Sands Bethlehem — sans hotel — set for May opening

Las Vegas Sands will open its first property on the East Coast — the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in eastern Pennsylvania — on May 22.

Located on the former site of the historic Bethlehem Steel plant approximately 60 minutes from Philadelphia, the $743 million property will debut with 3,000 slot machines, a 24-hour cafe, an Irish pub and a variety of restaurants. 

“The positive impact of the Sands Bethlehem is already being felt across the region as we continue to hire the more than 1,000 employees we need to operate the property,” Sands Bethlehem President Robert DeSalvio said in a statement. 

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is allowing the Sands to delay completion of the hotel portion of the project and portions of its retail and multi-purpose facility offerings. The board granted the petition on the condition that Sands management meet with the board’s Financial Suitability Task Force on a monthly basis. When the Task Force decides that Sands is in a position to complete the project it will inform the board and a hearing will be scheduled for further discussion.

At full build-out Sands Bethlehem will contain an additional 2,000 slot machines, 200,000 square feet of shopping space and nearly 50,000 square feet of space for meetings, conventions and special events.

The master plan also calls for a 300-room hotel.

A.C. Trop dealers vote to strike as talks continue

Dealers at the Tropicana in Atlantic City have voted to authorize a strike but did not set a strike date and were continuing to report to work with the hope of reaching a new contract with the financially troubled casino.

More than 800 dealers, who became members of the United Auto Workers/Atlantic City Dealers in August 2007, are seeking their first-ever contract.

The dealers have filed unfair labor practice charges against the casino’s management, with their main grievance being a proposal to pass along higher health-care costs and reduce benefits. Those increases were scheduled to go into effect March 15.    

Throughout the negotiations the ownership of the Tropicana has been in limbo. A March deadline for the property to be sold by a state-appointed conservator came and went as few potential buyers have emerged and several past deadlines have already been pushed back.

The strike authorization is the second against the Trop this year. Slot technicians, also a part of the UAW, held a similar vote in February.

VLTs in Atlanta clear first hurdle with council OK

By a 10-0 vote, the Atlanta City Council has given the green light to placing video lottery terminals in a proposed downtown casino project. The plan next needs the approval of the Georgia Lottery Board.

As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, developer Dan O’Leary has proposed a $450 million project called Underground. The complex includes upscale restaurants and retailers, a new 29-story hotel and 5,000 video lottery terminals.

O’Leary and partner John Aderhold estimate the casino would generate gross receipts of  $600 million a year, half of which would go to the lottery.

O’Leary has reportedly issued a letter of intent with Dover Downs of Delaware to operate the gaming portion of the development.

Georgia state law prohibits Las Vegas-style casinos but the lottery’s charter does not prohibit VLTs.

Fontainebleau downgraded on risk of default

Two separate financial advisory services have a similarly bleak outlook for the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, warning that because of sagging economic conditions and lagging condo sales the $2.9 billion Strip resort might have trouble making interest payments and could default on its debt obligations.

According to an advisory from Standard & Poor’s, proceeds from condo sales aren’t needed to complete the 3,185-room resort, which is scheduled to open north of the Riviera on Las Vegas Boulevard in October, but are necessary to reduce debt after opening.

Developers are reportedly hoping to sell as many as 1,000 rooms as condo units.

Without condo sales, S&P says Fontainebleau will have an interest burden of about $200 million on debts of $2.9 billion, leaving expected earnings to fall short of interest payments, which could trigger a default. As a result, S&P lowered its corporate credit rating on Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings to “CCC” from “B-”, cut the rating on the resort’s $1.85 billion in senior secured notes to “CCC” from “B” and lowered its rating on $675 million of second mortgage notes to “CC” from “CCC”.

Moody’s Investor Service downgraded its Fontainebleau rating from “Caa1” to “Caa3” with a “negative” outlook. Moody’s last rated Fontainebleau’s paper in November, when it downgraded it to “Caa1”. Second mortgage notes were downgraded from “Ca” to “Caa3”.

