{"id":4825,"date":"2010-10-12T14:31:14","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T22:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=4825"},"modified":"2010-10-12T14:31:14","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T22:31:14","slug":"atlantic-city-it-could-have-been-worse-hard-rock-changes-its-tune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-it-could-have-been-worse-hard-rock-changes-its-tune\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City: It could have been worse; Hard Rock changes its tune"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, so September’s numbers from Atlantic City<\/strong> only represent one month of competition from SugarHouse<\/strong>, in Philadelphia<\/strong>. However, with every other casino in Pennsylvania<\/strong> having enjoyed two full months of table games, a 12% dropoff isn’t as bad as I feared. However, last year only December posted a worse gross than last month’s $296 million and it’s crystal-clear that, as we move forward, simply hitting $300 million in an off-peak month will be a triumph over adversity.<\/p>\n

\"\"Although everybody was revenue-negative compared to September ’09, Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> and even Trump Marina<\/strong> were practically flat (less than a percentage point off last year’s pace). While the Marina may have hit bottom, Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> has not; it fell 21% and into last place. In first place, Borgata<\/strong> was a full $10 million down from 9\/09, but it also has more to lose, grossing as much as the bottom four casinos put together. It was hard hit at the tables, holding only 12% for a 39% falloff in revenue — somewhat ameliorated by only a low-single-digit drop in slot winnings. That was far better than the market average for slots (-10% on a comparable falloff of coin-in), if much worse than average (-16%) at the tables.<\/p>\n

Carl Icahn<\/strong>‘s Tropicana<\/strong> continues to underperform for a casino of its size, running only slightly ahead of the smaller Showboat<\/strong> ($25 million to $25 million). Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong> almost had the second tier to itself, as Bally’s<\/strong>, Caesars<\/strong> and Harrah’s Marina<\/strong> all bunched themselves around the $35 million mark, as did the Taj. All other casinos remain on life support are on life support.<\/p>\n

No rebound?<\/strong> There’s one in Detroit<\/strong>. Discrete decisions by MGM Resorts Internationa<\/strong>l to stay in Motown but evacuate Atlantic City are looking like a win-win. Detroit casinos were up 6% last month, grossing $109 million ($46.5 million at MGM Grand Detroit<\/strong>). Everybody did well, with Greektown Casino<\/strong> halting a steep slide and MotorCity up 4%, while MGM continues to exceed analyst expectations for the quarter.<\/p>\n

New focus at Hard Rock<\/strong>: At hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong> may cost you as little as $48 this month, but the casino’s greater focus on local players is reportedly putting a lot of fannies on slot stools — particularly in the extension of the casino floor, which lately resembled a funeral parlor. Logo-merchandise giveaways (a gym bag one week, a hip flask another) are bringing players in, which suggests that the appointment of former M Resort<\/strong> exec Joseph Magliarditi<\/strong> as property CEO is helping operator Morgans Entertainment Group<\/strong> pull its head out of its nether regions.<\/p>\n

The latest locals-friendly move is to expand the benefits available to members of the Rockstar Players Club<\/strong>. Starting last Sunday, new goodies for frequent players include qualifying for spa comps, as well as dining ones at Rare 120<\/a> and Johnny Smalls<\/a>. I’ve eaten at both and say you should only go if<\/em> you’re comped. However, praise to the HRH for realizing that it’s idiosyncratic marketing position — both metaphorically and geographically — demands a more vigorous outreach to Las Vegas<\/strong> proper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, so September’s numbers from Atlantic City only represent one month of competition from SugarHouse, in Philadelphia. However, with every other casino in Pennsylvania having enjoyed two full months of table games, a 12% dropoff isn’t as bad as I … 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":[23,60,82,3,28,44,18,42,14,7,63,53,11,102,91,95,9,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825"}],"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=4825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4827,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions\/4827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}