{"id":6909,"date":"2011-06-10T14:07:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T22:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6909"},"modified":"2021-03-15T05:54:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T13:54:06","slug":"frosty-spring-on-the-boardwalk-tortoises-vs-hares-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/frosty-spring-on-the-boardwalk-tortoises-vs-hares-in-pennsylvania\/","title":{"rendered":"Frosty spring on the Boardwalk; Tortoises vs. hares in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dennis Gomes<\/strong>‘ comeback trail at Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> (left<\/em>) finally hit a wall in May. The recovering casino was 4% off last year’s pace, although that’s above-average performance in market that took another thwack last month, down 9%. The feeble end of the Donald Trump<\/strong> era at what is now the Golden Nugget<\/strong> demonstrated the challenge ahead of new owner Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>: $11 million, -18% even from last year’s paltry tally. Trump Plaza<\/strong> remains in free fall, down 25%<\/a>. Only the Bally’s Wild Wild West<\/strong>\/Claridge<\/strong> behemoth (-16%) had a worse plunge in terms of sheer dollars, down $6.2 million, as opposed to the Plaza’s $4.3 million declivity. Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> (-1%) defied the trend best of anybody.<\/p>\n

At the tables, players wagered less and casinos won less (drop and win both -10%), and poker play appears to have dried up rather badly. Punters had a good month at the slots, although Borgata<\/strong> was able to report higher coin-in and only a modest (2%) decline in winnings. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> got beaten at the tables, however, down 12%. If you’re a glass-half-full person, there’s consolation in the fact that a total table-game wipeout (to the tune of $11 million) made only a single-digit dent in the Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s revenues.<\/p>\n

The metric that’s most troubling involves “seasonality” of play. Normally, S&G<\/em> doesn’t bother much with sequential comparisons. However, in the March-May period of 2010, revenue increased by $19 million as the weather warmed. This year it rose only $10 million. We’re getting into the meat-and-potatoes months of the Boardwalk and a flattening trajectory isn’t what one wants to see.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>Things are looking up<\/strong> for the <\/span>Pennsylvania<\/strong> casinos of <\/span>Neil Bluhm<\/strong>. Although both <\/span>Rivers Casino<\/strong> (<\/span>above<\/em>) and <\/span>SugarHouse<\/strong> looked like costly curiosities at first, they’re gaining traction with Keystone State customers. In a month where <\/span>slot revenues were generally “blah,”<\/a> Rivers posted a 17% improvement. No year\/year comparison are available for brand-new SugarHouse but it’s taking chunks out of the hides of <\/span>Harrah’s Chester Downs<\/strong> (-11%) and even player favorite <\/span>Parx Casino<\/strong> (-13%).\u00a0 Bluhm’s belated gains are encouraging for those who, as a matter of principle, invest in the tortoise rather than the hare.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Picture = 1,000 Words Dept<\/strong>.: The very definition of a douchebag, as captured on film by Jaime Edmondson<\/strong>. The scene of the crime is unidentified but circumstantial evidence points to The Palms<\/strong>, a notorious magnet for wandering bags of douche (like tumbleweeds, only uglier).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Gomes‘ comeback trail at Resorts Atlantic City (left) finally hit a wall in May. The recovering casino was 4% off last year’s pace, although that’s above-average performance in market that took another thwack last month, down 9%. The feeble … 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":[23,60,28,142,42,14,64,7,91,95,111,9,129,19,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909"}],"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=6909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29388,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909\/revisions\/29388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}