{"id":9445,"date":"2012-08-10T13:52:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T21:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=9445"},"modified":"2013-01-02T11:53:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T19:53:36","slug":"atlantic-city-revel-debuts-disappointingly-mohegan-sun-moves-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-revel-debuts-disappointingly-mohegan-sun-moves-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City: Revel debuts disappointingly, Mohegan Sun moves in"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"OK, let’s take a deep breath and remind ourselves that one swallow doesn’t make a spring<\/a> and one month doesn’t determine history’s verdict on a casino, but there’s only a single word for $2.4 billion Revel<\/strong>‘s first full month of operation: poor. The megaresort grossed $17.5 million, making it the eighth<\/em>-place finisher for June. So much for the “novelty factor.” Perhaps that’s what occurs when you make “the casino seem almost an afterthought<\/a>.” If there’s an upside to this, it’s that Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s gross gaming revenue “only” fell 9% in a summer month … down 15% when Revel is factored out of the equation. In other words, par for the 2012 course.<\/p>\n

Table win at Revel was $1,771\/day and slot handle was $150 per day … but without comparable data from other casinos<\/a>, those numbers are almost meaningless. As expected, beach-deprived Revel<\/a> took a chunk out of table play at Borgata<\/strong> (-18.5% drop), where gamblers played lucky and casino win was -38%. Still, Boyd Gaming<\/strong> can take consolation that, even with an overall 16% plunge in casino revenue, Borgata still kicked the crap out of Revel, grossing thrice as much.<\/p>\n

\"\"Slot players seem<\/strong> to avoiding Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> properties like the plague: Coin-in was down 20%, although tighter holds limited the damage. Caesars was lucky at the tables, with only 9% less win on 17% less drop. Still, its quartet grossed a middle-of-the-pack $127 million, leaving one to ponder yet again why Gary Loveman<\/strong> was so enamored of Atlantic City<\/strong> he needed four <\/em>casinos there. The Revel factor was felt least at Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> (-2%) and worst at Bally’s Wild Wild West<\/strong> (-30%).<\/p>\n

Any shellfire from Revel<\/strong> merely clanged off the armor of Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong>, which was flat from June 2011 and is muscling up into Caesars territory, grossing $28 million. Having long since dwarfed\u00a0Showboat<\/strong>, it’s poised to surpass Bally’s next. Losing the most market share was — big surprise —\u00a0Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> (-21%), whose Trump Plaza<\/strong> ($11 million) has now fallen far behind Colony C(r)apital<\/strong>‘s former Atlantic City Hilton<\/strong> ($15 million). The latter’s grind joint repositioning is paying dividends, as “ACH” outgrossed rudderless Resorts Atlantic City<\/strong> and even the Golden Nugget<\/strong> ($13 million both). That’s a rare bit of good news in a market whose monthly declines are worsening from 2011’s.<\/p>\n

In addition to snatching away the\u00a0Hard Rock Hotel & Casino<\/strong>‘s marketing boss to oversee its own efforts<\/a>, Mohegan Sun Casino<\/strong> made a sizable thrust into the Boardwalk. With no successor to Resorts visionary Dennis Gomes<\/strong> having emerged, Mohegan Tribal Gaming<\/strong> will assume daily oversight<\/a> of the property, bringing a big gun to the table. Can tribal penetration of the Las Vegas<\/strong> market be far \"\"behind? (You can also add Resorts to the growing number of non-Caesars properties that are sublicensing the Margaritaville<\/strong> brand, at least 3:1 at last count.) Although the Mohegans have become greatly overextended in recent years — not so badly as Foxwoods<\/strong>, but badly — this is definitely a coup<\/em> for Resorts, extending its reach into the Pennsylvania<\/strong> and Connecticut<\/strong> markets, where Mohegan Sun’s player database will be merged with Resorts’<\/a>. Replacing the late Gomes is 12-year Tropicana veteran (both A.C. and<\/em> LV)\u00a0Gary Van Hettinga<\/strong> (right<\/em>), who exited the company at the onset of the disastrous Columbia Sussex<\/strong> interregnum at the Trop. If nothing else, the man has impeccable timing.<\/p>\n

It also consummates the tribe’s five-year flirtation with Atlantic City<\/a> and enables it to stick it to Revel for cutting in on player volume back at Mohegan Sun HQ in Ledyard<\/strong>. Also, the Mohegan Sun name, if adopted, would give the property much greater brand equity than under the moldy, tattered, all-but-meaningless “Resorts” moniker. Most significantly of all, Mohegan Sun will buy a minority stake in Resorts, challenging the private-sector casino industry on some of its oldest turf. It’s a smarter move by Resorts than anything done by Nick Ribis<\/strong> and Boob-in-Chief Tom Barrack<\/strong> when they were running it into the ground.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t …<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"… “liked” Charles Phoenix<\/strong> on Facebook<\/strong>, then what the heck are you waiting for? See what you’re missing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, let’s take a deep breath and remind ourselves that one swallow doesn’t make a spring and one month doesn’t determine history’s verdict on a casino, but there’s only a single word for $2.4 billion Revel‘s first full month of … 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":[65,23,60,3,15,28,142,42,51,7,140,95,157,129,19,20,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445"}],"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=9445"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10265,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions\/10265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}