Caesars closing Atlantic City casino
By Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Caesars Entertainment Corp. said Friday it would close one of four casinos the Las Vegas-based company operates in Atlantic City, shutting down operations of the Showboat on Aug. 31.
The Showboat will be the second U.S. casino financially strapped Caesars has closed this year. Earlier this month, the company closed Harrah’s Tunica in northern Mississippi.
Caesars is the parent company of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Harveys at Stateline.
Caesars has a gaming industry-high $23 billion in long-term debt.
In a statement, Caesars Entertainment Chairman Gary Loveman said the Atlantic City market has lost $3 billion in revenue since 2006 because of competition from neighboring states.
Kind of makes you wonder what is going to happen with their properties here at Stateline and in Reno. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they shut their operations down here, or more likely sold them.
48 states now have some form of legalized gaming, not to mention internet gaming, so this shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
It would be great BittetClinger if they sold at least one of their 2 Tahoe Properties. They could use it to pay down their debt, and we could get more competition back here at the Lake. Their owning of both has caused both Harrah’s & Harveys business to steadily decline.
While Indian Gaming certainly has created a headwind if that’s their excuse for the business decline, I believe Lakeside is doing fine, and I know Montbleu is growing.
Plus someone believes inspite of Indian Gaming that Tahoe has growth potential. I hear Warner Gaming is going all in with a Hard Rock Hotel at the former Horizon! And it’s to be run by Harrah’s/ Harveys former GM, Don Marrandino. Whose, interestingly, last role for Caesars Corp., was until a year and a half ago, running their Atlantic City operations.
On a side note, I also hear they would like to close Harrah’s Reno. But they don’t want to take the pr hit of closing Bill Harrah’s original operation.
The resorts are totally missing the market. Las Vegas changed its focus and is doing extremely well again. As always, there’s the notion that people will just visit Tahoe no matter what. Wrong. This area needs a concerted marketing campaign to go after the Gen Xer’s & Millennials. Entertainment, recreation, dining, nightlife and affordability. There’s your play book.
From the Godfather…
Michael: Your casino loses money, maybe we can do better.
Moe Greene: You think I’m skimmin off the top, Mike?
Michael: You’re unlucky.
“This area needs a concerted marketing campaign to go after the Gen Xer’s & Millennials.”
Supposedly this is why Mont Bleu is successful, going after a younger clientele.
Retail traffic will not keep the doors open in the Stateline casinos. Caesars uses the Tahoe properties as a reward destination for big play at other properties. They have to bring in the “whales” to generate the cash flow necessary to maintain the daily overhead on a quarterly basis.
With gaming available almost at every doorstep, the feeder markets of the past will not provide enough revenue to keep the doors open. The residents of this area should be very thankful that management at the Tahoe properties owned by Caesars were able to keep these casinos going by employing tactics that have kept more people employed than standard business models would have.