Big names flock to New York; Reno rebounds

Neil BluhmIt’s starting to get seriously competitive in upstate New York, where Neil Bluhm‘s Rush Street Gaming has been seen canoodling with a Schenectady casino project. Others who have been circling the upstate market with interest include newcomers Churchill Downs and Hard Rock International. All of this betokens a sudden conviction that there’s gold in them thar hills. One of the odder proposals, involves David Flaum‘s E23 project near Albany. Last week, Pinnacle Entertainment was being bruited about as a developer. Now there’s will be a 20,000 OTB parlor. The $845,356 Question is why Flaum would go in with Capital District OTB, which lost that amount in 2012. Why not take some money out back and just burn it?

$2 billion. That’s where Penn National Gaming CEO Tim Wilmott thinks Ohio can get to by 2019 or 2020, after a disappointing, $1.1 billion haul last year. “There’s no question Ohio will be a $2 billion casino state,” sayeth Wilmott, who then covered his butt with “assuming no added competition from neighboring states.” Wilmott blamed racinos (of which he is building a couple) as being to blame and never mind that they’re contributing to the overall revenue picture, too. Would it kill Penn to say, ‘We got it wrong’ regarding its Buckeye State revenue projections?

“Investors had more-realistic expectations, given the competition in Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia,” says Duane Bouligny of Wells Fargo Bank Securities, but Wilmott doesn’t sound like he’s woken up yet. He did allow that “There are rightful concerns from our investors about how crowded the regional markets are.” And Ohio, at the current pace, is about to get a lot more so.

Congratulations to Sands Cotai Central for two years of successful operation. Now it’s time for Sheldon Adelson to turn his gaze to South Korea, where Caesars Entertainment has beaten him to one casino site but at least seven more could be up for grabs.

Reno_skylineIt’s a time for optimism in Reno. True, there’s much urban blight that’s difficult to remove become of the zillion little plats, filled with dodgy motels and like, into which downtown Reno is divided. But four casinos are getting major capital upgrades and there will soon be a new (non-gambling) hotel, too … or, more accurately, the old Fitzgeralds with a new face. Not even Station Casinos’ Graton Resort & Casino has been able to put a dent in Reno’s comeback. True, Reno’s gaming revenue is 75% of what it was a decade ago and the industry seems to have made peace with that, as well as with diversification that could make Reno synonymous with Apple data storage or Tesla car batteries (hopefully).

If you want to make a case for economic Darwinism, the thinning out of Reno’s casino industry makes for powerful evidence — and it is ahead of Las Vegas in its recovery from the Great Recession. And all this has been done without any new (as opposed to revamped) casino product. It’s a lesson Vegas is learning, albeit a bit more slowly.

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