Colony Capital‘s insolvent Atlantic City Hotel received bankruptcy court permission to keep doing business. Still, the ACH appears to be circling the drain rapidly, telling reporters “the casino said it doesn’t have enough cash to continue to operate for a long time.” To its credit, management doesn’t plan to slash the workforce to make ends meet. Ironically, one of thos
e ends the ACH cannot meet is its pension, having a $30 million unfunded obligation to its employees. In the meantime, Colony continues to shop the property about and wannabe buyers have 10 days to get their bids on the table.
Believe it or not, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas nearly doubled its casino revenue in 3Q13. The 97% moonshot was credited to tighter table hold (16%, or a couple of points above Strip average). Hold a year earlier had been a sickly 4%. Food and beverage revenues, the Cosmo’s strong suit, fell slightly but ADRs and occupancy were up. Losses were reduced 56%, to $19 million. Of course,the Cosmo’s labor troubles continue to make headlines. The Las Vegas Review-Journal toes the anti-union line, as usual, but misses the real point: The Culinary Union can’t carve out a only-for-The-Cosmo special contract. Once the Culinary makes exceptions for one property, it’s going to have a domino effect up and down the Strip and across Downtown, as every other casino owner demands exemptions. Unless Cosmo management decides to do a Sheldon Adelson and go non-union, the Culinary’s choices are victory or death.
Golden Gaming worked out a settlement with the Nevada Gaming Control Board recently, negotiating a $30K fine down to 20 dimes. Seems that Golden and The 25 Bar & Grill had been operating an off-the-books slot route in North Las Vegas. 25 Bar owner Burdett Edward Jones has already settled up a $2,000 fine for the 10 slot machines. Golden’s compromise penalty basically surrenders all the revenue generated by the slots, although it still awaits Nevada Gaming Commission approval.
Wisconsin‘s Menominee Tribe seems to hit new lows of desperation with every news cycle. Now it has agreed to pay the Oneida Tribe $3 million, as well as enter into a non-compete agreement with the Oneida in the Green Bay area. The deal was made sub rosa but was unearthed and posted on Oneidaeye.com by muckraker Lea Sue Dodge. Other agreements uncovered by Dodge were that the Oneida would act as a primary backer of Dairyland Greyhound Park, putting $400 million into the Menominee project, as well as acting as provider of ATM services. At least now we know why the Oneida were so quick to drop their opposition to Dairyland.
