Stiffs and Georges

We don’t know how it managed it but congratulations to The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. It finally realized how to market to those hitherto-elusive creatures known as “gamblers.” Casino revenue shot up 33%, winning $41 million from players, partly due to better-than-expected hold. Room rates ($273) and 88% also continued to be some of the [...]

But first, because it will never, ever get old …

Also this, from @daveweigel: “[Florida] exit poll: Obama winning Jewish vote by 40 points. 40 points. Nice work, Sheldon Adelson.” We’ll tap dance on Sheldon’s head some more further down, but let’s roll out the barrel for gaming’s winners last night. There were five ballot questions, [...]

And now the biggie: Question 7. The quickest way to summarize this is to paraphrase what C.S. Lewis said of Christianity — that slot parlors in Maryland hadn’t been tried and found wanting but were an idea that had been found difficult and not been tried, more or less. Feckless legislators were ready to wave [...]

Let’s start with the new kid on the block …
Ohio: September saw Ohio’s two casinos and one racino rake in an aggregate $50 million. The ‘novelty factor’ has waned, along with vacation time, since June’s $58 million haul, but that’s still an impressive number compared to the more-mature Maryland industry. Horseshoe Cleveland is, no surprise, [...]

There will be Ice Capades in Hell before Sheldon Adelson sets foot in Encore, I should expect. However, with J.P. Morgan holding an investor conference at Wynncore, it would be poor form of Las Vegas Sands — currently the darling of Wall Street — not to send somebody. Rob Goldstein, global gaming viceroy (right), and [...]

Perhaps due to his eagerness to get Wynn Cotai jump-started, Steve Wynn has become an even more pliant sock puppet for China’s central government than was Sheldon Adelson. It must be a source of great amusement among the ruling elite to see these two “capitalist running dogs” scurrying about like greyhounds chasing a mechanized hare. [...]

Such been the plight of Maryland, a state that’s experienced the curious predicament of having more casino licenses than applicants. It’s much the same as Kansas, where things have gone awful quiet. Now, Kansas is like a corn-fed Macao: You build the casino, you run it but at the end of the day, it belongs [...]

Politics and gambling have literally gone to the dogs in West Virginia. A certain Harry Marshall Rae has pleaded ‘not guilty’ to attempted extortion of Gov.-elect Earl Ray Tomblin (D). At issue is an alleged $50,000 demand — placed on Tomblin’s Web site — or else “embarrassing video involving the greyhound racing industry” would be [...]

That ongoing Isle of Capri Casinos Comeback Tour comes to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, which won Pennsylvania’s final “resort casino” license earlier today. Situated in the greater Pittsburgh area, the rural getaway is owned by lumber tycoon (and “george” political donor) Joe Hardy. The vote wasn’t even close, as Hardy and Isle were handily granted the [...]

Let’s get to it, with some help from Wells Fargo gaming analyst Carlo Santarelli …
Cordish Gaming won big in Maryland, where voters upheld an initiative to ratify the zoning of its Arundel Mills Mall casino project. Penn National Gaming, in a Machiavellian scheme to wrest away the license and move it to Laurel Park, bankrolled [...]

100% devoid of Nevada-related content! Leaving aside a local advisory question in Richmond, California, there are four races to watch. Voters in Maine have blown hot and cold on casinos in their state. Next month they’ll weigh in on whether to put a Class III casino in Oxford County, taxed at 46% (slots) and 16% [...]

They’ve been busy little beavers at Penn National Gaming, which is — would you believe it? — now the third-largest operator in the U.S. Never mind that Penn bought a horse track in Ohio, on top of building two casinos there, and it just rolled out table games in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Fresh off [...]

Gaming regulators in Missouri got a little unsolicited advice from Ameristar Casinos as to where to put Casino License #13. Ameristar Vice President of Government Relations & Public Affairs Troy Stremming commissioned a study on the matter. Its shocking conclusion: The best place to put a new casino is … as far from an Ameristar [...]

Not electionwise but with regard to Penn National Gaming’s racino in Charles Town, W.V., and its Hollywood Casino in Pennsylvania. The introduction of table games is buoying revenues nicely. The overall result in especially impressive in Charles Town. Not only did table games rake in nearly $6 million but slot revenues vaulted despite the subtraction [...]

A longtime observer of the industry (and player) has this to say about Steve Wynn’s revised sales pitch to the City of Philadelphia …
“Unlike too many folks, I don’t worship Steve Wynn (in fact, I’ll never forgive him for blowing up my cherished [Desert Inn]) but he’s right in his expectations [...]