Lots of action, again, this week at ECG. Plenty of which came from the east coast, which isn’t always the case. Hopefully Trump and Caesars get their air conditioning fixed in time for my next trip down south.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Las Vegas earns more than Atlantic City on things other than gambling. However, it’s a little shocking – not surprising – to see how much Las Vegas’ percentage of revenue comes from sources outside of gambling versus Atlantic City.
…But Atlantic City still has a long way to go before it can reach Las Vegas’ level, where about 60 percent of revenue comes from nongaming ventures, said Cory Morowitz, of Morowitz Gaming Advisors LLC, in Galloway Township.
Last year, nongaming revenue in Atlantic City was probably less than 10 percent after discounting comped goods, Morowitz said.
“I don’t think we can get to 60 percent,” he added. “We just don’t have the room size that Las Vegas has. Rooms are the biggest driver.”
As I mentioned there’s no surprise that the nongaming revenues are greater in Las Vegas than Atlantic City. Las Vegas has put a lot of effort into creating those revenue streams for better or worse.
Borgata was the first casino to really put effort into creating nongaming revenues and Harrah’s Resort and Tropicana have followed suit by enhancing their club experiences. Bally’s is starting down that road by renovating their properties (Claridge and Wild Wild West) and Harrah’s is considering rebranding Showboat.
These are all good steps to separating Atlantic City from the rest of the East Coast casinos that have been popping up over the past few years.
In addition to expanding their club scene I think (actually, I know) that better restaurants and more shows need to follow to grow this revenue stream and separate Atlantic City from the rest of the casinos.
Lots of good stuff this week on ECG. I’m going to slowly start ECG 4.0 in the next few weeks. I’m going to try to do this behind the scenes, but my lack of programming skills may not allow that. So if the site looks as if it’s under construction then it probably is. This won’t effect the blog updates, but some features may go away.
Feel free to email me if there’s something you’d like to see on the next version of ECG or if you have an idea for a logo. You can reach me than [eastcoastgambler] at [gmail] dot [com].
Harrah’s recently sent out a survey to guests at Showboat in Atlantic City. The survey leads me to believe that they’re considering rebranding Showboat to something more hip – say Planet Hollywood.
I just received a survey via e-mail from Harrah’s on what I think about them remodeling the Showboat into a Planet Hollywood Casino. They asked about what room rates I would pay, what I normally do in Atlantic City, what I normally spend and a few questions about Vegas. It also asked me if I recognized a few different Virgin (as in Sir. Richard) brands.
The Mardi Gras theme of Showboat is a little dated so rebranding could make sense. Harrah’s needs to keep focus on the rebranding if they want it to succeed. They tried to brand the boardwalk side of the casino to be more “hip” when they added the House of Blues a few years ago. Since then they’ve updated parts of the casino with no real concept.
I followed up with the original poster on TA and was told that the survey also inquired about Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin properties. I’m curious to see if & how that could be incorporated into a new casino.
It’s nice to see Harrah’s doing small things to improve their east coast properties on the surface. I recommend they bring in a customer service consultant to bring that up to snuff. Outside of hosts, nobody tells the same story when asked a question about the properties. The staffs don’t come across as sincere or nice.
These east coast improvements (here and here too) are all low cost moves to improve the casinos for short and long term. These moves will make the properties easier to sell when the economy turns around if Harrah’s decides to go that route.
Registration isn’t over for all events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) yet, but the total number of entries is already 20% more than last year.
Official statistics from the 41st World Series of Poker currently running at the Rio in Las Vegas indicate that through the first 56 events, there have been 65,647 entries, surpassing last year’s total entries including the main event of 60,875. And this year’s main event registration numbers have yet to be recorded!
I thought interest in casino poker might be slowing last year with the 8% drop in TV ratings. Maybe, I was wrong. It can happen. Maybe people still have dreams of a dollar and a chip.
The time has come for advertisers to find another way into your head. It was only a matter of time before idle slot and video poker machines at your favorite casino had ads running.
Enter Reel-TV, a Henderson company that has patented technology enabling television ads and other marketing messages to appear on slot machine video screens while not in use. Last month, frosty bottles of Bud Light began materializing on video poker screens inside the main entrance of the Palms, like hallucinations induced by the desert heat.
Over the past few years advertisements have popped up in almost every free space marketers can find. No area is sacred anymore. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Like TV’s in supermarket lines, I expect to see this spread rapidly, so get ready for ads and casino promos everywhere you look in a casino.
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