MOUNT AIRY CASINO
GT: I think what’s happening over here on the east
coast is convenience gaming. There will be seven casinos on the eastern side of Pennsylvania with a full complement of games (slots and tables); one of our major markets years ago when I was in Atlantic City was Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and that market is gone for them now. The New Jersey, Northern Jersey, and New York market is now going to be divided up between Atlantic City, us, and Bethlehem Sands, so it’s going to be very competitive. If you live in central Jersey you can get to around
21 casinos quite comfortably with Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York… A little over ten years ago, your only choice was Atlantic City.
CI: The deal where Pinnacle bought the Sands
then reportedly ran into difficulty and have left basically a vacant lot where the Sands used to be… Things like that don’t look good on the Boardwalk, do they?
GT: I was in the middle of that transaction, and I
was President of the Sands when Pinnacle bought the property. They couldn’t get it up and running and so they abandoned the project. Around 2,000 jobs went with that; but when they bought the property, they were going to build a really fabulous resort, a $1- $2billion project. They just couldn’t get the finance together.
CI: So would you say, with all that competition,
AC’s days as a gaming centre are numbered without drastic action?
GT: Well, it depends on how they re-invent the model. You still have a group of casinos down there which I still think is a good draw. When you have 10 or 12 casinos together, it gives players a lot of choice. It does seem to me though that the typical slot player, and the typical table game player, doesn’t want to drive that far. So unless they can really re-invent the resort, so it becomes such a magnet, such a destination, I really don’t see them gathering any of that business back.
CI: That might be a sign of things to come for
the area…
GT: Its [Atlantic City’s] market has shrunk to such a
degree that the product that’s down there is not strong enough to be a true gaming destination, similar to Las Vegas. They’re either going to have to take one step or the other. Either become a locals convenience casino market, or they’re going to have to really invest in infrastructure and in the properties and become a true destination, but in today’s economy that would be very difficult to do.
CI: Do you think the golf course is going to be a
big advantage for you over the competition?
GT: I think the resort itself is a big advantage. The fact that we have 1500 acres, and we’re going to continue to develop it with retail and more, and our world-class spa… our rooms are beautiful, they’re four-star rooms, and the view when you look out onto the mountains… Add the golf onto that, and you have something quite spectacular.
36 MAY 2010
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