Foxwoods Resort Casino CEO Scott “Woody” Butera didn’t close the sale with Milford voters earlier this week, but they didn’t slam the door on 
him either. Rather than prejudice the issue with a town-meeting vote, local sentiment favors a city-wide referendum. Although casino opponents have dominated the argument so far, hearing from Foxwoods-in-Milford supporters seems almost redundant: Of course the citizens should vote in favor of the $1 billion prospect (plus jobs). It’s the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that ought to put this financially unsteady proposal into the shredder.
Milford selectmen are doing their homework, undistracted by a new online campaign and a freshly downsized debt load (Wall Street evidently having decided that 75% of something is better than 100% of nothing). Foxwoods is already in a world of hurt, its slot revenues 
down 10% last month. Tribal members are seeing charity food shelves where once they received monthly slices of casino revenue. Fifty dealers have been axed and that’s just for starters. “Foxwoods has little choice but to jump into the Massachusetts market because many customers at the two Connecticut casinos are from Massachusetts,” writes the Boston Globe, but whatever traffic Foxwoods captures in Milford it loses at HQ in Ledyard. It’s like a starving man eating off his own leg to stay alive. Gives a whole new meaning to “cannibalization” in the casino industry, doesn’t it?
Out west, the continued charm offensive by various casino companies 
produced the non headline of the week. “Study: Proposed Hard Rock casino in Mass. to bring job opportunities.” Wake me when the opening of a new casino doesn’t generate any new jobs … although we are entering an increasingly robotic casino experience, populated with digital dealers and croupier-free roulette. But seriously, when has the entry of the casino industry not created jobs?
In this case, Hard Rock International prophesies 2,800 regular jobs and 
another 700 “ripple effect” ones out in the community. Also, that $50K/year average looks a bit high, probably pulled upwards by executive salaries. (The Vegas average is lower.) Hard Rock Chairman James F. Allen characterized the figures as conservative but they look just a tad liberal to me. That’s not to say the project wouldn’t be A Good Thing. I just wish it didn’t look so much like a damn Holiday Inn. Give Allen “A+” for initiative and “D-” for choice of design.
Allen is a pessimist compared to executives of Revel, which is officially not bankrupt anymore. (Congratulations.) Management is predicting that net revenue will increase 40% next year, 21% the year after that and 15% in 2015. Operating losses are projected to fall 62%, which suggests that draconian measures are in the offing. As for the revenue increases, they’re not as pie-in-the-sky as they look when you consider that Revel is has posted astonishingly low numbers to date. It means getting from, say, $8 million a month to $11 million. But raising the monthly average to $21 million a month this year and $31.5 million by the beginning of 2016 … now that’s optimism.
No matter how … you get into Isle of Capri Casinos‘ new resort in rural Pennsylvania, it’s gonna cost you before you pull so much as one slot lever.
Continuing his conquest of Downtown Las Vegas, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh now has his own police force. It looks like at least some of the Downtown Rangers should switch to a low-carb diet.
