Pinnacle Entertainment did a masterful job of managing expectations in its quarterly earnings call, citing disruptive road work around Ameristar St. Charles as a potential 
setback from the property. Today, Missouri released its July gaming results and — surprise — Ameristar St. Charles was up 3.5%, to $24 million. Any Pinnacle customers who were discouraged from visiting Ameristar seem to have gravitated to Pinnacle’s River City, which pulled in $20 million, a 10% increase. The health of the St. Louis market was robust, with Tropicana Entertainment‘s Lumiere Place, still on the comeback trail, up 3.5% ($11.5 million) and Hollywood St. Louis increasing winnings 2%, for $21 million. Notable results among outstate casinos including a 15% jump at Isle of Capri Cape Girardeau ($6 million), a 7% increase at Isle of Capri Lady Luck ($3 million), in Caruthersville, and a 4% dip at Golden Entertainment‘s Mark Twain casino, which grossed $3 million.
That leaves the Kansas City market, where Ameristar Kansas City led the competition with $17 million, despite a flat performance. Penn National Gaming also did well at Argosy Riverside, up 9% for a $14 million gross. Isle of Capri Kansas City (down 8%, $6 million) and Harrah’s North Kansas City (-4.5%, $14 million) weren’t as lucky.
It looks like the end of the road for sports betting in New Jersey. The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 10-2 ruling, ashcanned New Jersey’s law legalizing unregulated sports betting in the state. The court found it irreconcilable with the federal Professional & Amateur Sports Protection Act, writing, “Because PASPA, by its terms, prohibits states from authorizing by law sports gambling, and because the 2014 law does exactly that, the 2014 law violates federal law.” The ruling is a setback not only to the administration of Gov. Chris Christie (R), which has made sports betting a signature issue, it’s also a rebuke to Garden State voters, who approved sports betting in a 2011 referendum. Christie could take the issue to the Supreme Court again but it’s turned a deaf ear once already and would surely do so again.
William Hill US CEO Joe Asher thundered of the ruling, “It will be celebrated by illegal bookies all across New Jersey and the rest of America, as it keeps sports betting underground and on the black market for now. PASPA is clearly a failed law and more challenges to it are inevitable, both in the courts and in Congress.” Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Matt Youmans said that, instead of further litigation, the casino industry should focus on trying to repeal PASPA — but that could take at least three years to achieve. According to the American Gaming Association, former NBA Commissioner David Stern will be stumping in favor of legalized sports betting at the next Global Gaming Expo but I fear he’ll be preaching to the converted.
Speaking of the R-J, it has an excellent, in-depth piece on the “faint but promising” auguries for the latest attempt to reboot the Moulin Rouge. The challenge faced by anyone attempting this is twofold. For one, they need to have skin in the game. (A 2004 attempt to revive the Moulin Rouge still has a legacy of 300-plus creditors.) For another, they have to reach out to the surrounding community to achieve the critical mass needed 
for success. Or, as Assemblyman Harvey Munford (D) put it, “There’s not unity within the leadership: the elected officials, even some of the ministers or pastors. We all have to work together,” Munford said. “[Church leaders] could alert the members of their congregation that they should be enthusiastic and how important it is to the future of this community.”
“The price of land in the area is probably the best in the valley for its central location and proximity to freeway access and downtown amenities, culture and economic drivers,” adds Christina Roush, co-owner of an adjacent Tenaya Creek Brewery. That’s a good start on economic revival but a brew pub can’t do it alone — and anyone hoping to revive the Moulin Rouge had better bring excellent networking skills and deep pockets.
* MGM Cotai is putting a $3.1 billion bet on Macao‘s mass-market players. It’s going to open without any VIP table games. Although designed to hold 500 tables, MGM Cotai will undoubtedly obtain far fewer, although probably not as few as the punitive 100-table outlay that Steve Wynn will get when Wynn Palace debuts. (Studio City also opened without VIP tables but is currently backpedaling.) Besides, VIPs are expected to be more sensitive to a potential smoking ban.
