{"id":938,"date":"2008-03-03T18:40:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/3\/3\/Terrible-timing"},"modified":"2008-03-03T18:40:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-04T02:40:00","slug":"terrible-timing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/terrible-timing\/","title":{"rendered":"'Terrible' timing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By golly, it seems like a mere nine days ago that a local newspaper story was reporting disproportionately strong lottery<\/a> sales at a California-border store owned by Herbst Gaming<\/b>. "Since taking over the store, the location's total lottery ticket sales have been more than $8.9 million," said the newspaper, although Herbst executives refused to take any of the credit that was being foisted upon them. "It's something to which we haven't given much thought," disclaimed one.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward six days and it turns out Herbst is "evaluating financial strategic alternatives<\/a>," with the help of Goldman Sachs<\/a>. Why? It would seem that Nevada's partial ban on smoking in public places (aka Question 5<\/b>) has delivered a dagger thrust to Herbst's slot routes, whose performance is off by one-fifth. Which partly answers the question of how slot routes would fare in Question 5's aftermath.<\/p>\n

Last week, it also emerged that one of the moves being contemplated<\/a> is the sale of some or all <\/a>of Herbst's casino empire, mostly amassed in the last 14 months through the absorption of three castoff MGM Mirage<\/b> properties in rural Nevada and the Sands Regent<\/b> brand. That's a debt load that Herbst can ill-afford to carry if its slots routes continue to tank.<\/p>\n

Standard & Poor's<\/b> cut Herbt's credit rating<\/a> to CCC today, in part because of "continued weak operating performance at the company's riverboat and land-based casinos." Already WHO-TV<\/b>, in Des Moines, Iowa, is reporting that one casino is openly for sale<\/a>. It reminds me of another company that grew too fast too soon …<\/p>\n

Columbia Sussex driving out business?<\/b> A 104-year-old hardware store and a paint store are shutting down<\/a> and (in the case of the paint store) moving, all to make room for a casino that might<\/i> be built if<\/i> the Kentucky state senate and<\/i> the voters of the Bluegrass State approve a proposal currently before lawmakers. Oh, and if<\/i> Covington, Ky., is awarded one of the nine licenses and if<\/i> that license goes to Columbia Sussex. If not, Columbia Sussex owner William Yung III<\/b> will have himself a $7 million collection of empty buildings, albeit at the mouth of a freeway exit. So it's not totally<\/i> a spin of the roulette wheel. Just mostly.<\/p>\n

And now for some positive thinking<\/b>. Naysayers who freak at the thought of a 9.75% casino tax rate might want to consider the influx of investment — albeit somewhat attenuated at the moment — into Atlantic City<\/b>, where the tax rate is 9.5%. MGM Mirage<\/b> isn't wavering from its high-profile commitment and not only is Penn National<\/b> willing to go all in, it's wagering that it can lure three other casino companies … provided it gets all of Bader Field as a precondition.<\/p>\n

True, Pinnacle Entertainment<\/b> is hesitating and the Curtis Bashaw\/Wallace Barr<\/b> project seems to have been indefinitely back-burnered. But, in the former instance, icy credit markets are primarily to blame. As for the latter, the Bashaw\/Barr duo is presently in the hunt for the Atlantic City Tropicana<\/b>, which would make a good strategic fit with Bashaw's Chelsea Hotel redevelopment. So it's far too early to pronounce Barr & Bashaw's south-Boardwalk casino-hotel D.O.A. … unless they land  the Trop, in which case a nice little 'flip' awaits them.<\/p>\n

Whoever thought Atlantic City would be the Land of Opportunity?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By golly, it seems like a mere nine days ago that a local newspaper story was reporting disproportionately strong lottery sales at a California-border store owned by Herbst Gaming. "Since taking over the store, the location's total lottery ticket sales have … 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":[23,15,123,11,69,30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938"}],"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=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}