Icahn leaves Taj workers nostalgic for Trump; Megaresort proposed for NYC

You can measure the acrimony between Unite-Here Local 54 and Tropicana Entertainment by the fact that striking workers at Trump Taj Mahal are using Donald Trump as a stick with which to beat Carl Icahn. By astutely negotiating a pact with workers Trump facein 2004, Trump-owned casinos prospered while the rest of the market weathered a month-long strike. In fact, a picket line hasn’t been seen in front of a Trump-branded property since the last century. Said cocktail waitress Valerie McMorris, “We always had a contract. He never took away our health care, our pension, our wage break. In that regard, I feel he always had our backs,” drawing a contrast between Trump and Icahn catspaw Bob Griffin. Her sentiments were seconded by server Bill Rampolla: “Every time a contract came up for renewal, he was the very first one to sign the deal.” “I didn’t have any problems,” threw in a former Trump employee. (Strike breakers at the Taj, incidentally, will include Flo Rida, in case you needed an excuse to boycott him.)

Added McMorris, “I also see conversely what he did and how he used bankruptcy court to structure his empire. He let us have our stuff, but he hurt the middle guy, the middle business man. I see both sides.” (Defunct Trump Plaza became a visual pawn in the presidential campaign when Hillary Clinton recently staged a rally there recently.) But revel_0323Trump recently managed to rile up City Council President Marty Small, leaving the two playing a who’s-to-blame game over Atlantic City‘s current misfortunes. In other news, Glenn Straub‘s yacht must double as a submarine because the once-vocal billionaire is running silent, running deep about the giant nonevent that has been the reopening of Revel. At least he could give it a new name already. You don’t build brand equity by pulling a name out of your ass and springing it on the public on opening day. Whether you liked The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas‘ “Right Amount of Wrong” marketing campaign, Deutsche Bank knew that they had to give the place an identity well before they flung the doors wide at the Cosmo.

* New York City could have its first casino megaresort soon, courtesy of — no, not Donald Trump — Genting Group. The latter wants to add a hotel and convention center, paid for in part by 1,000 additional VLTs (bringing the installed slot base to 6,500). The price tag on this upgrade of Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack is $400 million. It would add 750,000 square feet to the complex, cannibalizing a parking lot, and be open by spring of 2019. However, the proposal must clear two hurdles: the Franchise Oversight Board, which handles racetracks, and the New York Gaming Commission.

There’s pressure from Albany to make this happen. A thousand VLTs were supposed to go into facilities owned by Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. When that OTB plan was scrapped (at least temporarily), the machines had to go someplace, thanks to a budgeting process that one observer calls “weirdly complicated.” As long as the machines are installed someplace, Nassau County comes out the winner, projecting $9 million in Year One and $25 million a year after that. Additional monies with be diverted to the horseracing industry, always out to get its pound of flesh when there’s a casino expansion afoot.

* Opening more VIP rooms during the revenue drought in Macao seems like a counterintuitive move, but Melco Crown Entertainment‘s much-touted, $3.2 billion Studio Studio City 5City Macau has been a sore disappointment (contributing to an 83% decline in profit last year), so why not try something different, right? Studio City is the scapegoat for a 30% falloff in Melco shares. CEO Lawrence Ho is moving cautiously, starting with three high-roller rooms. For its part, Melco’s official stance is that middle-class and upper-middle-class customers are still its patrons of preference. However, the attempt to reinvent Melco as a purveyor of non-gaming entertainment has met with its share of growing pains. As certain Las Vegas megaresorts learned painfully eight years ago, “build it and they will come” is not a reliable philosophy in the casino industry. Meanwhile, the Macanese government is feeling generous toward Success Universe and giving it permission to build the third phase of Ponte 16, on hold since 2014. Government officials had qualms about the original designs, literally sending Ponte 16 back to the drawing board. Stanley Ho‘s people will run the casino.

* In its glory days, MGM Resorts International‘s Grand Victoria riverboat in Elgin, Illinois, was spinning off $12 million a year to area governments and philanthropic causes. In 2015, that number dwindled to slightly more than $3 million and — once local government took its share — area nonprofits and schools were scrapping over less than $1 million … and some of those grants came with controversy attached.

* What do you do with an abandoned shopping mall? If you’re the Wilton Rancheria, in California, you propose turning it into a casino. Now the tribe has to convince the good burghers of Elk Grove to go along.

* The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation has, in its compact with North Carolina, a three-casino quota. It may max that out shortly with an “overflow” casino that is being mulled for the town of Cherokee. It would be modest in size (250 slots and 20 tables) and budgeted at $61 million. The idea is to get the jump on Georgia, should the Peachtree State legalize casinos. We presume that Caesars Entertainment would have right of first refusal as operator but — in an ironic twist — Cordish Cos. is building a retail mall adjacent to Harrah’s Cherokee Resort. The two companies are bitter rivals in other markets, so it’s a pleasant turnabout to see them acting in concert here.

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