Atlantic City Status

[DaBurglar]

I just returned from a stay in AC (june 7  thru  june 18), and I have a lot to report so I will do it in short bits and pieces to allow easier digestion and discussion.I too heard MANY rumors while in AC, as well as some things I could consider facts....starting with the June 13, 2014 edition of the Press of AC which published the Casino Revenue Numbers for the month of May 2014 (one of the things I enjoy while in AC is my morning routine of buying a newspaper and my coffee and sitting on the boardwalk in the early hours as the sun rises, reading the days news.)The bottom continues to fall out of the AC market as Revenue dropped yet again for the entire city..... May 2014 saw AC casino revenue totals reach $232.4 million, down 8% from the previous MAY 2013 total of $253.1 million.       Keep in mind that last year's figures for May included the now defunct AC Club, but this is offset by the fact that this years figure for MAY includes online gambling revenue.........but online gaming revenue for these brick and mortar AC casinos is only 10.5 million bucks for May 2014.....April 2014 it was 11.4 million  and MArch 2014 was 11.9 million so not only is the online business not growing as fast as hoped, it is actually stagnant and possibly shrinking.   Borgata is far and away the leader as expected and the only "healthy" AC casino, but even they are grumbling that growth is extremely difficult given the presence of so many other casinos in the AC market that clearly is oversaturated.....or so they keep saying.I say the business is still out there but it is going to take a different tact for AC to get people to come back.....But it wont happen fast enough to save 2 or 3 of the properties in AC currently gasping to stay alive.......Revel, Showboat........AND Trump Plaza are currently in dire straits and clearly need to be either shuttered or sold to a buyer at a sufficient discount so that the buyer can continue to operate the property in the immediate future while they attempt to rebrand it to attract NEW business......First, there is Showboat:  WHile I was there this past 11 days, I saw a lot of showboat employees with anxiety and frustration on their countenance.   They all know the score, and they all know the situation their corporate parent CET is in......The REALLY frustrating thing is not knowing, and the timing of all this is such that no one wants to make any move or announcement until AFTER the summer, because frankly this is the one time of the year when everyone does their best business.    The fact that REVEL has made the statement that they are in imminent disaster mode actually HELPS Showboat (and Trump ) a little because now they both might wait and see what happens with Revel.....if Revel shuts down, it offers (in the short term) the boost of redistributing all the cannibalized business Revel first ate up BACK into the AC market.     But.....oh my goodness......if that place implodes and those 3200 people wind up on the street, it is nothing short of a political nuclear blast for a whole slew of New Jersey officials, starting obviously with the Governor.I will type more later and share details of my trip ......

[doris13]

don't bother with the details,nobody here really gives a sh**.

[DaBurglar]

The mood in most of the casinos is very subdued and glum.......most people know that something bad is going to happen before this summer season is over, and this includes a lot of the boardwalk vendors I spoke with.   I am friends with a number of the Chair Drivers on the Boardwalk, as well as many of the food vendors and a couple gift shop owners........they all seem to speak about a common theme.....the CRDA (Casino Reinvestment & Development Authority) which  Governor Christie and the New Jersey Tourism Office established in 2011 to get Atlantic City back on track has frittered away all the assets and initiatives it was given to make things better.   They have literally accomplished NOTHING and actually made it worse!    And the numbers prove it.....I had some success playing cash game No limit Holdem at both the Tropicana and Showboat, but did not fare too good in the two tournaments I played in....all together I finished up about $250 but given how long I was there (11 days) this is not too good, but it beats losing.    I was able to log some pretty long playing time hours at several poker rooms, and I might be getting a free room at the TROP next month which will allow me to string together some pretty long extended comp nights at all AC properties!The video poker remains horrible, but I did have one day (Wednesday June 11) that was decidedly less sucky than all other days where I hit a 25 cent royal on a 9/6/5 double bonus paytable at Trump Plaza (that is absolutely the ONLY playable paytable in the entire casino!)     But the funny (or not) thing was, prior to that Royal I had 19 hands in a row of NOTHING (duds) and after the Royal another 15 hands of DUDs before hitting three of a kind........and that my friends is typical of the AC video poker experience.But overall, I ENJOYED my 11 days in AC because the weather was really nice, the food was good, and I was able to wheel around and see many old friends, even if the overall atmosphere was tainted by impending economic peril.    I love this beach town, and I will take an optimistic long view here and say that if they do end up shuttering a couple of the casinos, they might finally get the place "Right Sized" for the market share they currently have.......of course that will not help all the other people who are out of a job, and unless they fix their business strategy and model the "right size market share" itself will continue to plummet and then three years from now when they are down to 9 (or even 8) casinos they will talk of shuttering more.......I guess I better enjoy it while it lasts.

