{"id":8450,"date":"2012-02-08T15:44:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T23:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8450"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:09:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T17:09:29","slug":"from-the-mailbag-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/from-the-mailbag-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"From the mailbag: Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Sunshine State comes this dispatch from one of S&G<\/em>‘s far-flung network of reader correspondents. This player is obviously quite familiar with the state of gambling in the great State of Florida<\/strong> …<\/p>\n

Mardi Gras<\/strong><\/a> Casino<\/strong> opened with $100 reels and video poker … no more. No video poker over $1 denom \u00a0(although some 10-play is there at the 99% payback level). Player reinvestment is close to nil and promo budget is niggardly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

Calder <\/strong>[Casino & Race Course<\/strong><\/a>] opened with server-based reels up to $100 and 45-line $1 denoms … all of those are all gone too. And they’re owned by Churchill Downs<\/strong><\/em>. The Miami Gardens<\/strong> area, famous for both Calder Casino and Tootsie’s Cabaret<\/strong> — a strip club<\/a> the size of a WalMart<\/strong> supercenter, but otherwise in a sketchy part of town — will never be confused with upscale Sunny Isles Beach<\/strong> or Jupiter Island<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gulfstream Park<\/em><\/strong> has always been sort of a grind joint, but they actually have good games and good bounceback-up to $225\/week. I can see why Harrah’s<\/strong> would want them — unlike most of [Gary<\/strong>] Loveman<\/strong>‘s ideas, this one is logical. Isle<\/strong> (Pompano Park<\/strong>) has a nice product, but I think gave up trying to get the Coconut Creek Casino<\/strong> crowd. The Seminoles<\/strong> answered Isle’s challenge with a huge remodeling and expansion. It’s still a very douchey place to play, but they may have the best location in the state, being close to Boca Raton<\/strong> and not too far a drive from Palm Beach<\/strong>. If you live in Boca and prefer to play Isle than CC, you’re adding 15 minutes to the drive each way. Magic City<\/strong> (Flagler<\/a>) is basically a small denom grind house.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wouldn’t ever discount Wynn<\/strong>‘s or Genting<\/strong>‘s marketing abilities, but I think a destination casino in a city which is all locals[-oriented] midline or budget casinos is going to be a tough sell. Especially when the clientele at a few of them (Seminole “Classic<\/strong>,” specifically<\/a>) look like a long waiting line at the Probation Department<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Editor’s note:<\/strong> Before his company threw in the towel in Florida, Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> Vice President Andy Abboud<\/strong> penned a ringing rebuttal to a group of state officials — mainly Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/strong> (right<\/em>)– who had come out against casino expansion. Abboud does a splendid job of exposing the hypocrisies of the opposition<\/a>, as well as pointing out how termite-ridden the current gaming ‘framework’ in Florida really is.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Caesars Entertainment IPO<\/strong> having been a hit on opening day (if you define “hit” as shareholders managing to “get out with smaller losses than they might have seen<\/em>“), the water has been chummed for a much bigger stock dump, probably sooner than expected. Stock analysts interviewed by The Associated Press<\/strong> even float the idea that Apollo Management<\/strong> and Texas Pacific Group<\/strong> might flush their entire stock position into the market. With all due respect, I doubt it, especially given the downward pressure on prices that will occur if and when John Paulson<\/strong> and suckers<\/span> investors like the California State Teachers’ Retirement System<\/strong> (whose trustees deserve to be sacked, if not shot) unload their 23 million-plus shares. And, after all that opening-day flurry, Caesars netted a puny $13 million “for general purposes.” Don’t spend it all in one place, guys.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Sunshine State comes this dispatch from one of S&G‘s far-flung network of reader correspondents. This player is obviously quite familiar with the state of gambling in the great State of Florida … Mardi Gras Casino opened with $100 … 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":[34,36,120,7,85,53,111,25,12,32,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8450"}],"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=8450"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30576,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8450\/revisions\/30576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}