{"id":44,"date":"2009-06-03T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/6\/3\/Case-Bets-Packer--Ho-Sands-Bethlehem-MGM-Mirage-Ameristar-Penn-Natl-Harrahs-etc"},"modified":"2022-10-22T05:20:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T13:20:31","slug":"case-bets-packer-ho-sands-bethlehem-mgm-mirage-ameristar-penn-harrahs-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/case-bets-packer-ho-sands-bethlehem-mgm-mirage-ameristar-penn-harrahs-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Bets: Packer & Ho, Sands Bethlehem, MGM Mirage, Ameristar, Penn, Harrah's, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Smashing guitars — but not over each other’s noggins — James Packer<\/strong> and Lawrence Ho<\/strong> christened City of Dreams<\/strong>. The younger Ho downplayed expectations of foot traffic, saying his $2.4 billion megaresort could get by on far fewer visitors than the nearby (and comparably expensive) Venetian Macao<\/strong>, which draws 70K visitors daily.<\/p>\n

\u2022 After a record-setting opening, Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> fell into fourth place<\/a> during last week’s casino action in Pennsylvania<\/strong>. Not surprisingly, Philadelphia Park<\/strong> and Harrah’s Chester<\/strong> led the state.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Beau Rivage<\/strong> is safe. Although MGM Mirage<\/strong> was peddling several of its regional casinos, J.P. Morgan<\/strong> reports that “we have heard from some bidders that this process is close to dead, so we don\u2019t expect to hear asset sales chatter in the near to medium term<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\u2022 While yours truly was critical of staffing cuts at Ameristar Casinos<\/strong>, they appear to be paying off. The company projects flat revenue comparisons in 2009 but better cash-flow margins, pegging the savings as $40 million-$48 million, annualized.<\/p>\n

\u2022 When in doubt, Penn National<\/strong> Gaming<\/strong> falls back on what it knows: racinos. It’s angling for the Laurel Park<\/strong> concession left on the table when Magna Entertainment<\/strong> collapsed. Both Penn and rival David Cordish<\/strong> appear to be trying to chisel a loophole<\/a> into Maryland<\/strong>‘s slot-parlor law, which limits companies to one slot house apiece. Penn is already committed to Cecil County<\/strong> but wants Laurel Park … as does Cordish, who has a pre-standing commitment to the Arundel Mills<\/strong> area. The latter project has run into serious opposition. Expect a nip-and-tuck fight for Laurel Park.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Penn is evidently getting cold feet<\/a> in Ohio<\/strong>, however.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Casino expansion in Iowa<\/strong> will have to wait until 2010, at the earliest. This delay is a disguised blessing. The Hawkeye State market has been holding its own during the recession but the timing for diluting the market with four new casinos could scarcely be worse.<\/p>\n

\u2022 If wishes were horses<\/a>, Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> would be galloping along the shores of the Yangtze River this very minute. Seriously, would you<\/em> lend Harrah’s more money? Would you give an alcoholic the keys to your wine cellar? Well, you might get the empties back so you could redeem the deposit on the bottle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Smashing guitars — but not over each other’s noggins — James Packer and Lawrence Ho christened City of Dreams. The younger Ho downplayed expectations of foot traffic, saying his $2.4 billion megaresort could get by on far fewer visitors … 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":[40,70,28,44,14,26,7,67,86,96,94,62,72,93,11,69,95,25,12,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44"}],"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=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31780,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/31780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}