Casino News Media

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Investments in New Projects on Tap for 2022 in Atlantic City

Atlantic City’s casinos are forging ahead with ambitious new projects in 2022, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to make it harder to do business.

And non-casino projects involving family entertainment, education and the offshore wind industry will take flight in the new year.

But challenges lurk, as well.

In-person gambling revenue at seven of the nine casinos is down compared with 2019, before the pandemic hit. Sports betting and internet gambling revenue has filled some of the gap, but that money must be shared with third parties, including technology platforms and sports books, and is not solely for the casinos to keep.

A law passed signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in December gives the casinos some relief from big increases in payments they were due to pay to Atlantic City, Atlantic County and the schools system in lieu of property taxes.

A big unknown is how long and how seriously the COVID19 pandemic, and particularly the fast-spreading omicron variant, will affect customers’ willingness to come out and gamble in person in 2022.

And a big challenge is right around the corner when New York begins allowing people to bet on phones or other mobile devices anywhere in the state, as soon as January but almost certainly in time for the Super Bowl in February.

Gambling industry executives and analysts expect New Jersey to lose at least 20% of its sports betting volume as New York residents who formerly had to cross over into New Jersey to bet will be able to do it at or close to home.

Mark Giannantonio, president of Resorts casino, said he is “tremendously optimistic for a great year” in 2022.

Starting in February, Resorts is renovating its rooftop pool, adding a retractable roof to enable it to be used year-round. Resorts also is investing $5 million into new table games and slot machines, remodeling its high-limit slots area, and creating a new VIP Asian-themed room.

The Ocean Casino Resort plans to begin a $75 million project in spring or summer to finish 12 floors of hotel rooms that were never completed when the casino first opened as Revel in 2012.

Caesars casino will start work in 2022 on a new theater and resident show due to open in the first quarter of 2023. The project will incorporate the facade of the former Warner Theatre from 1929, which is currently part of the casino’s exterior facing the Boardwalk.

Also planned for Caesars in 2022 is a new restaurant opened by a hospitality company involving actor Robert De Niro that also will renovate hotel rooms there. Caesars Entertainment is partnering with Nobu Hospitality for a project to be called Nobu Hotel Atlantic City.

Bally’s will unveil 750 renovated hotel rooms, a redone hotel lobby and bar, and an indoor-outdoor entertainment venue in 2022.

A $100 million indoor water park to be built next to the former Showboat casino, which now operates as a nongambling hotel, plans a ground breaking for early 2022.

Atlantic City will host a three-day country music concert on the beach in August headlined by Luke Bryan and Morgan Wallen.

Construction is to begin in 2022 on a new ShopRite supermarket in Atlantic City, designed to end the city’s status as a “food desert” without a major supermarket. The project should open in 2023.

Stockton University hopes to complete a new student residence hall in the city in 2022.

Atlantic City will play a big role in the burgeoning offshore wind energy industry. Atlantic Cape Community College plans to open a wind energy workforce training center on its city campus in the fall, and wind developer Orsted hopes to start work in 2022 on a maintenance and operations center in Atlantic City to support its offshore wind projects in the area.

And a plan that has gotten little attention outside of Atlantic City but which will affect most visitors to the city is due to begin in 2022.

The city plans to reduce Atlantic Avenue, one of its two main north-south thoroughfares, from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction, in the name of pedestrian safety.

But many residents and businesses oppose the plan, predicting that traffic that is already difficult to navigate under current conditions will become even worse with only one lane in each direction.

(AP)

Monday, January 10, 2022

Casino News Media Blog: Hotel News Media is part of the Media Man Group

Hotel News Media is part of the Media Man Group

Casino News Media Blog: Newly Affirmed, Tribe Looks at Casino Plans With Fresh Eyes

Newly Affirmed, Tribe Looks at Casino Plans With Fresh Eyes

The new head of a Massachusetts tribe says he intends to take a cautious approach to gambling while turning attention to social challenges and other economic opportunities for tribal members.

As he begins his first full year in office, the new head of a Massachusetts tribe says he intends to take a cautious approach to gambling while turning attention to social challenges and other economic opportunities for its members.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Chairman Brian Weeden, who is 29 and is the youngest ever to old the post, said last month's decision by President Joe Biden's administration to affirm the tribe’s reservation and reverse a controversial Trump-era order gives the tribe legal footing to continue pursuing its long standing casino dreams.

But he said tribal leaders also want members to look at the idea with fresh eyes, given how much the landscape for gambling has changed.

