When casino revenues weren’t as bad as expected, earlier this summer, one Atlantic City property executive called it a light at the end of the tunnel. Elsewhere, S&G reader American Gaming Guru pithily remarked that the light was an oncoming train called Aqueduct. When the Guru couldn’t foresee was that Atlantic City is now set to absorb a body blow in the form of Hurricane Irene. As of this morning, its track was projected to hit the Boardwalk square in the chops.
Amazingly, casino bosses like Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Robert Griffin and Caesars Entertainment‘s East Coast viceroy, Don Marrandino (left), were actually toying with the possibility of staying open during the hurricane. Unlike the Dixie riverboats that got ripped to shreds by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the ones in Atlantic City are built to absorb heavy punishment. And, yes, the industry is faced not only with a lost weekend of revenue but also an indeterminate amount of property damage. But that’s no excuse for risking customers and employees in order to put a few extra dimes toward the bottom line. Resorts Atlantic City CEO Dennis Gomes gets the Best Practices award for deciding to close outright, even though he knows it’s going to hurt him in the wallet. If Gomes, boss of a struggling casino, can afford to be prudent, why were his colleagues dawdling? Fortunately, sanity eventually prevailed earlier today.
Speaking of dawdling, halfway across the country in the Land of Lincoln, Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) still can’t decide whether or not to veto a casino-expansion bill that’s moving toward his desk at glacial velocity. While most of the “pro” arguments are specious or simply flawed, there’s no point in rehashing them for the umpteenth time.
Quinn’s hapless dithering makes him look weak in the face of aggressive expansion proponents, riding a wave of euphoria after Neil Bluhm‘s Rivers Casino opened strongly … and never you mind that racino legalization would effectively throw a siege around Bluhm’s $450 million pleasure palace. Heck, slot routes are still stuck in the chute, although recent court rulings have lifted much of the doubt surrounding that new form of gambling.
Machine Gun Bloom. Contrary to what I and many others expected, The Mob Experience, the cheesy Mafia theme park at the Tropicana Las Vegas, has been a commercial dud, running at half the projected visitation. Ousted developer Jay Bloom is spraying fire at anyone and virtually everyone involved with the attraction. His latest barrage winged the Trop itself, although it’s hard to take seriously Bloom’s claim that the Trop was shy about promoting his cheesetastic showcase. Bloom’s tenure as de facto director of entertainment at the Trop was a comparable flop and I’m sure Alex Yemenidjian is ruing the day he ever met this carnival barker. Oscar Goodman‘s downtown “Mob Museum” is certain to enjoy the last laugh.
Incidentally, the Trop’s allocation of premier surface parking to the Nikki Beach crowd is looking like a major goof. Non-Beach patrons are relegated to the distant reaches — and they are distant — of the Trop’s vehicular realm, while prime space in front of the hotel sits empty most of the time. Frankly, it makes it appear that nobody’s going to the Trop these days — hardly the visual message intended.
After the planet-sized egg laid by Gary Loveman at G2E last year, American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf doesn’t dare let him give another keynote speech for a while. But I guess he had to throw Caesars a bone of some sort. It took the form of a “Lifetime Achievement Award” to company lobbyist (and former Las Vegas mayor) Jan Laverty Jones. It’s kind of ironic when you consider the heat Jones took as mayor for attempting to curb slot routes. Though she’s hardly out to pasture, Jones has enjoyed one of the longer tenures among Caesars vice presidents and anyone who can put up with the insufferable Dr. Loveman that long deserves some sort of honorific. Congratulations.
Don’t you think the entrepreneurs who have risked their money and the customers who are knowingly risking their money should be the ones to determine their own safety without the “help” of some namby pamby politician who wants to tell them to fasten seatbelts, wear helmets and put sweaters on when its cool.
The Mob Museum downtown will be an even bigger loser. I personally think that most adults don’t like going to museums unless they’re taking their kids, and a museum about gangsters just doesn’t shout educational and kid friendly. Plus people that go to Las Vegas to vacation are focused on having fun, not going to museums. Add to that the fact that it’s downtown and you have even less of a chance, as much of the downtown tourist pack are more focused on gambling. The only plus in having the museum downtown is there’s more of an older, blue collar crowd, who may be more interested in the mob than party people on the strip. It’s been a long time since movies like “Casino,” “Goodfellas” and “The Godfather” have been hits after all…
I think the downtown Mob Museum is going to be a big hit, and much better than the Trop Experience. The downtown gig is being put together by professional, out of the box thinking, museum designers.
The Trop experience is not outstanding, rather, it is quite mundane and too focused on New York, Chicago and elsewhere, instead of Las Vegas. It is over hyped, over priced and under delivers.
Despite all the Tommy gun wielding that was done at the time of its announcement, the Mob Experience is woefully short on implements of destruction: I counted one or two small handguns and Tony Spilotro’s brass knuckles. The downtown museum, by contrast, is already being excoriated for having too many souvenirs of violence. Given a choice between a section of wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Oscar) or Meyer Lansky’s library (Trop), the Downtown museum stands a better chance of delivering immediacy, something at which the Mob Experience fails rather miserably.
Downtown needs daylife which is pretty hard to fine except for the fantastic pool at Golden Nugget. I enjoyed the Mob Experience at the Trop via a heavily discounted Groupon but could have done without the cheesy opening bits. At full price I would have felt like the mob had just hijacked my truck. The mob image, tied to the Ratpack, still defines Las Vegas more than Steve Wynn and Cirque. Europeans (inc. Brits) are often fascinated by the USA mob (some still think Al Capone runs Chicago) and I think the museum downtown should market to them.
Thanks for the shout-out!