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CEO: Cutting Giveaways Pays25 April 2002ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey – As reported by the Press of Atlantic City: "Encouraged by his own company's discipline and first-quarter results, Paul Rubeli on Wednesday tried to further whip his Atlantic City casino competitors into reducing cash giveaways to gamblers. "`Most operators, and not surprisingly the most profitable operators, continue to reduce their total coin giveaways,' the Aztar Corp. chairman and CEO said on a conference call with gaming analysts. "`Unfortunately, a few operators continue with high levels of giveaways, especially direct-mail coin giveaways, which we hope will eventually come down as pressure mounts on them to improve their profitability,' Rubeli said. "…The citywide average was 11.9 percent, and Aztar's Tropicana was the lowest at 7.8 percent. "…Rubeli announced that Tropicana would reduce its benchmark cash incentive for bus customers this summer to $10, down $2 from a year earlier. "…Rubeli has long harped on casinos' cash giveaways in Atlantic City, saying they've become `entitlement programs' that hurt profits and bring no extra business. "He credited Tropicana's reduced giveaway costs for helping the casino report first-quarter cash flow of $28.3 million, up 21 percent, on net revenue of $110.3 million, up 4 percent compared to the year-earlier period…" |