“Visitation to Las Vegas and gaming demand in general continues to drop and is not likely to rebound to any significant degree in 2010,” Moody’s said in its advisory. “As a result of these adverse market conditions, peak construction debt will be materially higher than originally projected and earnings are likely to be substantially below initial expectations. Thus, the company’s ability to meet its debt service burden once the project opens is in jeopardy.”

Fontainebleau, a collaboration between former Mandalay Resort Group executives and Turnberry Associates, received $4 billion in financing in 2007 before credit markets shut down.

LVCVA puts breaks on planned expansion of convention center

Facing its first drop in visitation in 26 years, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has recommended suspending an $890 million expansion and renovation of the city’s convention center.

The master plan to renovate the Las Vegas Convention Center includes an updating of infrastructure, utilities and aesthetics, an additional meeting room concourse to the South Halls, construction of a new lobby and concourse and a new transportation center in front of the building.

The authority said projects already under construction will be completed and it will re-evaluate the full program in the second quarter of 2010 to determine a possible new time line.

In December, the number of conventions in Las Vegas decreased almost 17 percent, from 1,285 to 1,071, while the number of people attending the conventions fell 4.7 percent. Overall in 2008 the number of visitors to Las Vegas declined 4.4 percent to 37.4 million, compared to 39.2 million in 2007, according to the LVCVA.

Isle is pulling out of Bahamas as focus shifts to U.S.

The Isle of Capri’s casino in the Bahamas will be closing its doors at the end of this month. Isle of Capri has been operating on Grand Bahama since December 2003 and employs 234 people.

In an interview with The Nassau Guardian, Isle’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications Jill Haynes said the move was the result of a decision the company made as part of its “strategic corporate plan”.

“The global economy had something to do with [the move]. But again, it’s part of our corporate strategy to focus on our domestic operations which is what we will be doing for the foreseeable future,” she said.

That plan also includes shutting down operations in the United Kingdom and focusing on the 18 casinos and 8,000 employees the St. Louis-based operator has in the United States.

According to the Guardian report, the company said it would help the government look for another operator to take its place and run the casino, which is located inside the Our Lucaya hotel.

Don’t touch that iPhone — at least not in Nevada

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has issued a memorandum informing the state’s casinos of an application for the Apple iPhone that facilitates card counting in blackjack, an activity that is illegal in Nevada if it’s done using a device.  

The document, posted on the board’s Web site and addressed to “All Non-Restricted Licensees And Interested Parties,” says the California Bureau of Gambling Control received information from a Northern California tribal casino of the card-counting program, which can be utilized on the iPhone or the Apple iPod portable music player.

According to the Gaming Control Board, the program, which can be downloaded from the iTunes Web site, calculates the so-called “true count” and does it significantly more accurately. The program offers uses a choice of four card-counting strategies. For each strategy the user presses the button that contains the face cards as they are drawn from the deck. Depending on the strategy and on the value of the cards the button will either add or subtract one or two from the running count.

The program can utilize the card-counting methods known as Hi-Low, Hi-Op I, Hi-Op II and Omega II. 

It can also be used in “Stealth Mode,” enabling the player to shut off the screen, so as long as the user knows where the keys are located the program can be run effortlessly without detection.

The Gaming Control Board warning concludes with a reminder that use of this type of program or possession of a device with this type of program on it (“with the intent to use it”) is a violation of state law. 

Greektown fights back with a new hotel and new management

With new management team in place, Greektown Casino Hotel in Detroit has opened a new 30-story, 400-room hotel tower.

“This project not only adds a significant boost to the Detroit economy through the addition of some 300 new jobs, it has also supported the local construction industry as well as local artists and designers, said Randall A. Fine, managing director of The Fine Point Group. “The new hotel tower is all about positive growth, for Greektown and for Detroit,”

Fine, recently appointed CEO of Greektown, heads a new management team charged with guiding the property through Chapter 11 reorganization.

