Stiffs and Georges

January casino revenues from Indiana present a conundrum. Although the state is still the most lucrative casino jurisdiction in the Midwest ($192 million last month), it’s hard to tell whether the half-full glass is filling or emptying. Foot traffic was down 12% but players’ spending rose 7.5%. The two didn’t quite cancel each other out, [...]

For those of us who missed it this year, the best Christmas tradition of which I know.
First and most importantly …
To you, the reader, who makes this possible, a year of happiness, health and wealth, whether material, intellectual or spiritual.
Atlantic City: Good luck in a year that will end with ‘13.’
Boyd Gaming: New TV commercials.
Caesars [...]

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, [...]

As befits a proud papa, Penn National Gaming has been showing Wall Street analysts around its newest offspring: Hollywood Casino Toledo. The metrics are pretty awe-inspiring. Already the customer database is approaching 50,000 players and 47% of all slot play is rated — far more than at Penn’s Harrisburg racino in its early going. Good [...]

In an attempt to shave a few months off their casino-approval timeline, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is going to put the horse before the cart. (I guess you’d call it a “Massachusetts Miracle.”) Potential operators’ fiscal and ethical probity will be plumbed before applications are taken under consideration. This will hopefully spare the Bay State [...]

If you want a vexing test of one’s intellectual consistency, try the Maryland casino industry on for size. It’s not growing fast enough to suit the state Legislature, which is chafing at the constraints imposed upon it — with not a little legislative help — by Maryland voters when they approved five slot parlors in [...]

Caution, thy name is Moody’s Investors Service. So if Moody’s is bullish on the near-term future of Las Vegas, I guess we can well and truly believe that a recovery is here … well, on the Strip. Away from Las Vegas Boulevard, you still might mistake us for postwar Baghdad. In fact, the local NBC-TV [...]

After months of confidentiality agreements and other top-hush nonsense, it’s official: Fitzgeralds Casino Hotel in downtown Las Vegas will become the D. Now, I can’t think that — let alone type it — without recalling the Family Guy episode in which Stewie Griffin opens an ill-fated nightclub called pLACE. (“What happened?” “Andy Dick happened.”) Wannabe-hip [...]

“Research suggests that the more [Mitt] Romney tries to not talk about his wealth, the more likely he is to do just that. The human mind is perversely drawn to fixate upon the subjects we most want to avoid, especially when under stress.” — Liz Goodwin, on the “ironic process,” also known [...]

It was “unfortunate” for Sheldon Adelson that he wore the uniform of the United States of America, the country that made him rich? Seriously?
Not many of us would use our spouses as human shields. But then again, not many of us are Sheldon Adelson, who’s been ducking the media for weeks, and who did just [...]

There are serial exaggerators and then there’s Donald Trump. An S&G reader forwarded an e-mail invitation to enter a contest whose grand prize is a two-night stay at Trump Toronto. Its touted value: $50,000. Considering that the winner’s airfare will only be covered up to $1K, that leaves 49 grand to cover two weekend hotel [...]

To quote Stephen Sondheim, everything’s coming up roses … or close enough, anyway. Last Friday, strong numbers out of Iowa — of a non-caucus ilk — showed the state’s casinos rebounding to the tune of 16% (on a $121 million) gross, fueled by double-digit increases in play. Even after backing out newbie Grand Falls Casino, [...]

Colony Capital has a Nevada gaming license. Ronald P. Johnson does not, even though he’s been advising Goldman Sachs on its gaming operations for the past year. Big mistake. On Tuesday, a Clark County judge split the baby that is the Las Vegas Hilton. Feckless Colony will run the casino (and bag the gambling revenue), [...]

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 [...]

Barring a huge reversal from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the long and mostly inept saga of Foxwoods Philadelphia has finally come to a conclusion. The politically juiced-in trio of Ron Rubin, Lewis Katz and Comcast Chairman Ed Snider (collectively known on S&G as Sniderkatz) got a 6-1 thumbs-down from the Commonwealth Court. Sniderkatz was one [...]

Cyber-Trump. Faux ex-presidential candidate and NBC-TV comedy star Donald Trump has made his views known on Internet gambling … like anybody cares. Prepare for a shocker, folks. The Donald is — Gasp! — in favor of it. There was, of course, the usual bluster: “We think we have the hottest brand there is, the Trump [...]

Those tireless analysts at J.P. Morgan have been crunching numbers again and found that, during the June 19-25 period, Strip room rates are up 24% from last year, from average ADR of $148 to $183, driven by vastly — i.e., 35% — higher prices at Caesars Entertainment hotels. Of course, whether or not this is [...]

After scraping not just the bottom of the barrel but the underside of the barrel with the likes of Levi Johnston (evidently getting a famous person’s daughter knocked up makes you a celeb, in which case America has officially run out of that colorful subspecies), there was nowhere for Paris-Las Vegas nightclub Chateau Nightclub & [...]

It’s not purely gratuitous. Ms. Electra, late of MGM Grand’s Crazy Horse Paris, has defected to Planet Hollywood. On June 4, she’ll participate in the inaugural performance at Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Saloon. Hopefully it will be at least as exciting as its Web site. Chalk up another coup for PCD founder Robin Antin, who’s managed [...]

In what may be a historic first, Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta and their rival Texas cousin Tilman Fertitta all agree upon something: Carolyn Goodman’s mayoral candidacy. As in, they’re for it. Once you lump together Zuffa (parent of the UFC), a Station Casinos holding company, Station Casinos proper, Palace Station, Red Rock Resort, Santa [...]