Yah...casinos don't make millions/yr because the bettors win a lot...unless they are pros or card counters. They do however rely on all the small bettors that hope to hit it big...that is their bread and butter.
Casinos fail over time because their profit margins are pretty much fixed. Look at Atlantic City, casinos are going bankrupt. Eventually your operating costs will exceed your revenue. Vegas succeeds because they converted into a vacation destination with big name entertainment, not just Casinos. The Rivers Casino can't expand or offer anything new in the future in Schenectady, they are on a fixed lot of land. How do they reinvest their fixed profits to grow their business in Schenectady? How long can the Casino survive off of the small bettor?
Casinos fail over time because their profit margins are pretty much fixed. Look at Atlantic City, casinos are going bankrupt. Eventually your operating costs will exceed your revenue. Vegas succeeds because they converted into a vacation destination with big name entertainment, not just Casinos. The Rivers Casino can't expand or offer anything new in the future in Schenectady, they are on a fixed lot of land. How do they reinvest their fixed profits to grow their business in Schenectady? How long can the Casino survive off of the small bettor?
Atlantic City failure was the rise of Indian Casinos that were more convenient and offered plenty of entertainment also. LasVegas is a gambling/entertainment juggernaut. No level of competition can compete. Rivers can expand through property acquisition in the future, if they are successful. City/County Gov will support their growth and use eminent domain to help them. STAY TUNED!
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
Atlantic City failure was the rise of Indian Casinos that were more convenient and offered plenty of entertainment also. LasVegas is a gambling/entertainment juggernaut. No level of competition can compete. Rivers can expand through property acquisition in the future, if they are successful. City/County Gov will support their growth and use eminent domain to help them. STAY TUNED!
Unless Schenectady rezoned large swaths of land to permit gambling and encourage competition, I don't think it will work. Without competition it will eventually turn into a slum casino, reducing overhead(capital improvements) to maximize their fixed profit margin. The only way to increase margins with this business model is to have fully automated gaming (no labor union). Without competition there is no motivation for growth.
Atlantic City failure was the rise of Indian Casinos that were more convenient and offered plenty of entertainment also. LasVegas is a gambling/entertainment juggernaut. No level of competition can compete. Rivers can expand through property acquisition in the future, if they are successful. City/County Gov will support their growth and use eminent domain to help them. STAY TUNED!
You are partly right. Atlantic City wastnt paying attention. In the past 6 or 7 years gambling was " legalized "- allowing machines and table games in Ohio, Kansas, Mane, Delaware , Pennsylvania , west Virginia and a few others . A dozen- 15 or so Vegas style casino built - spending around 400 million each and make them real nice.
For the most part it is a demo-graphical equation - there are enough people that will leave 3 or 4 hundred dollars per visit. Probably why grandma dosest put money in the envelope any more.
Many of not most of the casinos are built on brownfields- there was a factory there at one time -or a racetrack that gets a boost by adding a casino.
Alleged sex tryst plan leads to Schenectady casino arrests Police say fight stemmed from sexual suggestion By Paul Nelson Updated 9:31 am, Thursday, February 16, 2017
Schenectady A fight at the casino early Sunday morning over how many people would take part in a planned sexual romp led to the arrest of a Massachusetts couple and a Troy woman, city police spokesman Sgt. Matthew Dearing said.
Three people had apparently planned to meet up together for the tryst after leaving Rivers Casino & Resort but a physical altercation erupted when one of them wanted to deal in another player, police said.
Elizabeth Araiza, 49, was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, a misdemeanor, and the violation of disorderly conduct. Dmitri Houff, 62, her husband was charged with obstruction of governmental administration. Both are from North Adams.
A 21-year-old Troy woman was charged with disorderly conduct.
It was unclear who allegedly made the initial approach for sex and who suggested the fourth person.
A criminal complaint alleges the Troy woman engaged in "violent and threatening" behavior when she threw a beverage glass in the bar area of Duke's Steakhouse during the fight with Araiza.
The court papers also indicate Araiza continued fighting even after police arrived and later refused to comply with their commands to get up from the ground while handcuffed. Houff, records indicate, "interfered with officers by refusing to comply with verbal commands to leave the area and standing in their way as they were attempting to escort his wife who had been arrested out of the casino."
The three were released pending a future court appearance.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
More than $27 million was wagered during the opening five days at the Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady, according to a report released today by the New York State Gaming Commission.
