NEWS Happy New Year for Las Vegas raises
hopes, doubts over revenue growth The big question: were record January figures a blip down to Asian spending?
The Chinese New Year helped the Nevada gaming industry top $1bn in revenue during January, the first time it’s reached that level for more than three years. Statewide casino revenue was up 18.4 per cent year-on-
year to $1.04bn, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, with Asian Baccarat players in Las Vegas believed to have provided a big boost. About $194m of casinos’ total revenue during the month came from Baccarat. But the critical figure in gauging Vegas’s health now will
be February’s: last year the Chinese celebrations fell in that month, so if they were the only factor generating the substantial year-on-year increase in January, the February numbers could be well down on 2011. By contrast, if there is
About a fifth of Nevada revenue came from players of Baccarat
also real organic revenue growth underlying the January leap, that could be expected to continue into February. “We need to look at
[the months] combined to adjust for the holiday shift. [But] that number is
still encouraging,” Harry Curtis, a gaming analyst with Nomura Securities, was quoted as saying. The Strip did especially well in January, with revenue
rising 29 per cent, compared with 14 per cent in downtown Las Vegas. South Lake Tahoe was up marginally, and Washoe County down nearly nine per cent. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, table game revenue just
rises and rises. Revenue from the recently legalisted table games in February was $56.6m, up nearly 30 per cent year-on-year. Table gaming also helped the state’s casinos to top total revenue of $3bn, including slots, for the first time in 2011. That figure was up about 22 per cent from 2010. “Since one of the intents of the Gaming Act was to
provide a significant source of new revenue, it is certainly gratifying to see this continued increase,” said Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Chairman William H. Ryan. However, while much attention has been paid to
Pennsylvania’s table games, slots do remain a much more important source of revenue for both casinos and the state treasury. Slots account for about 80 per cent of total revenue, and are taxed at 55 per cent, while the levy on table games is only 16 per cent.
Hey, low spender... Atlantic City casino slashes the cost of table play, goes big on penny slots
From beleaguered Atlantic City comes a marketing strategy familiar from many other sectors but almost diametrically opposed to the image cultivated by most casinos: pile ’em high (the chips, that is) and sell ’em cheap. The Atlantic Club, the latest rebranding of the New
Jersey gambling capital’s Golden Nugget, is driving down the price of play and even providing benefits at local retailers rather than aiming for high rollers. With the city’s casino sector rapidly losing ground to
competitors – Pennsylvania has just beaten it on monthly revenues – the Atlantic Club is offering penny stakes on 70 per cent of its 1500 slots, and accepting $1 bets on Roulette and Blackjack, as well as $3 on dice games. Chips recently approved by regulators can now be obtained in denominations as low as 25 and 50 cents. The promotion of table
“It looks like this place is going after the minnows”
6 APRIL 2012
games to low-spending customers is especially novel; received wisdom in the industry has it that they prefer to play slots. Certainly, casinos
serving a local customer base rather than tourists have often provided
modest incentives for lower-spending patrons, for example by subsidising their bus tickets. But it’s unusual for an entire operation including table games to be pivoted toward this market, and Atlantic Club management would appear to be hoping that what is almost certain to prove a deterrent to high rollers will pay off through greatly increased volume of low-stakes gambling. Free hotel rooms aren’t on the agenda for the Atlantic
Club’s new target market, but hours of play can be amassed to earn comps that can be spent at local businesses. One nearby grocer says it is already accepting about $700 worth of comp money from Atlantic Club customers every week. Richard McGowan, a Boston College academic who
specialises in gaming, told local media: “Most casinos would like to have whales. Whales are the ones making the thousand-dollar bets, and getting hotel rooms. It looks like this place is going after the minnows.” At the other end of the scale, meanwhile, the Hard Rock
Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas has introduced a new three- tier loyalty programme called Backstage Pass, capitalising on its entertainment credentials. Dollars spent anywhere in the facility can earn not only
hotel upgrades and dining discounts, but also early access to concert tickets and priority entry to events.
INBRIEF
WELL DONE Octavian de Argentina, part of the Novomatic Group, has earned ISO 9001:2008 certification for process quality.
MORE CONTENT OMI Gaming has added two new game titles to the Kazuri Casino Module platform, which serves online, kiosk and mobile channels. The new games are Tres Hombres and Benny the Panda.
EFFICIENCY DRIVE International Game Technology (IGT) won the Operational Excellence Award at the 2012 Manufacturing Leadership 100 Awards for its project to cut costs in engineering and manufacturing.
BACK TO BINGO Casino Arizona, operated by the Salt River Pima- Maricopa Indian Community, has started to build a Bingo hall after a period without the game.
SLEEPING BETTER The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City is spending $50m on redesigning its guest rooms.
NOT IN THE RED Net gaming revenue at online operator 32Red increased by 48 per cent during 2011 to £25m ($40m). Pre-tax profit doubled.
CHANGING HANDS Isle of Capri Casinos has agreed to sell the Isle Casino Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi to Landry’s subsidiary Golden Nugget Biloxi for $45m.
MANAGEMENT AID The new Coral Casino Bonaire in the Caribbean is to use Table Trac’s CasinoTrac suite of management tools, including slot accounting, patron management, and player tracking.
SOMETHING TO YELL ABOUTMore than 1000 units of Aristocrat Technologies’ penny video slot Tarzan Lord of the Jungle have now been installed in North America. Said Nick Khin, President of Aristocrat Americas: “One of the reasons players love the game is its high frequency of top jackpot payouts. To date, Tarzan Lord of the Jungle has paid out more than $3.1m in top jackpot awards, and the top jackpot has been hit ten times.”
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