Greektown recently announced the appointment of two new members to its Management Board following final approvals by authorities of the property’s tribal partners. The three members of the board are Darwin Joe McCoy, the elected chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the majority owners of Greektown; Louis Glazier, an accountant, attorney and principal of Franklin Advisors LLC of Farmington Hills, Mich.; and Jacob Miklojcik, a casino gaming industry analyst based in Lansing, Mich.

The company said it expects to exit Chapter 11 later this year.

Lenders get OK to pursue foreclosure against A.C. casino

New Jersey gaming regulators have voted unanimously to allow Column Financial to begin foreclosure proceedings against Resorts Atlantic City after it defaulted on its $360 million mortgage.

However, the CEO of the town’s oldest casino is on record saying he will try to maintain control of the casino and has no plans to seek Chapter 11 protection.  

“We intend to negotiate an agreement with our lenders that’s good for the lenders and the owners,” Nicholas L. Ribis, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Resorts, told The Press of Atlantic City.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission gave Column Financial approval to initiate foreclosure proceedings but also ruled that the lender and its loan agents can’t take over the property and the casino’s cash flow until it decides whether they need to obtain a state gaming license. In the interim, the casino remains under the control of Resorts, which is owned by an affiliate of Colony Capital, based in Los Angeles.

Resorts posted gross gaming revenues of $233.2 million in 2008, down 16.3 percent from the previous year and the second-lowest total among Atlantic City’s 11 casinos.

In the 31-year history of legalized gambling in Atlantic City there has never been a foreclosure on a casino.

IN OTHER NEWS …

—Moscow-based Storm International has opened US$20 million Hollywood Entertainment in Monterrey, the company’s first gambling venture in Mexico. The 3,000-square-meter movie-themed venue features 350 electronic bingo machines, a steakhouse and sports bar and employs 400.

—A proposed constitutional amendment to allow electronic and video gaming machines at horse tracks in Nebraska failed to receive enough votes to advance the initiative to the full Legislature.

—Global Cash Access posted revenue of $671.6 million, a 12.3 percent increase, for the year ended December 31. Operating income rose by 0.5 percent to $78.6 million and EBITDA increased from $89.8 to $94.7 million for the Las Vegas-based cash access provider.

—Prairie Meadows’ board of directors has approved plans for a new $20 million, 200-room hotel at the racetrack and casino in Altoona, Iowa.

—Don Baugh has been appointed chief executive officer of Gaming Support USA, the U.S. arm of Netherlands-based Gaming Support.

—WPT Enterprises and Fox Sports Network extended their television broadcast licensing agreement and will create 26 one-hour episodes from the World Poker Tour Season VIII.

—Lakes Entertainment reported fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $5.5 million, a 67 percent increase over prior-year period revenues of $3.3 million. For the financial year ended December 28, 2008, the Minnesota-based casino management company posted revenues of $24.3 million, up 263 percent from prior-year revenues of $6.7 million.

–Sona Mobile has launched a new mobile wagering application, mWager, with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, extending the functionality of current online wagering by giving customers the ability to wager on thoroughbred racing through mobile phones and PDAs.

—PokerTek’s PokerPro version 2.1 software has been approved by Gaming Laboratories International, a hurdle the company says clears the way to for it to offer new game features, rewards and statistics.

—Electronic bingo equipment developer GameTech International of Reno, Nev., has named Ted Huff as director of operations.

—The Florida Lottery’s newest $20 scratch-off game, Billion Dollar Blockbuster, is offering $1 billion in prizes, including 10 instant-win top prizes of $10 million, 120 prizes of $1 million, the highest cash payouts of any game in the Lottery’s 21-year history.

—Table Trac has signed a five-year agreement to provide its game-tracking systems with player and promotional features in Alabama.

—The Snoqualmie Casino in Washington selected Eatec Solutions and InfoGenesis POS, an inventory and point-of-sale solutions from Ohio-based software firm Agilysys.

—Techlink International Entertainment, a responsible gaming solutions provider based in Nova Scotia, became the newest  member of the Gaming Standards Association.