China is the watchword; Atlantic City rebounds

Builders of $135 million Lucky Dragon Casino, across Sahara Avenue from the former Circus Circus RV park, are fast-tracking the project for a mid-2016 opening. Financed with EB-5 visa contributions, Lucky DragonLucky Dragon hopes to be a one-stop shop for Chinese players visiting Las Vegas. “The local and foreign clientele will go there as a destination and will not be interested in walking up and down the Strip,” says planner Greg Borgel. They’d better not be, as there’s nothing much in the area besides Bonanza Gifts, the Golden Steer restaurant and SLS Las Vegas. The latter, however, has already pinned its hopes for survival on the Lucky Dragon’s success. I dunno. Gamblers who make the Lucky Dragon their base of operations may not have much Lucky Dragon Allureincentive to seek the offerings at SLS, which has more restaurants but lacks the Chinese-targeted amenities (including private gambling rooms) planned for Lucky Dragon. And it cuts both ways: With only 206 hotel rooms at Lucky Dragon, SLS could find itself a “dormitory” for Lucky Dragon players. Also, will the Lucky Dragon’s target clientele embrace its isolated location. Like SLS, they’re banking on the completion of Resorts World Las Vegas, but that’s a long ways away, both geographically and temporally. Will Chinese players want to stay so far away from the heart of the action of the Las Vegas Strip, way down at Bellagio and its ilk? Union Gaming analyst Chris Jones exaggerates Lucky Dragon’s proximity to Chinatown. If it’s “barking up the right tree,” what William-Weidnerabout Palazzo and Wynncore, which are a straight shot down Spring Mountain Road from Chinatown? (Ironically, former Sheldon Adelson lieutenant William Weidner is currently flying under the radar as Lucky Dragon president.) And, as Vegas Tripping points out, Lucky Dragon will have to generate a player database from the ground up. As a boutique property with a highly targeted clientele, Lucky Dragon might succeed where SLS is failing but it’s not a sure thing.

  • Contrary to some alarmist, the-sky-is-falling reportage on the Internet, the theft of as much as $258 million in junket money macau_wynn“will likely only have a minor negative impact on VIP market gross gaming revenue” in Macao, according to Stern Agee analyst David Bain. And Credit Suisse‘s Kenneth Fong adds that there is “no financial risk” to Wynn Macau, where the pilferage of junketeer Dore Group took place. Wynn even went out of its way to say that Dore wasn’t in hock to the casino and continues to operate in good standing.
  • Elsewhere in Macao, favorite son Stanley Ho came up against the government’s slow-as-molasses approval process for new projects or, in this case, a revamping of his oldest, most decrepit Stanley Ho 440gaming  house, Casino Jai Alai. Having endured two shutdowns of work while waiting for governmental approval, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau is now on a mid-2016 timeline for the reopening of Casino Jai Alai, an $84.5 million project. It is expected to go with an all-mass-market positioning, SJM having been singed by what a Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. report described as being “still too focused on VIP and satellite business.” It’s also an all-gaming/no-amenity sort of operator, which makes it doubly vulnerable to the current recesssion.
  • Could Atlantic City be making a comeback? Its eight surviving casinos are up 3%, year to date. As New Jersey Casino Control Commission Chairman Matthew Levinson says, “My hope is that continues throughout the entire winter.”
  • Because somebody had to do it, Vital Vegas has come up with “Chip Designs We’d Like to See.” You have to see it for yourself to appreciate it. The Treasure Island one is my favorite.
  • As might be expected, the Culinary Union was quick to respond to Gov. Scott Walker‘s controversial Las Vegas visit, although its pushback was mighty thin on specifics.
  • A feel-good story for today.

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