Gross gaming revenue — the amount of money kept by the casino — was $3.03 million.
More than $27 million was wagered during the opening five days at the Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady, according to a report released today by the New York State Gaming Commission.
Gross gaming revenue — the amount of money kept by the casino — was $3.03 million.
The $27.37 million wagered includes $23.09 million in "credits played" at 1,150 slots and electronic table games, and $4.28 million at 67 table games such as blackjack, craps and baccarat.
The $23.09 million in "credits played" at the slot machines and electronic table games doesn't mean that amount of money was fed into machines. A single dollar can be wagered multiple times as gamblers repeatedly play games, winning or losing before cashing out or leaving empty-handed.
The $23.09 million in "credits played" at the slot machines and electronic table games doesn't mean that amount of money was fed into machines. A single dollar can be wagered multiple times as gamblers repeatedly play games, winning or losing before cashing out or leaving empty-handed.
Good point ! It sounds like a single dollar wagered multiple times means that the customers dollar potentially can last longer. Nice !
I happened to be at the casino yesterday - for reasons other than gambling.
A couple thoughts...
1) My earlier thoughts on it having difficulty surviving may have been wrong. While it was pretty crowded (expected early on), what struck me is that it is a reasonable size. It's not too small, it's not too big. 2) The food prices at the "food court" were pretty expensive, but they of course have to pay a lot of different "partners" including the state, and it wasn't a cheap facility to build. 3) It's kind of sad though, to watch the addiction set in... The flashing lights on the slot machines... All very slick, and having a physiological effect - more than just the aspects of the excitement of maybe winning... But actually the addictive nature of all that exciting flashing lights on the equipment. The same addiction pathways that get people addicted to looking at their phone, will make these people sit there and put lots of money in these machines.
Note I'm not saying the people there were "sad"; I'm saying that it's sad people, in some cases, are like cattle being led to the slaughter... The flashing lights; the fencing that corral's you in.
I still say without entertainment to make it more of a destination... There still may be challenges ahead longer term.
I happened to be at the casino yesterday - for reasons other than gambling.
A couple thoughts...
1) My earlier thoughts on it having difficulty surviving may have been wrong. While it was pretty crowded (expected early on), what struck me is that it is a reasonable size. It's not too small, it's not too big. 2) The food prices at the "food court" were pretty expensive, but they of course have to pay a lot of different "partners" including the state, and it wasn't a cheap facility to build. 3) It's kind of sad though, to watch the addiction set in... The flashing lights on the slot machines... All very slick, and having a physiological effect - more than just the aspects of the excitement of maybe winning... But actually the addictive nature of all that exciting flashing lights on the equipment. The same addiction pathways that get people addicted to looking at their phone, will make these people sit there and put lots of money in these machines.
Note I'm not saying the people there were "sad"; I'm saying that it's sad people, in some cases, are like cattle being led to the slaughter... The flashing lights; the fencing that corral's you in.
I still say without entertainment to make it more of a destination... There still may be challenges ahead longer term.
I happened to be at Hooters yesterday- on official business.
I think the casino industry can defend itself with some statistics that will show that the gambling zombies are a much smaller number than you imagine. The casino will be a blessing and a curse.
The hospitality industry offers opportunity all over the globe. On the other hand. The customers with bald tires and a cracked window will have a harder time in that environment.. Most people go to a casino for quick fun and excitement- like eating a donut or going to Hooters
CARL STROCK A dubious bet By Carl Strock on March 13, 2017 at 6:16 AM
I dropped in at the new casino in Schenectady the other day, just to check it out, and let me tell you, despite all the hype about transforming Schenectady into a place that people want to go to rather than get away from — a “destination,” as they say — it ain’t no Caesar’s Palace or Bellagio, with crystal chandeliers and synchronized fountains and marble staircases. The aesthetic is more Rotterdam Square Mall, meaning bare-bones commercial, a place to spend your money, or in this case lose it, the only pizzazz the ersatz kind that emanates from beeping and twinkling video slot machines. And with food to match: burgers and fries, baked ziti, pizza. And customers to match also: no Hollywood designer outfits on view but plenty of raggedy-a** jeans and sweatshirts, the same as you see on the street. If the place is a “destination,” the travelers to it haven’t journeyed more than a few blocks, by the look of things.
