All right in Atlantic City; Trump: The Asia connection

Columnist Steve Ruddock recently took a deep dive into Atlantic City and found the water to be just fine, thank you. He didn’t just mean his hotel room at Resorts Atlantic City, which he deemed cleaner and better-maintained than many on the Las Vegas Strip. No, he was talking about the operating profits of the surviving casinos, many of which are skyrocketing as the market goes through the process of right sizing itself. The only exception was Carl Icahn‘s Tropicana Atlantic City, where operating profit dipped 22% from 2014 to 2015. By contrast, though you wouldn’t know it on a month-by-month basis, the repositioning of Bally’s Atlantic City as a grind joint has fattened the bottom line, with operating profit up 77%. The tightest-run ships appear to be Resorts (+525%) and Golden Nugget (+396%). Borgata (+36%) had the highest dollar volume of profit, while Caesars Atlantic City and Harrah’s Resort (+39% and +26%) made respectable gains.

As these numbers might suggest, Ruddock concludes that the answer in Atlantic City is not more casinos. However, altruism is not the foremost characteristic of the free market, and neither Glenn Straub at Ten nor Icahn at the temporarily closed Trump Taj Mahal can be expected to refrain from re-entering the lists shortly. Some ex-casinos appear beyond rescue, including deed-restricted Trump Plaza. Ditto Showboat (From a gaming standpoint) while the Atlantic Club has a possible date with the wrecking ball, having found no takers on the open market. (Remember that Caesars Entertainment and Tropicana Entertainment made off with its gaming entitlement.) Unless Straub can hook up with a gambling operator with a sizable database at hand and Icahn can restore labor peace at the Taj, both face serious challenges reentering the Boardwalk. But, for the established operators, happy days are here again.

* Although it has yet to enter the White House, the incoming Trump regime is generating a fair number of gaming-related headlines. Saipan casino operator Best Sunshine is hoping that the new administration will continue the visa-free entry relationship with China. Fortunately for the company, it is headed by former Trump executive Mark Brown. In Vietnam, casino firm Asian Coast Development has just named former Trump Entertainment Resorts corporate counsel (and ex-Ivanka Trump lawyer) Loretta Pickus to its board of directors. However ACDL is hedging its inside-the-Beltway bets by also appointing Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton family consigliere John Podesta, to its board as well. ACDL has a $1 billion megaresort, the Grand Ho Tram, in progress south of Ho Chi Minh City and would apparently like Washington to smile upon the project.

* Add Bermuda to the roster of nations where casinos are legal. Lawmakers on the island-state have green-lit a pair of casinos. Unfortunately for would-be developers, the legislation comes too late for aforesaid casinos to be ready in time for the America’s Cup next May, even though their hotel locations are spelled out in the new law. At least Bermuda’s regulatory body will have a strong and eloquent head: Richard Schuetz, late of the California Gambling Control Commission. Before he made the transition to the regulatory side of the fence, Schuetz was CEO of the Stratosphere during some of its most difficult days, so he’ll be well qualified to advise startups on how to get it right.

* Could pot smokers light up on Plainridge Park‘s patio, amid all the cigarettes and cigars? Penn National Gaming isn’t asking for that permission but the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is looking into the implications of the Bay State’s new legal-marijuana status. Spotting tokers on smoking verandas should be easy enough but policing federal law in those hundreds of as-yet-unbuilt hotel rooms is something else again. The MGC is taking input rather than a stance for the moment.

* The effort of the Wild Rose casino chain to extend into Cedar Rapids with a $40 million, boutique casino opposite the convention center is looking anything but a slam dunk. Civic leaders are bound by a pledge to support an older, bigger, more-expensive proposal from a rival developer. If the lack of support from City Hall weren’t enough to worry about, Iowa casino regulators — concerned about market saturation — are said to be looking askance at Wild Rose’s initiative.