Recording its first anniversary with a reported $160 million in revenue, against projections closer to $300 million, is Penn National Gaming‘s Plainridge Park a dud? Not so fast. The casino reports the highest win/slot/day by far of any casino for which Penn 
shares such numbers. Smokers only had to drive an extra 11 miles to play at nicotine-friendly Twin River Casino, in Rhode Island, which is only 5% off last year’s revenue pace. Ditto table-game players. So those were two constituencies with whom Plainridge was bound to disappoint. However, $130 million of Plainridge’s haul was new revenue. So it grew the market, even if it largely failed to interdict the flow of capital to casinos to the south. Penn spokesman Eric Schippers had to tip his cap to the competition: “This is a highly competitive market where we learned that, despite having the newest product and great customer service, we underestimated the ongoing benefit that table games and indoor smoking continues to provide Twin River.”
A slots-only casino with a reputation for tight holds, Plainridge still managed to accomplish at least half its mission, which was to enlarge the Bay State player base. If Penn has any reason to regret not having met those sky-high projections for Year One, it’s that Plainridge is playing on borrowed time. Even Penn’s own estimates show the racino taking a 55% revenue pummeling when First Light, in Taunton, and Wynn Boston Harbor open.
While acknowledging that Plainridge had failed to turn off the spigot to Rhode Island, University of Texas casino expert Clyde Barrow was able to see the half-full side of the glass, too. “People in Massachusetts want to gamble, there’s no question about that. 
It’s one of the most lucrative, untapped markets in the world,” he told the Boston Globe. “Everyone talked with this exaggerated sense of anxiety about increases in prostitution, in human trafficking, in drunkenness, but it hasn’t happened,” added Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby. Besides, the state is richer to the tune of $80 million in taxes it wouldn’t have had without Plainridge. Depending on the outcome of two ballot questions, the next hurdles for the racino could be a slot parlor in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and another one in Revere, much closer to Boston. That could spell real trouble.
* It wasn’t that long ago that Atlantic City casinos were going for peanuts. However, the fact that MGM Resorts International is paying $900 million for half of Borgata could raise prices around the rest of the Monopoly board, gaming analysts say. While MGM hasn’t ruled out vying for a casino in the northern tier of the state, should Atlantic City’s special status be revoked, it will be concentrating its focus on creating new amenities for Borgata and not developing other casinos in Atlantic City’s Marina District. It’s already got the better mousetrap. Why build another? Somebody tried that and it’s called Revel. (Still.) In other Atlantic City news, PokerStars has quickly become the preferred i-poker provider, easily outdistancing Borgata.
* Desperate for tax money, Pennsylvania lawmakers have voted to allow casinos to serve liquor between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. (That’s when I do most of my drinking. Don’t you?) Casinos are responding that it’s spinach and to hell with it. The only waffler in the bunch 
seems to be Meadows Casino, whose spokesman said, “It’s difficult for us to comment with so many unsettled variables, including the fee, etc.” Sands Bethlehem CEO Mark Juliano said his casino wouldn’t pay and neither would anyone else, and Penn’s Schippers, having a busy week, said that even if the license was free his company wouldn’t take it. Juliano told a local TV station that “Sands doesn’t want to be the go-to drinking hole after every other place closes.” That’s quite an image: an influx of boozehounds swarming the casino floor in the pre-dawn hours.
* Neil Bluhm looks like he’ll be the first of the new round of New York State casino developers to get his oar in the water. Bluhm’s right-hand man, Greg Carlin, predicted a February opening for the Schenectady iteration of Rivers Casino. “What we’ve heard here preliminarily has been very promising, and we want to make sure we can see with our own eyes what they’ve told us they’ve progressed so far,” responded John Poklemba of the New York State Gaming Commission, in Schenectady to ensure that Bluhm was making good on his promises. The 1,150-slot, 66-table casino will be part of a mixed-used development that includes a marina, a second hotel, residences, retail and office space for tech firms.
