{"id":9893,"date":"2012-10-18T12:48:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T20:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=9893"},"modified":"2019-08-06T09:06:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T17:06:42","slug":"pinnacle-saves-september-in-louisiana-echelon-under-wraps-the-red-headed-stepkids-of-station-sands-and-caesars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/pinnacle-saves-september-in-louisiana-echelon-under-wraps-the-red-headed-stepkids-of-station-sands-and-caesars\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinnacle saves September in Louisiana; Echelon under wraps; The red-headed stepkids of Station, Sands and Caesars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Folks down in the Pelican State had better things to do than gamble last month … like clean up after Hurricane Isaac<\/strong>. This might account for a 5% year\/year decline in casino revenues. Louisiana<\/strong>‘s gambling venues grossed $200 million last month, posting a 2% increase entirely on the strength of Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong>‘s new L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong>. And I mean strong<\/em>: $13 million, which was more than Baton Rouge<\/strong>‘s two other casinos grossed ($12 million) together<\/em>, averaging a 20% loss of business<\/a> to Pinnacle.<\/p>\n

But that’s not all<\/strong> … L’Auberge Red Stick brought about 69% year\/year growth in the Baton Rouge casino market, pushing it ahead of New Orleans<\/strong> ($25 million vs. \"\"$23 million). Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal<\/strong> (R) opposed this project and, faced with revenue and job creation on that magnitude, he’s welcome to suck it. Remember, this is the same fella who tried to demonize high-speed rail along the I-15 corridor as “a train from Disneyland<\/strong> to Las Vegas<\/strong>,” even as his underlings coveted the federal-stimulus money for themselves<\/a>, leading to an ignominious, ass-covering retreat. Jindal rarely misses an opportunity to stick it to the very casino industry whose tax dollars help pay his six-figure salary. Nice guy.<\/p>\n

Lake Charles<\/strong> continued to prosper, up 3% as L’Auberge du Lac<\/strong> posted million-dollar-plus gains. Only Boomtown Bossier<\/em> (+5%) had a positive month in the Shreveport<\/strong> market, down \"\"6% overall. Despite a minor setback at Boomtown New Orleans<\/em> (-2%), Pinnacle had a breakout month, becoming the #1 player in Pelican State gaming, with a $62 million gross. Adding insult to injury, newly dethroned Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> ($48 million) had a hard-luck month, whether at Harrah’s New Orleans<\/strong> (-18%), Louisiana Downs<\/strong> (-6%) or Horseshoe Bossier City<\/strong> (-9%). Isle of Capri Casinos<\/strong>‘ lone Lake Charles riverboat was off 10.5% while Boyd Gaming<\/strong>‘s Delta Downs<\/strong> racino (+6%) negated slippage at the Shreveport Sam’s Town<\/strong> (-7%) and aboard Treasure Chest<\/em> (-2%). Although some New Orleans casinos were nursing a post-Isaac hangover both the Fair Grounds<\/strong> racino (up 12%) and Peninsula Gaming<\/strong>‘s Amelia Belle<\/em> (+2%) were in the pink. Both Amelia Belle<\/em> (+5% YTD) and Evangeline Downs (+3%) look to be reliable little contributors to the Boyd coffers.<\/p>\n

In a totally unsurprising development<\/strong>, Boyd Gaming executive veep Bob Boughner<\/strong> told Nevada gaming regulators that “beautification” of the Echelon<\/strong> site would proceed but there are no plans to resume the five-hotel epic. As though \"\"to symbolize Echelon’s frozen-embryo status, a “decorative” shroud will be draped over the steel skeleton by January, literally putting the project under wraps<\/a>. I met with Boyd execs late this summer and it was clear both from their words and deportment that the company is in no hurry whatsoever to re-start Echelon and they’re just fine with that. They also appeared somewhat skeptical of the strength of such Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> recovery as we’ve seen and, given Las Vegas Convention & Visitor Authority<\/strong> reportage, who can blame them<\/a>? Whatever Boyd does with Echelon and whenever\"\" it’s done, it’s a dead certainty that we won’t see a resumption of the $4.8 billion CityCenter<\/strong> clone that was originally planned. CityCenter may be doing better than expected<\/a> (enough to justify launching a long-contemplated buffet revamp<\/a>) — depending on your level of expectations — but it’s an experiment we’ll not see repeated in our lifetimes.<\/p>\n

A moment of silence<\/strong>, please, for misconceived Aliante Station<\/strong>, which has formally passed<\/a> from Station Casinos<\/strong> to a consortium of creditors who are \"\"advised by former Boyd CFO Ellis Landau<\/strong>. “Almost-empty Station” is an orphan now, Caesars co-owners Texas Pacific Group<\/strong> and Apollo Management<\/strong> having been forced out<\/a>, a ancient reprisal for some rather dodgy lobbying efforts that resulted in Station fleeing Missouri<\/strong> in 2000, with regulators hot upon its heels. Unfortunately for Landau’s employers, Aliante Station doesn’t make an attractive acquisition candidate, but at least it’s turning a profit at last<\/a>, now that it’s out from under elephant-sized debt service.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sheldon Adelson’s red-headed stepchild<\/strong>, the one-off known as Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> has turned into quite a solid performer for the company, whose owner and COO both separately dissed it on various occasions. That’s one of several unpleasantries that are whited out in this Associated Press<\/strong> snow job<\/a>. No mention, either, of Adelson’s reneged pledge to build a museum on the site. Given the fiscal struggles<\/a> the nearby National Museum of Industrial History<\/strong> underwent, few are likely to hold Adelson’s rash promise against him and he’s since found other uses<\/a> for his money.* Speaking of red-headed stepkids …<\/p>\n

If the official blog<\/strong> page of Harrahs.com<\/strong> loves it some Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon<\/strong> (and offers five reasons why<\/a>, including bargain plays and Cook E. Jarr<\/strong>) why is Gary Loveman<\/strong> in such a hurry to turn Bill’s into a douchebag magnet (“Caesars Drai’s<\/strong>“) by piling a nightclub and swimming pool onto its roof? Just askin’.<\/p>\n

* — If the RNC has $3 million left over from its Tampa<\/strong> bash, does this mean the irascible Sheldon’s going to demand some of back? Considering how cheaply he was able to buy Florida<\/strong> Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> (R-LVS), he could probably purchase the entire Sunshine State Lege with that dough and still have walking-around money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Folks down in the Pelican State had better things to do than gamble last month … like clean up after Hurricane Isaac. This might account for a 5% year\/year decline in casino revenues. Louisiana‘s gambling venues grossed $200 million last … 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":[60,56,28,14,4,36,7,85,84,53,11,39,95,30,33,111,25,12,57,31,9,19,100,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9893"}],"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=9893"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24642,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9893\/revisions\/24642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}