Mississippi Gambling

Sunday, November 11, 2007

By WILLIAM H. SOKOLIC
Courier-Post Staff

Atlantic CITY

The gambling casino industry took another hit in October, with gross slipping 7.5 percentage compared to the same calendar month a twelvemonth ago, thanks to competition from neighbour states and, to a degree, the partial smoke ban.

Slot gross drop 12.6 percent, according to figs released Tuesday by the Casino Control Commission.

"The indexes are worse in October than in September," said Antony Rodio, president of the Hilton and Resorts.

The year-to-year declines should go on until adjacent spring, he said, when a new alkali line is established in relation to gambling casinos in Keystone State and New York. But it could be a piece before figs attain 2006 levels.

Already, slot gross is below October 2004 levels, Rodio said.

The recently opened Saddle Horse Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos -- the first stand-alone slot parlour not associated with a racecourse -- have had some impact, siphoning off clients from the New House Of York area, said Michael Osanloo, senior frailty president of selling for Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s four Atlantic Ocean City properties.

Table game gross rose 7.3 percentage in October, in portion because the gambling casinos in Keystone State and New House Of York don't offer traditional tabular array games.

"We did well with tabular array game business. That volition be a tendency for the foreseeable future. With slots in Eastern Keystone State and New York, tabular array games have got to be the manner to struggle back," Osanloo said.

For the first 10 calendar months of the year, gambling casinos won $4.2 billion, down 5 percentage from the same time period last year. If the monthly diminutions transport through for November and December, the yearly diminution will be worse than analysts predicted at the beginning of the year.

As it is, 2007 will tag the first twelvemonth in the history of gambling casino gambling in Atlantic Ocean City in which year-over-year gross decreased.

Win -- or gambling casino gross -- is the nett amount of money won by casinos. It is not profit.

Every gambling casino saw a diminution in slot gross in October, with five gambling hallways down dual digits, led by the still-beleaguered Tropicana, which was off more than than 20 percent. Resorts turned in the best public presentation in the city, percentagewise, almost breaking even.

Table game gross for the calendar month was much more than than uneven, with Borgata and Harrah's up more than 42 percentage and Showboat up 37.5 percent. Meanwhile, the Trump Taj Mahal and Hilton slipped by dual figures. In overall gross figures, Tropicana and Hilton led the losers, slipping 15 percent.

Year-to-date, lone two gambling casinos are on the positive side of the slot ledger: Caesars and Harrah's, both places with agreeableness additions. Caesars owes its success to pick traffic visiting the Pier Shops at Caesars and a new theater.

"That's paying off for us," Osanloo said.

Tropicana have turned in the worst comparing twelvemonth in slots and overall, with the lone dual figure decline.

"The truth is it will acquire worse before it acquires better," Osanloo said.

The reply lies to a big extent in rooms. Rodio credits Resorts' consequences in slots to the improver of 63 more than suite in 2007. When three new hotel towers unfastened adjacent year, it should give a much needful jar to the industry, he said.

Between 2010 and 2012, three new megaresorts will open, which do it more than ambitious for aged places to compete, Rodio said.

Each gambling casino hotel will confront pressure level to add hotel suite and spread out nongaming opportunities.

Both Resorts and Hilton have got more than than adequate land to make so, he said.

"It's a struggle. But I still have got supreme assurance in the marketplace long term," Rodio said.

Casinos also necessitate to capitalise on the tabular array game experience.

"We necessitate to force that hard," Osanloo said.

Range William H. Sokolic at (609) 823-9159 or

.

Saturday, November 03,
2007By veto F. ROLEY

The Mississippi River Press

PASCAGOULA -- Attorneys for the Seashore Businesses for Fair
Play filed a ailment with the Mississippi River Secretary of
State's business office Thursday alleging that the
Jackson-Choctaw Partnership have violated state laws by not
registering with the state.

Friday, Secretary of State Eric William Clark forwarded the
complaint to Lawyer General Jim Hood.

"It is asserted that the grouping have purchased
billboards, telecasting ads and direct mailings in
favor of the ballot measure," reads the missive from
Clark to Hood. "If this information turns out to be
accurate, the outgoes would obviously transcend the
threshold bounds of $200, requiring the grouping to register a
Statement of Organization no future than 10 years after its
first part or outgo in extra of $200."

Clark's missive travels on to state that "if the
allegations ... turn out to be correct, the Jackson-Choctaw
Partnership would be a political commission and subject to
the Mississippi River Political Campaign Finance Disclosure law. Because of
this, I would bespeak that your staff immediately
investigate this substance and help us in ensuring that this
entity complies with all demands of the law."

Secretary of State spokesman Kel Ian Smith said late Friday that
the Secretary of State's business office have not received any
documentation from the Jackson-Choctaw Partnership.

He said the office's criterion process is to send
complaints to the lawyer general's business business office for
investigation.

As for whether the Mississippi River River Set of Choctaws, which is an
independent state as a recognized folk by the federal
government, have to register with the Secretary of State's
office or the Glenda Jackson County Circuit Clerk, Ian Smith said,
"That is for the lawyer full general to decide."

Stacey Powell, interpreter for the Jackson-Choctaw
Partnership, said the tribe, which is located near
Philadelphia, Miss., have been active in Mississippi politics
for 45 years.

"We have got got never had a ailment against us and never
have we filed," she said. "This is a last minute
attempt by Stan Flint to mistake the election."

Powell said the Jackson-Choctaw Partnership would publish a
statement about the ailment once it have clip to examine
the specifics.

Attorney Dan M. McDaniel said Seashore Businesses for Carnival Play
has known the Jackson-Choctaw Partnership have not filed with
the Secretary of State's business office for some time.

"There is no clip scheme involved," McDaniel
said Friday. "We did a batch of legal research into the
issue and wanted to do certain we had the facts
correct."

One of the issues involved is whether the Choctaws have got to
file with the state.

"They may not have got to stay with state law,"
McDaniel said. "They don't have got to stay by most
state laws."

However, McDaniel said the Choctaw's partnership with
Mississippi citizens and concerns in the Jackson-Choctaw
Partnership could take their sovereignty from the
question.

"This corroborates once again our worst fearfulnesses about an
untaxed, unregulated gambling casino being forced on Jackson
County," Flint wrote in a news release. "The
people of Glenda Jackson County have got a right to cognize who is
spending a million dollars to jostle this unwanted tribal
casino down our throat. The folk have ignored the state laws
that necessitate full populace revelation even though they are
clearly required to file."

The Mississippi River Set of Choctaws desire to construct a $375
million gambling casino on land it have in the county. The 100 acres
is located north of the Sunplex Industrial Park and the
Ocean Springs metropolis bounds and south of Ocean Springs Road.

Most of the land proposed for the gambling casino is already
reservation land, and legally outside Glenda Jackson County
borders, being acquired by the Choctaws in the late 1980s.

The gambling casino would have got more than than 2,300 slot machines and a
400-seat buffet. The hotel portion of the gambling casino would feature
1,100 rooms, theater, inside and out-of-door pools, and a
fitness center. Developers also suggest 240,000 foursquare feet
of retail space and, eventually, a 27-hole golf game course.

Jackson County electors last considered gambling in a 1990
binding referendum. In that vote, 15,351 voters, or just
over 60 percentage of the figure casting a ballot, voted
against gambling at that time.

Reporter Veto F. Roley can be reached at
vroley@themississippipress.com Oregon (228) 934-1427.