Massachusetts currently has three major casinos — MGM Springfield, Encore Boston Harbor and the slot parlor Plainridge Park. The separate Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe has also broken ground on a more modest gambling hall on Martha’s Vineyard, though that’s been mired in legal uncertainty. And state lawmakers are weighing legislation to legalize sports betting in Massachusetts.

“We’re back to the drawing board, basically,” said Weeden, who took office in May, in a wide-ranging interview Thursday. “There’s still an appetite for gaming. It just needs to be a smart approach. It has to be different from the past. We need to learn from our mistakes and proceed with caution.”

Meanwhile, anti-casino residents in Taunton, the city where the Mashpee Wampanoag project is proposed, have asked a Boston federal judge to reopen their legal challenge.

They argue, as they have before, that the tribe wasn't eligible for a reservation because it wasn't an officially recognized tribe in 1934, the year the federal Indian Reorganization Act, which laid the foundation for modern federal Indian policy, became law.

The opponents have also argued the tribe's lands in Taunton shouldn't have been included in its reservation because they're some 50 miles from the tribe's home base on Cape Cod and weren't part of the tribe's historical domain. The tribe’s reservation encompasses about 170 acres in the town of Mashpee and another 150 acres acres in Taunton.

Weeden said the latest legal challenge won’t deter the tribe, which traces its ancestry to the Native Americans whom the Pilgrims encountered centuries ago but which was federally recognized only in 2007.

Just prior to last month’s decision, the tribe extended its deal with its Malaysian casino developer partners, Genting Berhad, for another year, according to Weeden.

But he said the tribe, which has roughly 3,000 members, is looking to reach new financial terms to rein in its debt to the gambling giant, which is about $600 million and growing, but which comes due only if a gambling hall actually opens. Company spokespersons didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

Weeden said tribal members should also consider whether to scale back their casino ambitions.

Before litigation and the Trump administration order derailed it, the tribe broke ground in 2016 on a $1 billion resort casino in a former industrial park. Dubbed First Light, the resort was to include a hotel and shopping, dining and entertainment options, including a water park.

Opting to build a more modest slot parlor or bingo hall, Weeden said, would exempt it from a 17% state tax on gaming revenues, even if it meant not being able to offer popular table games like blackjack and poker.

Weeden said the tribe also shouldn’t rule out abandoning the casino plan altogether and finding other ways to bring financial stability to the tribe. He’d like to see it look into opening tax-free smoke shops, tax-free gas stations, recreational marijuana shops, and other economic development initiatives on its lands.

“We need to exercise our sovereignty,” Weeden said. “Casinos are just low-hanging fruit.”

The new chair says he also intends to focus more on homelessness, substance use and other social ills facing the tribe.

Next month, tribal leaders hope to present to members a plan to spend down the tribe’s roughly $15 million allocation from Biden's coronavirus stimulus bill. Weeden says they will also pursue federal funds through the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Biden recently signed into law, which includes some $11 billion for tribes.

Among the projects being considered is the construction of tiny homes or cabins where homeless members can live temporarily, Weeden said. The tribe also hopes to bolster staffing and programming for substance use, mental health and other critical health services.

And with the national reckoning on racism reviving calls for reparations for Black slavery, Weeden said the tribe also intends to step up its own calls for restitution.

He says the state should return seized lands or provide financial compensation as the tribe’s current landholdings represent less than 1% of its ancestral territory.

“Everything going on in this country around social injustice and racial injustice, that’s all fine and good," Weeden said. "But the original inhabitants of this country are still fighting for what little land we have. Native Americans still don’t have their fair share.”

(A.P)

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Casino News Media website updated

November Best Month Ever for Nevada Sports Betting

November Best Month Ever for Nevada Sports Betting

November 2021 was the most lucrative month ever for the Silver State. An impressive milestone considering how long Nevada has offered the activity compared to other states, which only began offering sports gambling following a US Supreme Court decision in 2018.

Nevada sportsbooks won a net $71.9 million in November, shattering the previous record win for a month by more than $11 million (November 2020).

Underdogs covered the spread in 60.4% of November games, helping to contribute to the sportsbooks bottom line. The books finished up $53.1 million on football bets for both professional and collegiate during the month. Approximately $1.1 billion was bet during this time.

It is the second-straight month that the state has eclipsed $1 billion in wagers.

Unlike most US states, Nevada requires all mobile users to register in-person as opposed to remotely from their homes or businesses.

(Gambling911)