{"id":9825,"date":"2012-10-12T15:25:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T23:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=9825"},"modified":"2012-10-12T15:25:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T23:25:48","slug":"nevada-disappoints-but-atlantic-city-bombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/nevada-disappoints-but-atlantic-city-bombs\/","title":{"rendered":"Nevada disappoints but Atlantic City bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If there’s a saving grace to August’s rather glum Nevada<\/strong> gambling win (-3%), it’s that the month ended on a Friday, so there may be some as-yet-unreported slot revenue that will fluff the September results. (That optimism must be offset, though, by the fact that August 2012 had one more<\/em> weekend day than the year before.) Lighter slot play depressed Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> results (-1%), which were buoyed mainly by boffo baccarat win (+32%), hold (+12%) and money wagered (+30%). Other table games were down 8.5%, with metrics declining across the board.<\/p>\n

Mesquite<\/strong> and Primm<\/strong>, along with other nebulously defined “balance of Clark County<\/strong>” markets could take consolation in being flat during a month in which the locals market got hammered. Symbolic of this plight was Boyd Gaming<\/strong>, down 8% on its home turf. Downtown casinos were 8% off last year’s win, blighted North Las Vegas<\/strong> fell 13% and the Boulder Strip<\/strong> took a -17% thwack. By contrast, Laughlin<\/strong>‘s 2% decline was practically cause for celebration.<\/p>\n

Strip revenues ($491 million)<\/strong> were the best of the warm-weather months, \"\"except for July’s $597.5 million. Since so many of Las Vegas Boulevard<\/strong>‘s tentpole events (like Chinese New Year<\/strong> and the Super Bowl<\/strong>) are frontloaded into the first quarter, long stretches of the calendar are wont to look deceptively lean. Compared to 2011’s 3% increase, the pace of recovery has slowed this year … although the manic-depressive alternation of good and bad months makes one leery of drawing sweeping conclusions.<\/p>\n

Stick a fork in it<\/strong>. OK, sure, I said we should wait 8-12 months before drawing conclusions on Revel<\/strong>. However, its effect has not been to reverse Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s fortunes but to cushion the fall. Without Revel, the Boardwalk would have been 12% off last month. With it, the decline is 6%. Pick your poison. In four months of full operation, Revel has not performed appreciably better than during its two-month “soft opening”: $17 million last month vs. $14 million in May (which was bolstered by Beyonc\u00e9<\/strong> and other Memorial Day treats).<\/p>\n

Since Revel was underwritten, in part, with tax exemptions from the State of New \"\"Jersey<\/strong>, if its numbers don’t improve during the 4Q12 and 1Q13 — i.e.,\u00a0 the cold-weather months — this could be the “Solyndra” of the casino industry. Having made a $261 million wager with the state budget, Gov. Chris Christie<\/strong> (R, right<\/em>) will find himself drawing to a much weaker hand, thanks to Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis<\/strong> and his near-total screwup of Atlantic City’s first megaresort opening in nearly a decade and certainly its last ever. Pressure from legislators to put slots into horse tracks and\/or Meadowlands<\/strong> will be much, much more difficult to stave off unless DeSanctis pulls a rabbit from his seemingly empty hat.<\/p>\n

For Borgata<\/strong>, it was a glass half-empty\/half-full month. Its $55 million gross makes Revel look downright pitiful, but it was still 6% off from last year. Boyd Gaming<\/strong> got cleaned out at the tables — as appears to happened even worse to Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> — whether in terms of hold, win (-20%) or money wagered (-9%). Tighter slot holds offset some of the damage at the tables. The Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> quartet was down 9% overall. Bally’s Wild Wild West<\/strong>, slated for a refit, suffered the most (-23%) while Caesars Atlantic City<\/strong> got off fairly lightly, down 7.5% on a $33 million gross.<\/p>\n

\"\"The sole gainer was Golden Nugget Atlantic City<\/strong> (+8%), in its eighth revenue-positive month out of the last nine. Whatever Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>‘s doing, his competitors should be studying it. Slightly outgrossing the Nugget was bargain-driven Atlantic Club<\/strong>, only 2% off last year’s pace. Pulling in a mingy $9 million (-19%), on-the-block Trump Plaza<\/strong> will be a tough sell. But despite a shocking 29% falloff, to $21.5 million, Tropicana Atlantic City<\/strong> still managed to outgross Revel by $4.6 million. What’s wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there’s a saving grace to August’s rather glum Nevada gambling win (-3%), it’s that the month ended on a Friday, so there may be some as-yet-unreported slot revenue that will fluff the September results. (That optimism must be offset, … 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":[23,88,60,3,28,42,51,14,7,49,78,33,111,157,9,129,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9825"}],"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=9825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9849,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9825\/revisions\/9849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}