Saturday, January 5, 2019
The Hot Clicks of the Week
Casino giant MGM Resorts International outlined a cost reduction, margin improvement plan Thursday that the gaming company said would lead to an additional $300 million in cash flow by 2021. The plan – labeled MGM 2020, which was first discussed at an investor day last May – calls for a range of company-wide cost-cutting and efficiency measures, including $100 million in reduced labor costs. An MGM spokeswoman said the reduction in labor would amount to 3 percent of the company’s overall labor costs.
“To be or not to be.” According to Wikipedia, this is the most widely-known, widely-quoted line in the English language. There’s a great corollary on the slot floor today: “To dispatch or not to dispatch.” Whether you’re Hamlet or just an ordinary slot director, dispatching is the best way to “take arms against a sea of troubles.” Today it’s clear that if you don’t have a dispatching system – and, moreover, aren’t using it effectively – you’re sure to “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” The slot manager’s version of that grief? Complaints about wait times.
One More from Howard Stutz
Howard says: New York is considered the cornerstone state in 2019’s legal sports betting landscape. Legislators approved a law in 2013 that tasks the New York Gaming Commission with crafting regulations for sports gambling. But the commission has yet to propose any rules. This week, the Oneida Indian Nation said it would partner with Caesars Entertainment to bring sports betting to New York later this year. The ball, so to speak, is now in the state’s court. The tribe owns the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona. The Central New York casino is one of the largest tribal-owned properties in the state, with 700 hotel rooms, a massive casino and three 18-hole golf courses. The Oniedas, along with Caesars, plan to bring “The Lounge with Caesars Sports” into Turning Stone and the tribe’s two smaller New York casinos sometime this year. The plans are also subject to review by the National Indian Gaming Commission. But what happens if the commission gives the go-ahead, but that state is still hasn’t drafted gaming regulations? That could stall the tribe’s plans under its New York gaming compact. Other New York casinos have sports betting deals in place while gaming giant MGM Resorts International is awaiting regulatory approval for its $890 million purchase of the Empire Casino and Yonkers Raceway. New York regulators are going to be busy.
For a nanosecond the other day, I thought Steve Wynn had returned to the helm of Wynn Resorts. How else can you explain the federal lawsuit the company filed just before Christmas against the developer of the $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas project? Wynn, through his former Golden Nugget, Inc., and Mirage Resorts companies, had a history of filing litigation to stifle competition in Atlantic City, particularly against then-casino developer Donald Trump, at the time a major Wynn rival.
It’s a time of year for predictions, and this one is easy: We will hear a lot about the definition of “exclusivity” in the next dozen months as states with tribal casinos test alliances and gaming compacts. Much is at stake for all the players involved. For the tribes, sovereign nations by definition, an unprecedented economic boom could be cooling for the first time since the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 changed the face of casino gambling forever.
International
After experiencing a year-on-year increase in Christmas bookings this year, Baha Mar’s four hotels will be at maximum capacity for New Year’s Day celebrations as 2018 comes to a close, said the resort’s senior vice president of administration and external relations, Robert “Sandy” Sands. He said, given that all of Baha Mar’s inventory was in place after the mid-year opening of the Rosewood tower, the property will experience a better Christmas than last year.
This report is edited by Howard Stutz .
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