201d … A good thing that Sycuan Casino<\/strong> near San Diego<\/strong> hasn’t taken down its anti-Covid barriers or relaxed its mask mandates. A tubercular player exposed other guests and employees to TB<\/a>. “Although we don\u2019t think this is a high-risk exposure, testing is recommended for employees who may have been exposed to the infected individual for a significant period of time,\u201d said the county’s deputy public health officer … Did you know MGM Resorts International<\/strong> had a director of wine? Neither did we<\/a>. \u201cThe prices can get pretty insane,\u201d admits the lucky and erudite Douglas Kim<\/strong> … Positive Covid-19<\/strong> test results in Macao<\/strong> have caused that city’s airport to be closed<\/a> to international travelers for the next two weeks. Those casinos can’t catch a break … The Great Resignation<\/strong> in the hotel industry is being blamed on low wages<\/a>. No sh!t, Sherlock. Hospitality lags 13 other economic sectors in wages paid … How do you get your customers to play the latest slot games? If you’re Coeur d\u2019Alene Casino<\/strong> in Idaho<\/strong>, you develop a “Discovery Den,” devoted solely to cutting-edge product\u2014in Class II, that is<\/a>. The State of Idaho imperially refuses to negotiate with Native Americans over Class III gaming, a disgrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n