Posted on 05/19/2012 8:34:57 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
Casinos are not like Starbucks stores: You really can’t have one on every corner.
That’s the word from David Cordish, whose company is opening a huge new casino next month in Maryland.
Yet Cordish warns that the expansion of casino gambling can’t go on unchecked forever. A big problem is the attitude of politicians nationwide who view casinos as free money.
“I don’t know how we can control the politicians; they certainly don’t understand the word ‘oversaturation,’” Cordish said Thursday. “They think you can have casinos like Starbucks.”
If that attitude continues, Cordish said, “it’s going to implode on them.”
That sentiment was voiced repeatedly at The East Coast Gaming Congress, a major annual casino industry conference, held this year in the newly opened Revel casino resort in Atlantic City.
The Cordish Co.’s Maryland Live!, opening on June 6, will have 4,750 slot machines and cost $500 million. He said the state will have four casinos with more slot machines “than anything in Las Vegas.”
Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem officials have always called Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey and the New York City area their chief market. Maryland, where the closest casino to Bethlehem is more than 120 miles away, has never been mentioned by Sands officials.
Sands Bethlehem President Robert DeSalvio declined to comment on the latest northeast casino expansion, calling it more of a mid-Atlantic than a Pennsylvania issue, spokeswoman Julia Corwin said.
State officials have been monitoring casino growth in both Maryland and fellow border state Ohio, said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
State Treasurer Rob McCord in September released a study that found casinos in nearby Maryland and Ohio locations will impact Pennsylvania’s slot performance but there are still viable markets for even more Pennsylvania casinos. Pennsylvania casino revenues will continue to grow, but not likely the double-digit year-over-year growth they’ve seen so far, McCord said at the time.
“We can expect future revenue growth that is more modest or that simply plateaus, but that is not a cue for casino operators to become complacent, as was the case in New Jersey,” he said.
Ohio opened its first-ever casino Monday in Cleveland, and officials plan to monitor its effect on western Pennsylvania casinos, McGarvey said. But though Cleveland is eastern Ohio, it is still more than 100 miles from the closest Pennsylvania casino, McGarvey said.
The new Resorts World Casino in Queens, New York City, has been doing incredible business, but Pennsylvania’s eastern casinos, including Sands, still have growing revenues, McGarvey said.
Sands also has amenities that a lot of the new casinos don’t yet, such as a large hotel, outlet mall, celebrity-owned restaurants and event center. DeSalvio last week said he expected Sands to be more competitive in the northeast market because of the casino’s new event center, which held its first concert Wednesday.
Several experts at the East Coast Gaming Congress said the solution to Atlantic City’s woes is the closure of one or more of its 12 casinos.
“Here in Atlantic City, we have assets for sale that literally nobody wants to buy,” said Gary Loveman, president of Caesars Entertainment, which counts four Atlantic City gambling halls among its 56 casinos. “There is simply too much supply in Atlantic City. The supply doesn’t go away. That’s a very bad thing. The problem here? Nobody ever closes.”
During a panel of Wall Street experts, Andrew Zarnett, managing director of Deutsche Bank Securities, said the new Revel casino might hurt, rather than help, Atlantic City’s overall casino market.
“Everybody’s a loser; when you add supply to a market that’s not growing very much, everybody gets cannibalized,” he said. “We need some of this capacity to close and go away. I would have thought that would have happened two years ago, but the properties are still here.”
Zarnett said he doubts any Atlantic City casino will close until they see whether New Jersey will approve Internet gambling and throw the struggling properties a lifeline. He also predicted that New York will approve a casino in Manhattan within five years.
Same thing is going on here in the west. Indian casinos are popping up all over the place. Overkill.
Casino gambling was legalized in Pennsylvania in 2005.
In the past seven years there has been an epidemic of PTA treasurers, little league treasurs, fire company treasurers, etc. absconding with tens of thousands of dollars.
Most say they have a gambling addiction.
Some “free money”. /sarc
Maryland ping!
O Malley was against casinos when his competitor was governor,
Las Vegas is an adult Disneyland. Lots to do besides gamble and when you go out there, you allot money for gambling as an entertainment expense, so you don't feel bad if you lose.
I wonder if it’s killing horse racing too? Horses are expensive to maintain compared to slot machines. Supposedly Pimlico and Belmont Park are losing money.
Casinos are the new drug.
When you feel like a winner, you go to Vegas
When you go to Vegas, you lose everything
When you lose everything, you sell your hair to a wig shop
Don’t sell your hair to a wig shop
I was at the Bethlehem casino in August and we won both nights $300 plus. I was at the OC MD casino in October and we lost $300 in 2 hours, didn’t win at all. Will never go back to the MD casino no wonder it was empty.
I used to live in Prince George’s County. Jack Johnson ws the former PG sheriff and then the county executive. He and his wife got busted for big-time corruption. I can’t wait to see what comes from the casino at National Harbor. Old Jack will look like a saint by comparison, I’ll bet. It will be fun to see how those rich government-types and lobbyists from DC and the locals from Anacostia and PG interact as well.
Clearly, it had a bad impact in Jersey when AC first got into the act. Horse racing was the only legal form of gambling before casinos. Those tracks which have managed to get casino licenses (like Delaware Park) see higher purses, but few bettors trackside. One of my beefs with Christie of N.J. is that he favors the AC casinos and won’t let the Meadowlands get slots. People who gamble on horses also choose OTB parlors and that drives down attendance at the tracks. I find it really sad to go to a track and see so few people.
P.S., horse racing offers far better returns than casino gambling. Too many people are content to stupidly pull a lever than learn how to bet on horses.
Playing the ponies is a game of skill. Playing the slots is a game of chance.
You can be a consistent winner in the one. You'll eventually lose in the other.
“When did they get rid of the coin slot machines? I miss the sound of the old coin slot machines.”
Go downtown, you’ll find some there.
</sarcasm>
Gambling is the next bubble and gambling is a boom and bust business.
Never place a wager if it doesn’t figure for positive expectations.
overkill is great....I want overkill of casinos....if they approved the dang things for every indian group and allowed them to build on non rez land, than I say let every group or state open up many casinos.....good for the goose, good for the gander...
Bingo! That’s how I read this statement as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.