{"id":31518,"date":"2022-08-08T08:10:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=31518"},"modified":"2022-08-15T09:38:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T17:38:44","slug":"industry-waffles-on-sisolak-illinois-ekes-upward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/industry-waffles-on-sisolak-illinois-ekes-upward\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry waffles on Sisolak; Illinois ekes upward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Cynicism, thy name is Big Gaming. Whereas its chips were all in with Nevada<\/strong> Gov. Steve Sisolak<\/strong> (D) the last time around, now it has a dampened finger held upwards, testing which way the wind is blowing. The Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> has done some digging through public records, and found some surprising Sisolak backers and opponents in the C-suites. Numero uno is Venelazzo<\/strong>, which has flung $250,000 into the Sisolak coffers<\/a>. It’s followed by Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, which has chipped in another 90 grand. True believers in Sisolak’s opponent, former Clark County<\/strong> sheriff Joe Lombardo<\/strong> (R) mostly represent smaller fry, like Golden Entertainment<\/strong> ($90,000), perhaps to punish Sisolak for his financially costly (but necessary) 78-day shutdown of Nevada’s signature industry, in an effort to squelch Covid-19<\/strong>. Then you have the cynics, foremost among whom is Boyd Gaming<\/strong>, sending $40K to Sisolak but $30K to Lombardo, enabling it to claim it’s on the winning side regardless of what happens in November. Phil Ruffin<\/strong>, the El Cortez<\/strong>, Ellis Island<\/strong> and Longhorn Casino<\/strong> are comparable bet-hedgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Lombardo hadn\u2019t been the sheriff, I don\u2019t know if any other opponent would have done as well with getting money from the casino industry,\u201d claims political operative Billy Vassiliadis<\/strong> but we dunno: The uncertain tenor of the election would appear to have a lot to do with the gaming industry’s tap dance. Sisolak, it must be noted, has some surprisingly conservative backers in his camp. In addition to Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>, these include Station Casinos<\/strong> ($80K) and comparative cheapskate Wynn Resorts<\/strong> ($15K spread over two years). In retaliation against his former employer, Florida<\/strong> man Steve Wynn<\/strong> sent 20 grand to Lombardo. Resorts World Las Vegas<\/strong>, which Sisolak heralded as a major accomplishment for Las Vegas<\/strong>‘ economy, is repaying the guv by giving $10,000 to Lombardo. Et tu<\/em>, Genting Group<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Herbst and Marnell families each donated $10K to Sisolak\u2014but $50,000 to Lombardo. Given the imbalance, why even feign bipartisanship? The long-silent Ensign cabal donated another $20,000 to Lombardo, whose fans also include Dr. Miriam Adelson<\/strong> ($10K). Lombardo even got over $5.5 million from motel magnate Bob Bigelow<\/strong> but seems to have blown through it already. The ex-lawman is going to need his fan club to dig deep in the stretch drive. He’s only got a little over a million bucks on hand, Sisolak 11 times that amount\u2014and the Culinary Union<\/strong> has yet to wade into the fight. No prizes for guessing who it will back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Any improvement in Illinois<\/strong> casino numbers is cause for celebration, and they were up 2% last month (even allowing for newbie Hard Rock Rockford<\/strong>) at a time when they could be expected to be flat or modestly down. With exception of Hollywood Joliet<\/strong>, flat at $8 million, it was feast or fame. Feast: Rebranded Bally’s Quad Cities<\/strong>, vaulting 22.5% to $5 million. We still think Bally’s Corp<\/strong>. overpaid for the property but it’s definitely making a go of it. Famine: Harrah’s Joliet<\/strong>, diving 18.5% to $12 million. Also hard-hit was Argosy Alton<\/strong>, tumbling 17.5% to $3 million. The big dog, Rivers Casino Des Plaines<\/strong>, gained 5% to $50 million (out of a statewide gross of $123 million). Other climbers were Harrah’s Metropolis<\/strong> ($6 million, +14%) and Hard Rock with $5 million. Relative losers were Par-A-Dice<\/strong> ($5 million, -12%), Hollywood Aurora<\/strong> ($9 million, -9%), DraftKings Casino Queen<\/strong> ($6.5 million, -9%) and Grand Victoria<\/strong> (pictured<\/em>, $13 million, -6%). With the exception of Metropolis, it was largely a case of them that has gets, a familiar scenario in Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York State<\/strong> sports betting whipped up $801 million in handle last month\u2014but a mere $73 million of revenue, chicken feed even before the state takes its 51% cut. Lord only knows how much of the winnings went back out in the form of promotions. Nobody’s talking. FanDuel<\/strong>‘s $39 million in revenue led all comers, followed by DraftKings<\/strong>‘ $16 million. DKNG was blowing sunshine up Wall Street<\/strong>‘s ass last week but its consistent tendency to finish a distant second to FanDuel, regardless of market, evidently went unaddressed. (Profitability remains 15-18 months away.) Caesars Sportsbook<\/strong> has faded back toward the back but was still a contender with $9 million. Also-rans numbered PointsBet<\/strong> ($2 million) and BetRivers<\/strong> ($1 million). Among those fighting for crumbs, BallyBet<\/strong> managed in three weeks to outgross Resorts World<\/strong>, which had a full month to post less money. Good for Bally, maybe not so auspicious for Genting. It, Bally and WynnBet<\/strong> grossed slightly over a million bucks between all three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynicism, thy name is Big Gaming. Whereas its chips were all in with Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) the last time around, now it has a dampened finger held upwards, testing which way the wind is blowing. The Las Vegas … 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":[293,60,244,176,151,277,270,26,238,278,120,97,165,58,241,207,101,69,119,296,279,242,243,57,32,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31518"}],"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=31518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31521,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31518\/revisions\/31521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}