National Harbor opening looms; Murren’s march through Georgia

Lucky Dragon Casino had better enjoy its 15 minutes of fame while they last because all eyes will turn to the East Coast on Dec. 8, when MGM Resorts International opens MGM National Harbor. CEO Jim Murren is already predicting blockbuster financial results. The company is scrambling to line up entertainers and events — I was asked to scrub some speculation on that topic from an interview I did with MGM President Bill Hornbuckle. While they’re not going so far as to call it their best casino to date, MGM execs are saying it will be their most distinct, whether in its public art or its conservatory, among other amenities. MGM’s also going with a repertory company of chefs new to the company — a nice change of the same old-same old that has prevailed at its Las Vegas properties (when in doubt, call Wolfgang Puck).

Although the property itself opens on Dec. 8, you can shoot craps but not stay in the hotel until Dec. 10. The facility, with its 125,000-square foot casino floor, already dominates the view from our nation’s capitol to the east. It’s not a grand-scale property, however: only 300 hotel rooms. However, there will be more than a touch of exclusivity, with ADRs expected to run in the $399-to-$599 range. Even if overnight guests are expected to be relatively few, MGM is bracing for a foot traffic of 20,000 customers a day. The National Harbor and Tanger Outlet malls are already placing a strain on area traffic infrastructure, and the prospect of MGM’s magnet property has visions of gridlock cramming people’s heads. In deference to this, new exit and entrance lanes have been added to I-295. Some of the affected drivers will be the 3,600 employees MGM plans to hire.

As for those employees, there’s some tension over the prospect that MGM is filling positions with displaced Atlantic City veterans. Maryland Business Clergy Partnership Executive Director Bruce Branch said, We don’t want to see transplants from Atlantic City. Obviously, they have experience. But the deal was to hire local residents.” Branch and other local activists also want MGM to disclose more about its hiring and contracting policies, even though the company has surpassed its benchmarks (37%, compared to the mandated 30%) for minority contracting. “They have given us some token contracts, but the bottom line is our community has not received the big jobs. This has been a slap in the face of every minority business in the county, but there is really nothing the community can do. It is a fight that has ended,” said a resigned Branch. “They have made progress, but not enough progress.”

Once National Harbor is open, restaurateur José Andrés will be only to happy to serve you snakehead fish. I’ll pass. (And I still think National Harbor looks like an aircraft carrier.)

* With Washington, D.C., nearly in the bag, Murren is already looking south. He made a speech to the Rotary Club of Atlanta this week, touting the benefits that casino gambling could bring to Georgia. He trailed the prospect of a $1 billion MGM megaresort in Atlanta as a source of money for the Peachtree State’s popular HOPE Scholarships, currently funded by lottery proceeds — but looking at a financial shortfall in the distant future. (Horse racing has also been proposed as a curative.) Murren implied that casino legalization in Georgia could bring $600 million back into the state. A study commissioned by Central Atlanta Progress disputes that position, arguing that most of the casino revenue would be cannibalized from existing businesses in Georgia. “At the moment, we’re trying to grasp the compelling reason to have it. We’ve got so much going on, so many wonderful things,” said the group’s A.J. Robinson.

Gov. Nathan Deal (R) has sent mixed signals, opposing casinos on the one hand but proposing a higher tax rate than proponents would like with the other. Murren sought to play down fears that casinos would sap the Georgia Lottery and played up the idea of heightening Atlanta’s appeal as a tourism destination. (Since so many airline passengers are doomed to pass through Atlanta’s inescapable, monster-sized airport, maybe they should just put the slot machines there.) “We only go into markets where we believe we can provide a destination addition to a market. We’re not interested in commodities, we’re not interested in the slot business. We’re interested in the type of resorts that provide a nexus between entertainment, hospitality and gaming,” Murren said.

In a subsequent meeting with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Murren hiked the proposed investment to $1.4 billion and raised the prospect of hiring 4,000 Georgians. “Georgia is very vibrant state, a large economy, diverse, it sits literally at the terminus of the entire Southeast. It has a tremendous airport, great corporate base already and it’s surrounded by gaming in one form or another,” said Murren he might well have added that MGM-style product would eclipse what’s available in neighboring states, where Alabama is confined to electronic bingo and megaresort development in Florida has been crippled by legislative indecision.

* No dice. That was New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s verdict on a proposal to redirect 25% of slot receipts from Yellow Brick Road Casino to Madison County. Officials from the county sulked over the veto but Cuomo pointed out that they had signed off on a 2013 accord whereby the county receives a $3.5 million disbursement from the Oneida Indian Nation every year (in addition to an $11 million ‘signing bonus’). Urging Madison County to go back to the drawing board, Cuomo said, “As drafted, this bill could compromise the multi-party compact that has been in place since 2013. I am therefore constrained to veto this bill.”

If the patent is still pending on GameCo machines, should Caesars Entertainment be rushing them to its casino floors?

* Since Pennsylvania lawmakers have to address the host-community taxes that Keystone State casinos no longer have to pay, thanks to the state Supreme Court, this could compel the state Senate to revisit other gaming legislation. This includes Internet gaming, which has been languishing in the upper house, alongside daily fantasy sports. Will lawmakers’ fear of gaming expansion be overcome by the need to rewrite gaming-tax laws and to bridge a budget gap? Stay tuned.