Operating profits in Atlantic City don’t tell the whole story: The Showboat was notoriously in the black when Caesars 
Entertainment closed it but the company said it was running at a loss … thanks to interest payments with which CEO Gary Loveman had burdened it. Still, Atlantic City is coming off a very profitable April, up from $39 million last year to $81 million, with Borgata alone contributing $38.5 million worth of good news. “We aggressively reached out [to orphaned players] and the customer base found Borgata to be a nice home,” said President Joe Lupo.
The only money-losers were bumbling Trump Taj Mahal (no surprise there) and low-grossing Resorts Atlantic City (ditto). The latter, despite having imported expertise from Mohegan Sun to run the place, has never recaptured the mojo of the Dennis Gomes era.
* Also reporting some good news was the State of Mississippi, whose casino industry was on a welcome upswing last month. Even the problematic riverboat casinos had a good time of it, notching a 4% increase, while the Gulf Coast ones had a strong performance, stronger than usual: up 11.5%.
* Score the latest round in the battle of Las Vegas Sands for Steven 
Jacobs. A Nevada court ruled that his wrongful-termination suit will be heard in Las Vegas, not in Macao, where he was CEO of Sands China. There’s no way of assuming Chinese jurisprudence would be kindlier to Sheldon Adelson than Vegas has been, but his shambolic performance on the witness stand helped put the ball firmly in Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez‘s court. Sands’ best hope lies in keeping Adelson mum at trial.
* $21.2 billion worth of casino product is headed at Macao like a runaway train (including Sands’ $2.7 billion) Parisian, despite a shortage of labor and high-rolling VIP players having gone to ground. 
On the other hand, with so much capital tied up in unfinished (or nearly finished) casino megaresorts, it’s difficult and probably counterproductive to try and put a brake on the development. And if, with properties like Encore and Resorts World Las Vegas, Sin City is trying to ‘go Macao,’ Melco Crown Entertainment‘s familiar-sounding Studio City shows that it’s a two-way street. Steve Wynn may have a leg up on everyone, though, by catering to VIP smokers with terraces that immediately adjoin gambling rooms, allowing the whales to indulge their equally frenetic passions for baccarat and nicotine. Meanwhile, $3.9 billion Lisboa Palace will be the acid test of whether Stanley Ho‘s creaky Sociedade de Jogos de Macau can keep pace with the new kids on the block.
