CasinoCityTimes.com

Home
Gaming Strategy
Featured Stories
News
Newsletter
Legal News Financial News Casino Opening and Remodeling News Gaming Industry Executives Author Home Author Archives Author Books Search Articles Subscribe
author's picture
 

Ask the Slot Expert: Too much consolidation in Las Vegas casinos?

20 July 2022

Many years ago I tried to put together some ideas for a novel about Las Vegas in the future. Starting with Las Vegas around 2000, I tried to imagine what a perfect city might be like. My future Las Vegas was going to have a world class public transportation system. A light rail system runs from the airport to all along the strip, either above ground or below.

My system addresses the limitations of the current monorail system. First, too few stops. My system stops in front of every hotel on the strip. If the current monorail stops at the hotel you want to visit, great. If it only stops near your hotel, you can have a long walk to get to where you want to go.

Even if the monorail stops at your destination, you can still have a long way to walk. That's the second problem -- inconvenient station locations. There's no way to Disney-fi the hotels so the stations are an integral part of the hotel, so my system does the next best thing and drops you off in the middle of the street. Now hotels on both sides of the strip are equally well served. Casinos today have people movers to take you from the sidewalk to the casinos. They just have to make them a little bit longer.

I also envisioned a change in ownership of some hotels with one company owning all of the hotels with a similar theme. The Europa group would own the Venetian, Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Monte Carlo (this was a while ago), Paris, and Excalibur -- all the European-themed hotels. Maybe thrown in Luxor, too. It's not European, but it is modeled on a foreign location.

I figured that this ownership structure was unlikely. I thought there was no way regulators would allow one company to control so many properties so close together on the strip. When MGM bought Mirage Resorts in 2000, the combined company controlled only five-and-a-half hotels on the strip: Mirage; Treasure Island; Bellagio; MGM Grand; New York, New York; and half of Monte Carlo. Only one competitor was removed from the market and there was still another major operator, Mandalay Resort Group (Circus Circus Enterprises).

But then regulators approved the sale of Mandalay Resort Group to MGM Mirage. That purchase put an additional four-and-a-half strip casinos under one umbrella, adding Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and the other half of Monte Carlo.

Maybe the regulators aren't that worried with consolidation in the industry after all.

Especially in the locals market.

Two companies control a sizable number of locals casinos. Prior to the pandemic, Boyd owned California, Fremont, Main Street Station, Alliante, Cannery, Eastside Cannery, Gold Coast, Jokers Wild, Orleans, Sam's Town, and Suncoast. Station Casinos owned Boulder Station, Green Valley Ranch, Palace Station, Red Rock Casino, Santa Fe Station, Sunset Station, Texas Station, Fiesta Henderson, Fiesta Rancho, and Palms (and some other small casinos).

Stations didn't reopen Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, Fiesta Henderson, and Palms after the lockdown. It eventually sold Palms. A few days ago Stations announced that not only is it never going to reopen the remaining three casinos, it's going to raze them and sell the land.

I went to Fiesta Henderson once. It was over 20 years ago and it was called The Reserve then. I remember sitting in the snack bar and having a snack and flipping through the manual of the Volvo I had rented. I was thinking about buying a new car at the time and I wanted to see what this model had to offer. I never got a Volvo, but I did get a nice Oxford shirt with the Reserve logo.

Fiesta Henderson's sister property is about 20 miles northwest in a corridor called -- well, at least I call -- the Rancho Strip. Three casinos are in five miles of each other on Rancho Drive -- Santa Fe, Texas Station and Fiesta. Station bought Santa Fe in 2000 and Fiesta in 2001.

I'm surprised that the regulators would allow one company to control all of the casinos in a cluster of casinos with no other competition nearby. That's particularly bad for advantage players in the area. If they get hassled by one of the casinos, they're out of luck at all of them and there's nowhere else for them to go in the area.

Maybe these casinos wouldn't have survived as independent entities and the regulators traded competition for jobs. Moreover, no one could have foreseen what would happen two decades later. The bottom line today is that there is still no competition on that strip and fewer jobs. And soon, no Rancho strip. Maybe there would still be two or three casinos in the area if they were owned by separate companies.

Tell me what you think. Is there too little competition on the strip? In the Las Vegas locals market? In your own market?


Click here for the latest Covid data.

John Robison

John Robison is an expert on slot machines and how to play them. John is a slot and video poker columnist and has written for many of gaming’s leading publications. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology.

You may hear John give his slot and video poker tips live on The Good Times Show, hosted by Rudi Schiffer and Mike Schiffer, which is broadcast from Memphis on KXIQ 1180AM Friday afternoon from from 2PM to 5PM Central Time. John is on the show from 4:30 to 5. You can listen to archives of the show on the web anytime.

Books by John Robison:

The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots
John Robison
John Robison is an expert on slot machines and how to play them. John is a slot and video poker columnist and has written for many of gaming’s leading publications. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology.

You may hear John give his slot and video poker tips live on The Good Times Show, hosted by Rudi Schiffer and Mike Schiffer, which is broadcast from Memphis on KXIQ 1180AM Friday afternoon from from 2PM to 5PM Central Time. John is on the show from 4:30 to 5. You can listen to archives of the show on the web anytime.

Books by John Robison:

The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots