{"id":6324,"date":"2011-04-15T10:17:15","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T18:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6324"},"modified":"2021-03-17T03:53:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:53:51","slug":"fire-sale-in-vicksburg-win-or-loss-for-gettysburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/fire-sale-in-vicksburg-win-or-loss-for-gettysburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire sale in Vicksburg; Win or loss for Gettysburg?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Update<\/strong>: An earlier version contained a gross error\/AARP moment on Yr. Humble Blogger’s part. I have amended the story so that it contains greater “factiness.” Also, fellow Canadian firm<\/a> Gateway Casinos<\/strong> is the likely operator-to-be.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In a curt announcement, Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> offloaded its Horizon Vicksburg<\/em> riverboat for an undisclosed price. The buyer is little-known Canadian firm Tangent Gaming<\/strong>, although there may be a third hand at work behind the scenes, because Tangent’s track record is mainly that of a financier<\/a>, not an operator — although it maintains a number of slot routes. The price is probably being kept quiet because former TropEnt parent company Columbia Sussex<\/strong> tried to sell the vessel to Nevada Gold<\/strong> three years ago for $35 million. Then-TropEnt CEO Scott Butera<\/strong> subsequently torpedoed the transaction.<\/p>\n

If the parties keeping the sale price on the QT, it probably means TropEnt got even less for Horizon Vicksbur<\/em>g than ColSux’s William J. Yung<\/strong> did. A year ago, Bally Technologies<\/strong> was able to sell<\/a> its Rainbow Casino<\/em> in Vicksburg<\/strong> to Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong> for $80 million (and Isle’s execs are some of the shrewdest in the biz) but Rainbow<\/em> is a considerably larger facility and ColSux properties are notorious for deferred-maintenance issues. In any event, after Butera (now in charge of Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong>) made a big deal of scuttling Yung’s sales of Horizon Vicksburg<\/em> and Casino Aztar<\/em> in Indiana<\/strong>, Butera<\/span> TropEnt (and owner Carl Icahn<\/strong>) may simply not have wanted to draw attention to their flip-flop.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gettysburg win or loss?<\/strong> Although opponents of a proposed Gettysburg <\/strong>casino (such as sure cure for insomnia<\/span> filmmaker Ken Burns<\/strong>) are probably taking victory laps after Pennsylvania<\/strong> regulators chose Nemacolin Woodlands Resort<\/strong> instead, USA Today<\/em> may be reading too much<\/a> into the attendant historical controversy. The would-be Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino<\/strong> faced infrastructural challenges (like having sufficient access to the local water supply) and unlike the Nemacolin and Fernwood<\/strong> bids, it didn’t have a big dog in its corner — Isle for Nemacolin, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> in Fernwood’s case.<\/p>\n

S&G<\/em> came to think the historic-preservation issues were considerably overblown. Personally, I regret that Fernwood wasn’t chosen, as it deprives business reporters of a potentially endless string of Fernwood 2Night<\/em><\/a> references. Besides, who wouldn’t want polyester-clad Martin Mull<\/strong> and Fred Willard<\/strong> as your casino pitchmen?<\/p>\n

Caution prevails<\/strong>. Given the choice between operating a poker room at his racetrack (and under a legal penumbra) or preserving his shot a potential racino, Raynham Park<\/strong> owner George Carney<\/strong> opted for Door #2<\/a>. It’s a provisional decision and one that literally takes money — nearly $3 million — off the table, but that’s small change compared to what a Massachusetts<\/strong> racino could gross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: An earlier version contained a gross error\/AARP moment on Yr. Humble Blogger’s part. I have amended the story so that it contains greater “factiness.” Also, fellow Canadian firm Gateway Casinos is the likely operator-to-be. In a curt announcement, Tropicana … 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":[77,82,15,28,140,68,22,85,112,69,95,111,25,92,19,20,21,17,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324"}],"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=6324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29406,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324\/revisions\/29406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}