The most baccarat tables per casino in the U.S. are to be found at — no kidding — Sands Bethlehem. The casino, which fields 50 baccarat tables grossed $18 million in table game revenue last month, a record amount for Pennsylvania. Sands has been assiduously courting New York City‘s Asian-American population, and it’s paying off big. Fifty buses fan out into the Five Boroughs every day, scooping up players and delivering them to Las Vegas Sands‘ doorstep.
“Their table games business just keeps growing. It’s incredible. No one else is even close,” marvels Spectrum Gaming Group analyst Shawn McCloud. Sometimes Parx Casino gives Sands a run for its money, but Sands Bethlehem has been biggest in the state for 33 straight months, including all of the top 26. While other casinos in the state sometimes suffer declines in their table games, Sands is “pretty consistent,” according to Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesman Richard McGarvey. “Honestly, I don’t have a good answer for Sands’ number.” Yes, a casino at the Meadowlands or top-quality gambling product in New York State might pose a threat, but it looks like Sheldon Adelson has at least two or three years of smooth sailing ahead of him.
* Voters in California will decide the fate of a landless tribe, the North Fork Tribe of Mono Indians, come Election Day. The nation, which was disbanded by the federal government and re-recognized in 1983 is seeking a 2,000-slot casino away from its population center (not much to speak of, really) and astride Highway 99, just northwest of Fresno. The Mono Tribe signed a compact with Gov. Jerry Brown (D) two years ago but it’s contingent on voter approval of Proposition 48.
Politics making strange bedfellows, Prop 48 is the handiwork of two rival tribes and anti-casino activists. They call it reservation shopping, setting a precedent for tribes to put casinos anywhere they choose. The Mono Indians reply that their “ancestors hunted and lived all through what is now Madera County, they say, and to accuse them of snatching that land a century after their culture was crushed is a taunting injustice.”
Says tribal Vice Chairwoman Maryann McGovran, “with this casino, we feel we’re doing the right thing for the county and for our community. Everyone will benefit, but now we are just getting caught up in red tape. It’s frustrating. We just want to do a good thing.” She also promises 1,600 permanent jobs at the Station Casinos project — a compelling argument in a county where poverty is rampant. The pot is further sweetened by $30 million in local mitigation payments and the promise of a fire station. That’s set against a projected $225 million in annual revenue.
The Mono Tribe would also pay the Wiyot Indians not to build a casino on their land. It’s also made allies in the immediate area, like hardware salesman Dennis Smith, who says, “It will bring people here from the Bay Area and San Jose area to play at the casino, and they will spend money in restaurants and other businesses here.” Anti-casino forces are, of course, making completely predictable, rote noises, wailing that it’s Madera today, Disneyland tomorrow.
Complains Stand Up for California Director Cheryl Schmidt, “Who’s to say they won’t build a shopping outlet, gas stations and other businesses there after the casino goes in?” Horrors!
McGovran replies that the oft-invoked bogeyman of reservation shopping has never manifested itself in California: “The process is long and difficult, and it is not just arbitrary.” The tribe’s opponents include not only two tribal casinos but Brigade Capital Management, which was the power behind Mohegan Sun’s failed attempt to win a casino in Boston. Ironically, the Massachusetts state pension fund would have been — through Brigade — and investor in that Suffolk Downs project.