In the course of my anthropological researches over the years I have visited maybe a dozen or so casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Connecticut, and always I set myself the same task: try to find someone who appears to be having a good time, someone with a happy face. It’s about like trying to find the Ark of the Covenant, billboard advertisements depicting exultant white-teethed young people laughing and cheering as dollar bills float through the air notwithstanding. People in these joints could as well be at a funeral, so dour are they. They sit grim-faced in front of their beeping and twinkling video displays, robotically pushing the PLAY button, watching their “credits” evaporate into the electronic ether, and if you’re like me you want to pinch them just to verify that they’re conscious. Not a cheerful countenance to be seen.
The poker room at the Schenectady establishment is even worse. Fifteen tables, nine or so sports to a table, plus a dealer, and the sports couldn’t look more down-in-the-dumps if they had just lost their pants, which some of them probably have. And what a bedraggled-looking company. They must have money to throw away, or they wouldn’t be sitting there by the hour, but you couldn’t tell by looking at them. I asked my wife, who was with me for moral support, to scan the crowd with me and see if she could spot anyone who did not look like a slob, but she had no more luck than I did. If your dog dragged some of these people home to your doorstep, you’d lock the door and call the cops.
But yes, we did have luck. We did find some people who were obviously having a good time — four or five black guys at a craps table who were whooping and cheering, talking to the dice, and clapping each other on the back, like Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess. It did my heart so much good that I hung with them for a while, soaking it in.
Naturally the customers lose money or the casino wouldn’t be in business, but you would hardly know that from perusing the monthly reports of the New York State Gaming Commission or the news stories that are based on them. In the first place, no gambling goes on in the casinos but only “gaming,” and in the second place nobody has any losses, the casino simply has “revenue,” or sometimes “net win.”
For the Schenectady casino’s first month of operation, February, the casino had “gross revenue” of $10.8 million, which from the customers’ perspective is gross loss, though of course the casino, as well as the “Gaming Commission,” is not eager that you look at it from any perspective but their own.
In case you’re interested in the accounting, $7.9 million of the swag came from the video slot machines, where the house cut is 9.5 percent; $2.4 million came from so-called table games — roulette, craps, blackjack — where the house cut is 14.5 percent; and $478,349 came from poker, where the house cut is figured some other way.
Not all of that money goes down the drain. The state and local governments get 35 percent of it in the form of taxes, which you can call down-the-drain only if you’re a committed Tea Partier, and of the 65 percent that the owner, Rush Street Gaming, takes, some of course is paid to employees and local suppliers and thus benefits the local economy, but still, anyway you look at it, the robotized customers from Schenectady and environs were collectively relieved of close to ll million smackers in just one month, and that’s money that might have been used to pay the rent, buy groceries, or repair the car. You can call it economic development if you want, but it’s of a peculiar kind.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Revenues drop again at Rivers Casino in Schenectady By Eric Anderson Updated 2:49 pm, Friday, March 17, 2017
Schenectady Gross gaming revenues fell to $2.79 million in the week ending March 12 at the recently opened Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady. That's down nearly 10 percent from the previous week's total, which was down nearly 11 percent from the totals the week before that.
Gross gaming revenues is the amount left over after winnings are paid, but before taxes and other expenses, such as wages.
For its first month of operation, Rivers had gross gaming revenue of $10,805,499. Of that, $3,839,817 was to be paid in gaming taxes, with $3,071,853 earmarked for state education/property tax relief. Schenectady city and county will each receive $191,991, while Albany County will get $131,994, Fulton County, will get $24,095, and Montgomery County will get $21,790. Rensselaer County will get $69,176, Saratoga County $95,287, Schoharie County $14,210, and Washington County $27,429. Payments are made quarterly, said Lee Park, a spokesman for the state Gaming Commission.
So far, the casino hasn't reached the $4.28 million weekly average figure that was projected in an economic impact study by New Orleans-based The Innovation Group. But that figure was for 2019, and by then the casino hotel should be open and construction at the neighboring Mohawk Harbors completed. It's also not clear whether bus tours to the casino have yet started. That also can be a lucrative source of revenues.
And while the poker room at Rivers has been consistently popular — lines formed the very first day the casino was open — it produces just a fraction of total gross gaming revenues, 4.7 percent for the first five weeks.
Saratoga Casino — Hotel also saw a drop in net win in most recent week, ending March 11, down 3.3 percent from the previous week to $2,752,249. Saratoga Casino — Hotel has topped $3 million in net win just once since the Rivers Casino opened.
Unlike Rivers, Saratoga doesn't have live dealers or croupiers.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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