In case you missed it, I’ve recently posted two Atlantic City-related pieces on Two Way Hard Three. The first is the complete text of my answers to questions Wayne Parry asked me about Atlantic City:
The AP’s Wayne Parry wrote an excellent article about Atlantic City’s rise and fall. He reached out to me for my thoughts, and I answered several of his questions. Obviously, with space constraints being what they are I figured most of what I said wouldn’t make it into the story, so I planned to post it here so I could share my thoughts with a broader audience. You can see many of the numbers I reference in my Atlantic City Gaming Revenue (pdf) report.
Here are his questions and my responses:
Last week, I decided to gloat a little and revisit a past prediction I made about mini-casinos and Trump Marina:
Landry’s Inc. a Houston-based company that owns a full spread of restaurant chains and Downtown Las Vegas and Laughlin’s Golden Nuggets, has officially taken ownership of the now-former Trump Marina and will be putting about $100 million into renovating it. Meanwhile, a vaunted plan to allow “mini-casinos” has resulted in exactly zero construction to date. That’s exactly what anyone would have predicted when the mini-casino concept was first mooted, and it’s a good sign that some operators, at least, see some upside in the market.
I mixed together some history and numbers stuff, which seems to be the way most of my work is going these days. Fun stuff. I still don’t see how the mini-casinos make sense if they cost more than full-sized casinos and have less revenue potential.
Finally, I had some fun this weekend and tried to answer the question Where should the Vegas Internet Mafia have its picnic?
I know I’m no Misnomer when it comes to the comedic stuff, but I figured it was worth a shot.
I promise that, later this week, I’ll be delivering something that is a) mostly serious (and harmless) and Vegas-related. It’s already in the works, but I want to take some time with it.