Hello, Yellow Brick Road; Packer’s big plan

New York‘s Oneida Indian Nation was quick to counterpunch at last week’s private-sector casino expansion. They plan to open 436-slot, 250-job Yellow Brick Road Casino in L. Frank Baum‘s hometown of Chittenango, N.Y. Thanks to the terms of their compact Yellow Brick Roadwith the state, the Oneidas are at liberty to open as many casinos as commonsense dictates. The Chittenango site is on tribal land, so no local or federal approvals are needed. Besides, the union-built project already has the support of Chittenango Mayor Ronny Goeler, who says, “It will create jobs, and may even get people to move here.” The tribe has agreed, however, to share 25% of slot revenues with the state, an amount it calculates will come to $50 million.

The casino will fill out the part-empty Tops retail plaza and will include a 500-seat bingo venue. More to the point, it gives the Oneida a strategic advantage on Thomas Wilmot‘s Lago Casino & Resort (scheduled for a 2015 opening): It is 28 miles closer to Syracuse, Yellow Brick interiorwhich should at least be an inducement for those wanting a gaming-centric experience, although two restaurants are also part of the plan. It will certainly be a poor relation to the Oneidas’ Turning Stone resort (which plans to add “a $100 million, 250-000-square-foot luxury retail, dining and entertainment center”), with no hotel and few other amenities.

Oneida Nation CEO Ray Halbritter spun that as a plus: “It will be a different experience than Turning Stone. It will be more of a casual venue, and one that will pay respects to the community’s identity. It will be an exciting, fresh look.” Well, there’s already been one casino themed after the Wizard of Oz (MGM Grand) but that look is gone so the Oneida have the field to themselves.

* We don’t know what James Packer plans for the old New Frontier site on the Las Vegas Strip yet, but he’s unveiling a grand scheme for Brisbane. His Crown Resorts, in tandem with Chinese sovereign fund Greenland Holding, is pitching a three-hotel complex, complete Greenland Crownwith a pedestrian bridge. The casino megaresort would also include “a suspended waterfall, a family water park, 800-seat ballroom, a new 2000-seat South Bank theatre and cinemas.” The nearby, historical Commissariat building would be the focus of a nightly light show. (Well, we can be reasonably sure a Packer casino on the Strip won’t be playing searchlights upon its neighboring rivals.)

The Greenland Crown proposal, along with a rival — and comparably ambitious — one from Echo Entertainment are part of an effort to rejuvenate the Queen’s Wharf area, which covers 10% of the city’s central business district. Echo makes more use of existing buildings, including its Treasury Casino, which would become a department store. Packer’s counterproposal may not give any hints to his Strip designs (pardon the puns) but he’s not lost his love for soaring spires.

* Casinos marketing to the LGBT community have to navigate some tricky waters. That was the conclusion emerging from a three-day conference just held at Bellagio. (With Bally’s ballysLas Vegas prominently hawking its gay-oriented Liaison nightclub, we’ve come a long way from when the defunct, off-Strip Blue Moon Hotel was as close to LGBT marketing as Sin City got.) Wrote Richard Velotta, “companies acknowledge that it can be challenging to woo those customers because it takes sensitivity not to offend them or other guests in the process.” One session was entitled, How to Successfully Sell Your Hotel To Leather Daddies, Blogging Lesbian Mothers, The Trans Community And Other Niches Within LGBT.

But it’s important for the industry to learn those nuances, not least when it comes to the bottom line. The earning power of gay men and women is 80% higher than that of the average U.S. household and, Velotta writes, 40% of gay men have incomes exceeding $100,000. Numbers like those are music to Sin City’s ears. Still, as Las Vegas Gay Visitors Bureau President Mya Reyes put it, “You’re not going to market to the Red Hat Society the same way that you would market to a group of truck drivers.” (Which leads to an interesting declensions of the various subspecies of “bear.”) One would hope not.

* Although Nebraska rejected them, “instant racing” VLTs have made significant inroads in Arkansas and Kentucky and now in Idaho. As might be expected, the terminals’ resemblance to slot machines comes in for criticism. Idaho Racing Commission Executive Director Frank Lamb responds forthrightly: “They look like slot machines because they’re supposed to look like slot machines. That’s what people want. This is what we need to do to get people to play.” They’re proving to be a panacea for horsetracks. In October, Les Bois Park reported $7.2 million in instant-racing revenue, of which $218,000 went toward purses.

State Rep. Steve Harris (R) is among those who still have qualms, saying, “After talking to my colleagues after the bill passed, I think they thought it was sold as a historical race being shown on one big screen. Not on one small, electronic screen.” For different reasons, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe — which was denied an off-reservation casino — is opposed. “It’s really a double standard,” says lobbyist Helo Hancock. “We now have casino gambling in potentially every county in the state.”

Whether or not he’s right, the tide of history appears to be moving in instant racing’s favor.

This entry was posted in Architecture, Australia, Harrah's, Horseracing, James Packer, Marketing, MGM Mirage, New York, Racinos, The Strip, Tribal. Bookmark the permalink.