Stiffs and Georges

One of gaming’s biggest new markets went out with a whimper, not a bang, when colorful Toronto Mayor Rob Ford nixed a scheduled vote on whether to put a casino in the lakeside city, hoping to extract a $97 million “hosting fee” from Ontario. Faced with probable defeat, the measure was pulled, leaving all the [...]

If Carl Icahn holds the note on your life, you are in a world of hurt, my friend. Just ask Trump Entertainment Resorts, whose $20 million sale of wretchedly performing Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino suddenly looks very shaky. What’s Uncle Carl’s reasoning? That the casino is “worth more,” although how much more is conveniently [...]

One doesn’t really think of going to shore in March, so it’s no surprise that Atlantic City casino revenues were — excluding Revel — down 14% last month. The latter grossed $10 million, pulling it almost dead even with the Golden Nugget and a bit further behind the Atlantic Club. The surprise bulletin of the [...]

MGM Resorts International, that’s who. As predicted, a lawsuit filed to overturn last November’s casino expansion was laughed out of court. Judge Ronald A. Silkworth called the litigation “baseless,” which is a nice way of saying, “Thanks for wasting my time with this rubbish, @$$holes.” This clears the path for MGM to move forward on [...]

We’ve learned two important things today. One, that the Mayan calendar is not the most reliable predictor of events. Two, that Ameristar Casinos‘ on-again/off-again talk about putting itself up for sale was back in “on” mode. Before hardly anybody got wind of what was happening, Ameristar cut a deal to be purchased by Pinnacle Entertainment. [...]

Update: Seeking Alpha’s Brad Thomas has run the numbers on the Penn split and doesn’t like the risk/reward scenario.
Fifteen years and many consolidations ago, the casino industry was seized by a brain fever. It was set off by the bidding war between Hilton International (led by Steve Bollenbach) and Starwood Resorts (then run by current [...]

“It could have been better.” That will be the refrain from Louisiana, up 1% last month despite some final-week disruption by an unwelcome visitor named Hurricane Isaac. Allowing for a few blips here and there throughout the state, including a rare bad month for El Dorado Shreveport, the Isaac-related upheaval was pretty localized. As you’d [...]

No disrespect to Steve Wynn, but the human starter gun for any serious casino race is now Sheldon Adelson. Except for China, he’s not been in any casino-expansion movement for the long haul since he lost Mirage Resorts. And with Las Vegas Sands now expressing an interest in the Toronto area, competitors MGM Resorts International [...]

Just to make sure you’re not piggybacking onto its mobile-gambling systems, Cantor Gaming is partnering with Locaid to provide “geo-fencing” for its pocket casinos, which can now be played damn near anywhere on a casino property. (The real endgame, however, appears to be to have these fences in place when Internet gambling goes “live” in [...]

Last night, fledgling SFS Productions rolled out The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the Plaza Las Vegas and, true to its subject matter, it’s a emotionless copulation — to borrow a Pauline Kael line, it’s a practiced hooker with cold hands and no thoughts of love. That’s the nice way of putting it. At [...]

Few YouTube feeds are more prolific and state of the art than that of Station Casinos (although they really ought to think twice about posting cell-phone footage online; it looks rinky-dink). However, what you will not see is an ad campaign airing on Southern Nevada TV stations, railing against the Culinary Union for engaging in [...]

What are your plans for Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, in Pennsylvania? We’re still waiting for the appeal process to wind its way through the courts. The original plan called for to build on an existing facility on the Nemacolin property, which was originally built as a Cabelas-type and which the Hardy family had turned into kind [...]

… is Texas. With the presidential aspirations of Gov. Rick Perry (R) tottering on their penultimate leg, that’s very bad news for Lone Star State lawmakers who’d like to pass casinos — or at least racinos — into law. It’s not such glad tidings either for Texans who’d like to gamble without having to travel [...]

Las Vegas Sands dispatched its international overseer, Rob Goldstein (right) and sidekick Dan Briggs to New York as envoys to Wall Street. As reported by J.P. Morgan’s Joseph Greff, Sands’ outlook is sanguine, particularly with regard to the Singapore and Macao markets. No untoward credit or liquidity issues are anticipated and Sands Cotai Central (whose [...]

Victor Rocha says it best: “Jack Abramoff is still the scum off the earth.” The unrepentant ripoff artist — to call him a snake in the grass would be a slander upon serpents — claims his only failing was to be just a teensy weensy bit overzealous. The problem, he brazenly asserts, wasn’t his conduct [...]

Maybe they were just charmed by Dan Lee’s babyish face (left) but leadership at MGM Resorts International can cite of plenty of other reasons for throwing in on Lee’s Mojito Pointe project … which may be rechristened with an MGM brand name. With no disrespect to overseas prospects, it’s the closest MGM’s come to a [...]

Those last few remnants of Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung’s former casino empire continue to topple about him. The Kentucky-based oligarch, whose properties are notorious for their poor working conditions and even worse maintenance, has been reaping a gargantuan load of karma ever since he over-leveraged his hotel company to buy Aztar Corp., the [...]

Those who go around, come around. The newly unveiled management team for the Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi has a distinct aura of déja vu. CEO Tom Brosig used to be Lyle Berman’s right-hand man at Grand Casinos, whose Biloxi casino was gobbled up by Park Place Entertainment and later by Harrah’s Entertainment. As you’ll recall, [...]

Two axes fell upon CityCenter in one day. It’s tough to decide which is more newsworthy. I’ll go with the Beso story because it has a not-so-hidden upside. Golden Nugget CEO Tilman Fertitta is feeling sufficiently bullish to plant his flag on the Strip. Since Tilman will be buying Beso out of bankruptcy, he’ll get [...]

Oh Christ, Steve Wynn, grow up already. Busy Wall Street analysts were held hostage to a 433-word talk-radio tirade while they were probably itching to write up quarterly earnings reports. When other CEOs might have been bragging on an “amazing second quarter,” beating the Street’s cash flow estimates by $72 million and achieving a 32% [...]