Casino patrons in Illinois are spending a bit more these days but there were 8% fewer of them last month, leading to a 6% revenue decline, partly due to one fewer weekend this 
year. On an individual basis, casinos tended to perform worse than the state average would indicate. There wasn’t any good news for Penn National Gaming, which was down 18% at Argosy Belle ($4 million), 14% off at Hollywood Aurora ($10 million) and 6% down at Empress Joliet ($11 million). Boyd Gaming has been particularly vocal about the harm inflicted by slot routes and indeed Par-A-Dice ($7 million) fell 16%. Grand Victoria, co-owned by MGM Resorts International, had a relatively mild May, off 5%, for a $14 million gross.
Caesars Entertainment felt the pain, too, with a 15.5% plunge at Harrah’s Metropolis ($7 million) and an 8% one at Harrah’s Joliet ($15 million). So where was the good news? Some of it hailed from Gaming & Leisure Properties‘ Casino Queen, which ascended 55, to $10 million, the only revenue-positive casino in the Land of Lincoln. Much of it also hailed from Rivers Casino, in Des Plaines, which was flat for the month but grossed a plump $38 million. When you’re raking in that kind of dough, it makes up for a lot of debility elsewhere.
* A buyer with a casino-industry “presence” (which covers a multitude of sins) and “impeccable” financial backing is said to have been found for Fontainebleau. The deal must be pretty solid because CBRE Las Vegas Executive Vice President John Knott is being a veritable Chatty Cathy about the whole thing. “There’s still some work that has to be done, but there’s a real deal on the table for sure and they have started their due diligence … These are real players who have spent a lot of time on the deal, and if their efforts go for naught, it’s very expensive,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He broke down the purchasers into a capital partner, a gaming operator and a hotel operator. According to Knott, the sale price is “around” (read: not quite) the $650 million price tag that Carl Icahn put on F-blew, seeking a half-billion-dollar markup on his purchase.
Contrary to longtime speculation, the new buyers will attempt to complete F-blew rather than dismantle it. That’ll be a heavy lift, costing at least $1.2 billion and taking well into 
2018. Despite shopping the property around aggressively, Knott found few interested parties, partly because many prospective buyers wanted to see how the supply-and-demand dynamics on the Las Vegas Strip shook out. “Why we don’t have a deal done is a question mark mostly because we didn’t have a large gaming company that says we want to have that asset,” he added. Union Gaming top boffin John DeCree said he’d not heard much interest in F-blew from Vegas-based casino operators, particularly at Icahn’s asking price. Like S&G‘s man in real estate, David Howes, DeCree thinks $500 million or less is a realistic price tag for the asset. He told the R-J, “It’s a hefty price tag, and I am not sure if it will fetch $650 million. I wonder if someone is interested at a lower price point. If Carl Icahn would let it go for lower given that it’s been on the market for a while, that might be the case.” So who’s got the stones to go against Resorts World Las Vegas, Wynn Paradise Park and (the somewhat iffy) Alon? We’ll have to wait the better part of the summer to find out.
* When Detroit‘s finances were going south, casino revenues provided a steady bulwark of support. However, Las Vegas might be able to learn a thing or two from Motown when it comes to downtown revitalization. To that end, Derek Stevens brought in some of his Motor City homeboys to give a presentation at The D on what Las Vegas might glean (or amplify upon) from his home town. (Hint: mass transit.)
* Is casino-based poker making a comeback or just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? It’s too soon to say but the reopening of Trump Taj Mahal‘s iconic poker room was overdue and the comfort-first room at Encore (a 62% enlargement on its smoky, crowded Wynn Las Vegas predecessor) bode well. A poker player to close to S&G checked out the Encore room and gives it top marks clear across the felt.
