Episode #84 is up!
Listen here: Vegas Gang Podcast
This time on the show:
- Hurricane Sandy and Atlantic City
- Election 2012 Impact on Gaming
- Wynn Cotai Starts Up
- Cantor Sports Book Employee Arrest
- SBE
** Sure Bets **
Chuck - David Lee Roth Podcast - TheRothShow
Dr. Dave - 'Long Wave' by Jeff Lynne @ iTunes | Amazon and ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky' @ iTunes | Amazon
Hunter - Letterpress for iOS
Feel free to leave your comments at the link below. If it's a question that you want asked on the show, please make that clear in your post. You can also send those to editor@ratevegas.com.
Comments
Gentlemen,
I am a resident of Maryland, regular listener to the Vegas Gang, and frequent visitor to Las Vegas. Your discussion of Maryland's casino referendum left out a very important player, Caesars Entertainment. Caesars invested heavily in the campaign along with MGM against Penn. Caesars has had a deal worked out wherein it would get a gaming license if the referendum passes. Caesars will now build a Horseshoe casino in downtown Baltimore next to the Baltimore Ravens' Stadium. Horseshoe Baltimore is expected to cost $400 million and open in the middle of 2014. It will employ at least 1,700 people at the casino. Combined, the three gaming companies spent $90 million, the largest amount ever spent on a referendum in Maryland history. Caesars'Horseshoe and MGM's planned National Harbor casino adjacent to Washington, DC, will be approximately 42 miles apart. In between the two lies Baltimore's and the DC's most affluent bedroom communities in Howard and Montgomery counties. These rank among the wealthiest per capita communities in the United States. The the two cities' combined metro area population is over 8.9 million. The referendum was for casino expansion (Baltimore and National Harbor) and for table games in the state's casinos (slot machines were only allowed until the passage of the referendum). Maryland Live announced yesterday it will be have table games and a poker room by springtime and move to 24 hours day operations. Penn's West Virginia casino is a very difficult hour and half drive with two lane roads through hills (with ice in the winter) from either Baltimore and DC. It may as well close shop once the new casinos open up.
Thanks!
John
I will comment on AC, but first, what an informative comment about Maryland from John. Thanks.
I agree that Hurricane Sandy added to Atlantic City's problems and will slow any improvement in business for some time to come, if such improvement were really on the horizon at all. Isn't Las Vegas on the same trajectory as AC except maybe ten years behind? The recession is still not over in many people's lives, and the source of a third(?) of Vegas' business, California, seems to be in a weakened position. Not to get political, but California appears to be becoming a land of the wealthy and the poor, with the middle class being squeezed out. If that is correct, Vegas will continue to have a hard time recovering. And, California has always led the direction of the rest of the country. If the middle class shrinks in the other 49 states, how can Vegas get back to the prosperity of 2007?
Even if the above thought is debunked (and, I hope it is), the growth of regional casinos throughout the country has to have an increasingly negative effect on the success of Vegas, especially with rising travel costs and hidden costs such as "resort fees." Getting back to Atlantic City, if Steve Wynn does build Wynn Philadelphia, it diminishes the reasons for locals to drive to AC or for others to fly into PHL and drive the 60 miles to the boardwalk casinos.
Interesting Vegas Gang as always!
It'll be interesting to see what the table minimums are for Maryland Live and the two forthcoming places that John mentioned in Baltimore and National Harbor. I've been to Charles Town twice since the tables were introduced there two years ago and the cheapest blackjack table I've seen was $15. What a joke.
Listening for the second time and had a quick observation, before I forget again.
Dr. Dave mentioned business interruption insurance at the Atlantic City casinos. I must emphasize my shop is a very small fish, but we learned the hard way after our fires a couple years ago that collecting on business interruption insurance, or any "destructive event" coverage is EXTREMELY difficult. The net return after premium expense before the event, administrative wormhole and carrier beat down is probably 40% of what would be expected before the entire process began. We got our final payment 1 day before the statute of limitations expired and our business interruption coverage was impossible to calculate because we chose to operate in any fashion for the first couple weeks after the fires.
^ Interesting. I know that MGM was able to get enough return from their policies to mitigate the fire-related shutdown of Monte Carlo and the blackout-related shutdown of Bellagio. At least that's what they said in their filings.
Great comments... big thanks to John for shining a light on the Maryland details!