No misery in Missouri; Packer’s Vegas venture in question

November was a tranquil month for Missouri casinos, exemplified by Penn National Gaming‘s Argosy Riverside, in Kansas City, dead even with last year. Statewide, foot traffic was down 5% and spending up 6%, particularly at table games, where winnings rose 7%. The nearest thing to high drama was a 10% duve in revenues at Harrah’s North Kansas City, as bankruptcy malaise continues to spread through the Caesars Entertainment chain. Maybe some of those customers were picked up by Ameristar Kansas City, whose revenues rose 5%. Isle of Capri Kansas City was down a percentage point but a variety of small gains and losses in the quartet of Isle of Capri Casinos properties in Missouri translated into a flat month.

In the St. Louis market, Tropicana Entertainment finally had some news to report, as Lumiere Place — long besieged by access problems — had a good month, up 2%, the first positive month for Lumiere Place in quite a long time. Pinnacle Entertainment enjoyed the biggest gain in the state, 6% at River Place, while it had a flat month at Ameristar St. Charles. The latter was, however, the highest grosser in the state at $21 million, followed by River City at $18 million, so you can see why Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. cast a covetous eye upon Pinnacle’s asset base.

* Ongoing economic problems in Macao could ricochet and take out James Packer‘s already slow-moving Alon project on the Las Vegas Strip. That’s the conclusion of a Credit Suisse report, which describes Alon as now being a higher-risk proposition. “We link the recent 3 percent increase of Consolidated Press Holdings [share] of Crown to 53.1 percent and an equity sell down of Crown’s Las Vegas entity, Alon, that seems to be taking longer than we thought. The China economic slowdown may have diminished investor interest in Alon,” the analysts wrote. They also noted a Crown balance sheet that was “full” of new casino projects — which should tax Packer’s money-raising ability.

They also determined that Packer will have to pony up $712 million in equity in order for the project to pencil out, given an Alon budget that could go as high as $1.9 billion. And despite the size of the investment, Packer is planning a casino floor that is puny by Strip standards, with only 600 slots and 150 table games. Slots may be fading at the hands of table games — but not that fast. Not coincidentally, Crown Resorts is reported to be raising new equity to fund “a bulging pipeline” of casino projects. At the same time, it’s trying to peddle pieces of its 73% stake in Alon, maybe going all the way down to a minority position. Crown is tottering under a 47% increase in debt and a 20% drop in stock price in the last year, so recent bulldozer work to the contrary, Alon appears to the be anything but a done deal.

* Having left his latest attempt at a Seminole Tribe gaming compact like an orphan abandoned on the church steps (literally) in the dark of night, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is already starting to wash his hands of the process. “It goes to them and they’ll make a decision if they want to look at the compact, if they want to bring it up for a vote, when they want to bring it up for a vote. I took the time to do a historic compact. It’s good for the state. But the Legislature will decide whether they want to go forward,” Scott sighed, relegating himself to a non-factor in the process.

At least state Senate President Andy Gardiner (R) has promised a floor vote on the measure. There were no such assurances from his House counterpart, Rep. Dana Young (R), who thinks the compact is too favorable to the Seminoles and is raising free-market concerns.

* Given the maelstrom surrounding daily fantasy sports, Huntington Press is in the right place at the right time with its new book, Fantasy Sports, Real Money. Written by DFS expert Bill Ordine, Fantasy Sports, Real Money is described as “the only DFS book to cover football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and even golf, with strategies for setting line-ups, maximizing salary-cap space, finding pricing inefficiencies, playing against (or avoiding) experts, identifying overlays, and employing the concepts that are being implemented right now by experts to get the money in this provocative sports-betting offshoot.” That definitely makes it something for the DFS nerd’s Christmas stocking. If your interest in the sport within the sport is more focused upon its legality or its future in the U.S., perhaps this extract or this one will determine whether this book is for you.