Entries from October 2008 ↓

With the economy sliding into a deeper recession every day Americans are shying away from normally popular Vegas and are holding onto their entertainment dollars causing a huge drop in casino revenues in the entertainment capital of the US of A.

One of the biggest consequences of people shying away from casinos is that this will definitely cause a higher jobless rate as casino managers will begin laying off casino and hotel workers in the once thriving and evergrowing Vegas Economy.

Time will only tell if this is a temporary development or a longer term problem that will really cause hurt in the entire casino industry.

Atlantic City casinos took there biggest nosedive ever. Since 1978 they have never seen as big a drop in casino revenue and customers. This drop parallels the stock market drop from last week. And while the stock market drop is big news. The casino revenue drop in Atlantic City should be even bigger news.

¨In September, gambling proceeds fell 15 percent to $356 million, exceeding the previous record of an almost 14 percent decline set in January 1994. Revenue from tables at the city’s 11 casinos slid 6.2 percent, while slot-machine play dropped 19 percent, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission said today in an e-mailed statement.¨

I can only imagine over the course of the next 6 months we will continue to see casino revenues drop not only in Atlantic City but also throughout the country including Las Vegas. This will result in widespread job losses in Atlantic City and in the casino industry.

However I believe this will create a rise in online casino and gambling ventures if regulation can be passed that will make it easier to fund online gambling for Americans.

Atlantic City is struggling, but so is the rest of the modern world.  With the faltering economy and the lack of credit lots of development in Atlantic City is on hold. But that doesn’t stop Atlantic City from reaching out to developers who might be interested in developing former Airport Bader Field into a 3 casino project.

The economy is in meltdown, credit is virtually nonexistent, and $7 billion worth of new casino development is on hold in Atlantic City.

Perhaps it’s not the best timing, but the city went ahead Tuesday with a plan to solicit bids from developers who could build as many as three casinos on the nearly 150-acre former Bader Field airport property.

While it is not always a bad time to begin developing its possible the timing of this development is ok. If we are stuck in a recession for two or three years when we come out of it Atlantic City will have a number of growing new casino projects to inject new revenue into the city.

Atlantic City´s smoking ban just got a bit longer due to the fact that there aren´t enough congressmen in Jersey to overturn the bill. So the smoking ban will have to remain in effect alteast for another few weeks until enough congressmen return from their break to overturn the smoking ban.

Casinos are concerned that the smoking ban will hurt the casinos in the midst of an already struggling economic situation. Look for congressmen from Jersey to be pressured by lobbyists to overturn the temporary ban as soon as they have enough folks back in session to do just that.

Personally I think this is not a good plan. I hate smoke in casinos but I understand casino players want to have their freedoms and smoke it too.

Poker players may be hedging their bets as the economy slides, but U.S. states are still asking voters to loosen restrictions on gambling in order to raise revenue and help stem growing budget deficits.

Voters are set to decide next month on gambling referendums in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri and Ohio that range from ending loss limits to opening new territories for casinos.

While this is nothing new it seems that states are being more aggressive in opening up gambling during hard economic times in order to increase revenues.

The former owners of The Tropicana Casino And Resort in Atlantic City are desperate to get back into Atlantic City even if there bid to regain control of The Tropicana fails. They are making plans to buy another casino, or build another one.

Tropicana Entertainment the former owners are also trying to block the forced sale of the casino and resort because they believe it is undervalued.

It is looking like many Casinos who market experts considered recession proof are beginning to crack at the seams slowly with this economic downturn. It appears to be effecting smaller market casinos and gaming markets more heavily than Vegas and Atlantic City. We are seeing downturns in markets like Michigan, Ohio, and California.

While California is not resistant to the recession in many areas, some thought the casinos would be a driving force and not slow down because people would head to the indian gaming casinos versus driving to Vegas to gamble. However that just hasnt been the case as Casinos in California showed a 4% drop in revenues and a 7% in customer acquistion in comparison to this month last year.

Hopefully things will start looking up in these markets and soon as many of these gaming tribes are largely supported by gaming.

Even in these tough times one casino has managed to get a 77 million dollar loan. Can we say Casino Market Mentality over there on Wall Street. This round of funding was led by Bank of America which I find purely disgusting because of their recent problems.

More Details:
Despite tight financial markets, the Shingle Springs Tribal Gaming Authority closed Tuesday on a $77 million loan from a group of lenders led by Bank of America.

The tribal authority for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok will use the credit to buy furniture, fixtures and equipment for the Red Hawk Casino, which is under construction in Shingle Springs.

Source: Biz Journals