{"id":744,"date":"2008-08-12T12:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T20:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/8\/12\/Trop-turnaround"},"modified":"2008-08-12T12:14:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-12T20:14:00","slug":"trop-turnaround","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/trop-turnaround\/","title":{"rendered":"Trop turnaround?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the New Jersey Casino Control Commission<\/strong> continues to bobble the sale of the Atlantic City Tropicana<\/strong>, at least its stewardship has arrested and perhaps finally the property's decline. While a 5.5% decline in business is nothing to crow over, only Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> lost less ground<\/a>, down 4%.<\/p>\n

Of course, nobody did remotely as well in dollar volume as the newly augmented Borgata<\/strong>. Whatever struggles Boyd Gaming<\/strong> has experienced in cracking the top, er, echelon on the Las Vegas Strip, it's had the rest of the Atlantic City market playing catch-up, mostly without success, for five years now.<\/p>\n

As for the Trop, its gambling revenues are still just keeping pace with Showboat Atlantic City<\/strong>, a property with 7% fewer slots and half the poker\/table game capacity. So, while the NJCCC has largely stanched the bleeding, the problem of an attenuated market share remains. Thanks, Columbia Sussex<\/strong>. Don't let that doorknob hit you on the way out.<\/p>\n

But the Trop's doing way better than Trump Marina<\/strong>, whose owners — coming off a wretched quarter<\/a> and not yet having booked the $316 million they're getting for Trump Marina — are merely considering<\/em> using the money to pay down debt. After all they could "look elsewhere for growth opportunities" — like Panama. (I kid you not.) That's quintessential Donald Trump<\/strong>: Don't address your problems; just run away.<\/p>\n

(Presumably the new "Chairman" tower at Trump Taj Mahal<\/strong> is supposed to evoke the glowering, orange-haired Trump himself. But, if you grew up in the Sixties, "the Chairman" was Mao Tse-tung<\/strong> or maybe — if you were just a few years older — the Chairman of the Board himself, one Francis Albert Sinatra<\/strong>. I guarantee that no one will ever call Trump "the Chairman." Ever.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Golden Heartland: Coming soon-ish to a Kansas near you?<\/em><\/p>\n

Golden Gaming's PR peeps<\/strong> contacted me to very politely dispute my characterization of Golden as a probable also-ran in the Kansas casino sweepstakes (see "Don't tax me, bro!<\/strong>"). They pointed to CEO Blake Sartini<\/strong>'s 15 years in the upper ranks of Station Casinos<\/strong>, his 40-tavern operation in Nevada, the Pahrump Nugget<\/strong> and a trio of Black Hawk, Colo., casinos (with an aggregate of 778 slots and no table games).<\/p>\n

I would respond that Golden's most imposing rival in Kansas, Mohegan Sun<\/strong>, probably has a larger installed slot base in its Connecticut casino alone (a mind-boggling 6,199 one-armed bandits) than Golden probably has in all its 40-plus properties rolled together. That Colorado is the minor leagues, casino-wise. That all those taverns, nice as they are (and they're some of the very poshest in Nevada), amount to one big-ass slot route — no disrespect intended. And that we're talking about a $600 million casino-resort<\/strong> contract — far, far<\/em> bigger than anything Golden has attempted.<\/p>\n

Bottom line:<\/em> I still think Golden is very much the underdog in Kansas. In fact, I'm even more convinced of it. Which isn't to say it won't pull off a stunning upset. But, given the scale of operation that the State of Kansas wants to see, Mohegan Sun's resumé makes the most logical fit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the New Jersey Casino Control Commission continues to bobble the sale of the Atlantic City Tropicana, at least its stewardship has arrested and perhaps finally the property's decline. While a 5.5% decline in business is nothing to crow over, … 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":[23,60,27,15,42,7,45,57,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744"}],"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=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}