Fire sale in Vicksburg; Win or loss for Gettysburg?

Update: An earlier version contained a gross error/AARP moment on Yr. Humble Blogger’s part. I have amended the story so that it contains greater “factiness.” Also, fellow Canadian firm Gateway Casinos is the likely operator-to-be.

In a curt announcement, Tropicana Entertainment offloaded its Horizon Vicksburg riverboat for an undisclosed price. The buyer is little-known Canadian firm Tangent Gaming, although there may be a third hand at work behind the scenes, because Tangent’s track record is mainly that of a financier, not an operator — although it maintains a number of slot routes. The price is probably being kept quiet because former TropEnt parent company Columbia Sussex tried to sell the vessel to Nevada Gold three years ago for $35 million. Then-TropEnt CEO Scott Butera subsequently torpedoed the transaction.

If the parties keeping the sale price on the QT, it probably means TropEnt got even less for Horizon Vicksburg than ColSux’s William J. Yung did. A year ago, Bally Technologies was able to sell its Rainbow Casino in Vicksburg to Isle of Capri Casinos for $80 million (and Isle’s execs are some of the shrewdest in the biz) but Rainbow is a considerably larger facility and ColSux properties are notorious for deferred-maintenance issues. In any event, after Butera (now in charge of Foxwoods Resort Casino) made a big deal of scuttling Yung’s sales of Horizon Vicksburg and Casino Aztar in Indiana, Butera TropEnt (and owner Carl Icahn) may simply not have wanted to draw attention to their flip-flop.

Gettysburg win or loss? Although opponents of a proposed Gettysburg casino (such as sure cure for insomnia filmmaker Ken Burns) are probably taking victory laps after Pennsylvania regulators chose Nemacolin Woodlands Resort instead, USA Today may be reading too much into the attendant historical controversy. The would-be Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino faced infrastructural challenges (like having sufficient access to the local water supply) and unlike the Nemacolin and Fernwood bids, it didn’t have a big dog in its corner — Isle for Nemacolin, Penn National Gaming in Fernwood’s case.

S&G came to think the historic-preservation issues were considerably overblown. Personally, I regret that Fernwood wasn’t chosen, as it deprives business reporters of a potentially endless string of Fernwood 2Night references. Besides, who wouldn’t want polyester-clad Martin Mull and Fred Willard as your casino pitchmen?

Caution prevails. Given the choice between operating a poker room at his racetrack (and under a legal penumbra) or preserving his shot a potential racino, Raynham Park owner George Carney opted for Door #2. It’s a provisional decision and one that literally takes money — nearly $3 million — off the table, but that’s small change compared to what a Massachusetts racino could gross.