[BillyJoe]

     I love this beach town, and I will take an optimistic long view here and say that if they do end up shuttering a couple of the casinos, they might finally get the place "Right Sized" for the market share they currently have.......of course that will not help all the other people who are out of a job, and unless they fix their business strategy and model the "right size market share" itself will continue to plummet and then three years from now when they are down to 9 (or even 8) casinos they will talk of shuttering more.......I guess I better enjoy it while it lasts.

I do not know the numbers of the clientele demographics, but I would guess that many AC customers come from New York. I believe that when the new NY casinos are fully up and running, it will REALLY hurt AC.

I hope they come up with a successful strategy to deal with the competition. Perhaps some State Tax relief for out-of-state players may work.

[DaBurglar]

  I do not know the numbers of the clientele demographics, but I would guess that many AC customers come from New York. I believe that when the new NY casinos are fully up and running, it will REALLY hurt AC.

I hope they come up with a successful strategy to deal with the competition. Perhaps some State Tax relief for out-of-state players may work. that's a good first step, but they need more than that:1)  Legalize sports betting....this is the most obvious, and most frustrating feature to this whole debate.    There is no reason on earth, other than to protect the Sopranos, to NOT have legalized sports betting in New Jersey, and the AC casinos would benefit in a HUGE way....it would literally solve their biggest problem, getting people to show up during the cold winter months (i.e FOOTBALL season) when their revenues plunge.    The reasons for denying it to AC are truly absurd, and I do not want to get into them but if anyone is interested, just google the issue....by the way, DELAWARE has legalized sports betting and is not doing squat with it!     again.....ABSURD!2)  For the 74th time......AC needs to loosen loosen loosen....and loosen some more, its slots and VP machines and then ADVERTISE the crap out of the fact that they have done so!      I cannot understand why they have not already done this.......the old objection about "well then players are going to ALWAYS expect this" no longer even holds a little water.     The place is friggin DYING a slow awful death......this is no longer about maximizing profits, this is about pure SURVIVAL and keeping existing workers employed, and keeping at least a trickle of state tax revenue coming in.....sure beats the alternative of unemployed, zero profits and zero trickle!3)  Kindly, calmly but firmly explain to all AC employees in the casinos that they need to really start making people feel welcome and appreciated, at all times and all levels.   As difficult as it may be for some employees to smile and give good service in the face of such economic uncertainty (and given how awful some customers treat said employees), this is still the name of the game and the business they are in.......right now it is just too easy for people to look at and see the crappy subpar inconsistent service that AC is rife with, and use that as the "final straw" to abandon the place and go to the lousy casino down the street because "at least I wont burn up any gas money or waste 90 minutes traveling."ANy other thoughts or ideas out there?

[BillyJoe]

[QUOTE=billyjoe]  I do not know the numbers of the clientele demographics, but I would guess that many AC customers come from New York. I believe that when the new NY casinos are fully up and running, it will REALLY hurt AC.

