{"id":5336,"date":"2010-12-10T17:47:53","date_gmt":"2010-12-11T01:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=5336"},"modified":"2021-01-11T06:50:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T14:50:01","slug":"atlantic-citys-future-bleak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-citys-future-bleak\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City’s future: “Bleak”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Such is the prognosis from J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> after the November revenues rolled in from the Boardwalk. Basically, the double-edged sword that was table games in Pennsylvania<\/strong> and a casino in Philadelphia<\/strong> has swung, and lopped 12.5% off Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s already anemic performance (down 27 months in a row). November marks four months of double-digit declines for the seaside gambling destination and the worst so far. Of the last 23 months, only February 2010 was worse and that by the thinnest of margins ($100,000 to be precise).<\/p>\n

Whether it was tables or slots, handle, hold or gross revenue, all market indicators pointed in one direction: down. To give you an idea, the good news for Wells Fargo <\/strong>analyst Carlo Santarelli<\/strong> was that Borgata<\/strong>‘s 6% decline was much less bad than expected. Over at Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong>, new CEO Dennis Gomes<\/strong> isn’t exaggerating the severity of the crisis facing his casino: Its $10 million take was the month’s worst (against Borgata’s market-leading $49 million), a 29% plunge from last year. One hastens to add that the November data doesn’t reflect Gomes’ stewardship, as that was Resorts last month under the disaster known as Colony Capital<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

S&G<\/em> has been saying for a while that Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> is badly overexposed in Atlantic City<\/strong>, where its four casinos had a 20% bite taken out of their collective ass. They were still good for $108 million but the declines ranged from 16.5% at sprawling Bally’s Wild Wild West<\/strong> ($30 million) to 26% at Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> ($25 million). Atlantic City Hilton<\/strong>‘s death spiral continues, down 12%. It’s a tragic pity that the mooted Tilman Fertitta<\/strong> takeover from Colony seems to have been a will o’ the wisp.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bright spots<\/strong>. Yes, there were a couple. Trump Marina<\/strong> (left<\/em>) has evidently fallen so far it now has no place to go but up. Its $12 million take, while hardly a barn-burner, represented a 2% increase. Hey, you’ve gotta start somewhere. Even more impressive was the 11% increase notched by Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong>, where the combination of old management and new ownership (Carl Icahn<\/strong>) is bringing gamblers back. The Trop’s $26 million haul was actually bigger than that of two of the Caesars-owned properties.<\/p>\n

One hopes that autumn’s numbers, dire as they are, will instill a sense of urgency in the New Jersey Legislature<\/strong>. That august body is contemplating a slew of bills<\/a> that comprise a rescue kit for Atlantic City. The package is coming together largely as Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R) envisioned, with a couple of significant exceptions. It may not be perfect but — taken as a whole — it’s what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n

Today was also the deadline<\/strong> for Caesars to submit its proposal for bailing out the stalled Foxwoods<\/strong> casino project in Philadelphia. When you consider the inroads the Pennsylvania had made on Atlantic City, as well as the blow that SugarHouse<\/strong> has dealt Harrah’s Chester Downs<\/strong>, more’s the pity that the Caesars board — stuffed with private-equity execs — is unlikely and insufficiently casino-experienced to prevent CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> from essentially putting a torch to Chester and Atlantic City alike with his value-destructive pursuit of a Philly foothold. Owners Texas Pacific Group<\/strong> and Apollo Management<\/strong> have placed themselves at the mercy of Loveman’s mercurial business temperament. Gentlemen, enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n

Happy birthday<\/strong> to one of the quintessential prime-time vixens, Donna Mills<\/strong>, who turns 70 tomorrow<\/a>. Geez, it seems just like the day before yesterday that she was the damsel in distress in Clint Eastwood<\/strong>‘s Play Misty for Me<\/em> (a thriller that wears its years lightly; put it in your Netflix<\/strong> queue … you’ll thank me later) and yesterday that she was the silkily scheming Abby Cunningham<\/strong> on Knots Landing<\/em>. It’s been nearly 18 years since my ex and I watched the following on May 13, 1993. Gawd, I feel old.<\/p>\n

Speaking of middle-age reference points …<\/p>\n

Baby Boomer boom<\/strong>. A new study by Preferred Hotel Group<\/strong> charts a sizeable upward curve in the number of Baby Boomers<\/strong> hitting retirement age (at least until Uncle Sam moves the goalposts). Starting next year, an estimated 11,000 Boomers a day will turn 65. Las Vegas<\/strong> has staked its future on DWMs (douchebags with money) and the indefinable “curious class.” If, in the wake of the Great Recession<\/strong>, the Boomers will still have that $3,324 in annual vacation budget, the question becomes: Why aren’t more of them spending it here? In two categories, Nevada<\/strong> in general and Las Vegas in particular rank no better than fifth in popularity … behind Alaska<\/strong> and Honolulu<\/strong>, respectively.<\/p>\n

OK, those last two are hard to beat when it comes to scenery. But they’re a long haul and hella expensive. Maybe the Boomers, being older and wiser, aren’t wont to drop thousands of dollars a night in an ultralounge. So if the douchbagerie<\/em> has an inherent advantage in the eyes of Vegas marketers, it’s that they’re young and stupid. After all, anybody who spends a lousy $3.3K in an afternoon at Rehab<\/strong> would be deemed a piker. On second thought, maybe Sin City ought to just stick to what it’s already doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Such is the prognosis from J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff after the November revenues rolled in from the Boardwalk. Basically, the double-edged sword that was table games in Pennsylvania and a casino in Philadelphia has swung, and lopped 12.5% off … 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":[13,23,60,82,3,133,28,142,42,14,4,7,53,102,10,91,95,9,129,19,20,21,17,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5336"}],"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=5336"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29078,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5336\/revisions\/29078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}