I hope they come up with a successful strategy to deal with the competition. Perhaps some State Tax relief for out-of-state players may work. that's a good first step, but they need more than that:1)  Legalize sports betting....this is the most obvious, and most frustrating feature to this whole debate.    There is no reason on earth, other than to protect the Sopranos, to NOT have legalized sports betting in New Jersey, and the AC casinos would benefit in a HUGE way....it would literally solve their biggest problem, getting people to show up during the cold winter months (i.e FOOTBALL season) when their revenues plunge.    The reasons for denying it to AC are truly absurd, and I do not want to get into them but if anyone is interested, just google the issue....by the way, DELAWARE has legalized sports betting and is not doing squat with it!     again.....ABSURD!2)  For the 74th time......AC needs to loosen loosen loosen....and loosen some more, its slots and VP machines and then ADVERTISE the crap out of the fact that they have done so!      I cannot understand why they have not already done this.......the old objection about "well then players are going to ALWAYS expect this" no longer even holds a little water.     The place is friggin DYING a slow awful death......this is no longer about maximizing profits, this is about pure SURVIVAL and keeping existing workers employed, and keeping at least a trickle of state tax revenue coming in.....sure beats the alternative of unemployed, zero profits and zero trickle!3)  Kindly, calmly but firmly explain to all AC employees in the casinos that they need to really start making people feel welcome and appreciated, at all times and all levels.   As difficult as it may be for some employees to smile and give good service in the face of such economic uncertainty (and given how awful some customers treat said employees), this is still the name of the game and the business they are in.......right now it is just too easy for people to look at and see the crappy subpar inconsistent service that AC is rife with, and use that as the "final straw" to abandon the place and go to the lousy casino down the street because "at least I wont burn up any gas money or waste 90 minutes traveling."ANy other thoughts or ideas out there?[/QUOTE]
No argument there, DB. On the 'loosen' theme, if the VP paytables were raised to close to 100%, you would not even have to advertise. Gamblers have a way of finding out things, and you would have scores of people, (probably even Bob Dancer) I believe, coming in to play.
The problem, of course, is when an executive is loosing money at his casino, it is difficult for him to make more winners.

[olds442jetaway]

I used to be an A/C regular in the 70's, 80's, and early 90's. We would either take the bus or rent a nice car and drive down for a day or two. Sometimes we would drive our own car a little econobox back then, but the rented Caddy's or Crown Vics were a lot nicer for the trip. Once the casinos opened in Ct., unfortunately it was no contest. An hour drive instead or 4 plus and not fighting Ny or Nj traffic. Mohegan still offers 99 plus games and A/C in general has poor paytables. I also find the employees top notch and very friendly up at Mohegan. Not so from what I have heard for the most part in ac. We were never offered great comps down there, but did enjoy Harrah's Marina quite a bit. Never had much luck with vp down there either. So all in all many of the reasons cited about ac's decline fall into categories keeping me from going back down there. There is one other big issue that ac couldn't solve for me. I have to keep close to home to make sure the elderly folks are ok. I have no regrets in that area and feel very lucky to still have them. I would like to get back down there again some day however I am not sure a few years from now ac will even exist as we know it today.

[OTABILL]

  Kindly, calmly but firmly explain to all AC employees in the casinos that they need to really start making people feel welcome and appreciated, at all times and all levels.  

Not sure which AC casinos you are talking about but the attitude you describe is the reason we have finally (after giving them numerous chance)that my wife and I will no longer frequent the local Harrah's casino regardless of the comps, VP etc. offered. Mind you, it used to be our favorite venue even though several other casinos are closer.

[BillyJoe]

Well, DB, there goes #1 on your list of suggestions...

Supreme Court: No sports betting in N.J.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let a lower court ruling stand that banned sports betting in New Jersey. Voters in the state approved sports betting in 2011, but the lower court said the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited sports betting in all but four states. N.J. state Sen. Ray Lesniak plans to continue with a state bill that would allow sports betting despite the court ruling. The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.) (tiered subscription model) (6/23), Las Vegas Sun/The Associated Press (6/23), The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (6/23), Bloomberg (6/23)

[Vman96]

[quote="wiki"]The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (Pub.L. 102–559), also known as the "Bradley Act," attempts to define the legal status of sports betting throughout the United States. This act effectively outlawed sports betting nationwide, excluding a few states.

The sports lotteries conducted in Oregon, Delaware, and Montana were exempt, as well as the licensed sports pools in Nevada. In addition, Congress provided a one-year window of opportunity from the effective date of PASPA (January 1, 1993) for states which operated licensed casino gaming for the previous ten-year period to pass laws permitting sports wagering. The latter exception was clearly crafted with New Jersey in mind. However, New Jersey failed to take advantage of this opportunity and carve out an exception for itself. Also excluded from the reach of PASPA are jai alai and parimutuel horse and dog racing.[/quote]

Wow New Jersey, are you the stupidest damn state in America? However, I could see this law eventually being overturned given the change in gaming views for the last 20 years.

I found out last weekend that my brother, who barely frequents casinos, figured sports betting was legal in Missouri casinos. I responded to this with an emphatic "Hell No!" He figured Missouri casinos had similar sports books he saw in Vegas.    I got Mom's "gambling gene" I guess while he didn't...bleh