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Gambling turns to tables as slot market gets crowded

Posted on August 4th, 2010

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The parking lot is full, mostly of cars bearing New York and New Jersey license plates. The restaurants are full—at one night, the waiters served 5,500 diners. And the usual waiting list is two hours for gamblers to get into that poker room. This is the scene night after night at Mount Airy casino since it started to open table games last July 13. As new casinos keep sprouting everywhere, gambling operators are fighting hard and fast to get a share of the overcrowded casino market. And as prospect for revenues on slot machines hits a fevre pitch, operators scramble with diversification plans to keep their heads above water.

New Jersey’s revenue from its 11 casinos in Atlantic City shrank by $1 billion prompting Governor Chris Christie to muster a proposal for a state takeover of the gambling district and infuse capital to resuscitate the dying beachfront resort. New York, which already has slot machines at eight racetracks, is mounting another gambling venue this time right at the center of New York City, at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens. At the same time, the Shinnecock Tribe in eastern Long Island, who recently got a federal recognition as an Indian tribe, will be opening a casino to compete with those which had been put up by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes of Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Penn National Gaming is just putting the finishing touches for the opening in of 1,500 slot machines at Hollywood Casino Perryville, adjacent to Interstate 95 in MarylandOctober. Clearly, competition among casino operators in the East Coast is intensifying. During the East Coast Gaming Congress recently held in Atlantic City, casino operators admit to themselves that they are forced to fight for each other’s customers. This is why Mount Airy is spending $2 million on an advertising campaign, which includes television, billboards and taxis, to encourage customers to the resorts.

Mount Airy operators are also investing more than $450 million to build a new hotel that will have 188 rooms, two restaurants, an 18-hole golf course, a and a casino for the center of attraction. And the plan is to expand its newfound niche in table games. George Troth, chief executive of Mount Airy, noticed that there are now mostly older women left playing the slot machines as most men are gathered around at the blackjack tables while the younger men are jam-packed in the poker room.

Well-known for its tagline as a mushroom industry, other operators in the gambling market are now also joining the bandwagon. “12 existing slots-only casinos on the East Coast will add table games within six months”, reports Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr., president of the American Gaming Association. Table games are coming soon in Pennsylvania’s nine slot parlors as officials hope to attract more gamblers and tax revenue to the state while Delaware is running a test on the newly installed table games at its racetracks.

Now, casino operators fight for the bigger segment of the gambling market, the Asian-American gamblers, who are known to be high-rolling bettors. “There are about 400,000 to 500,000 Asian people in the market”, John Finamore, senior vice president of regional operations for Penn National Gaming, said. “These are customers we don’t see at Charles Town. They don’t lie to play slots. They want to play table games.” he added.

Tim Fong, a psychiatric professor and co-director of the gambling studies program at the University of California, said gambling is a popular in many Asian countries like China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines. He added that gambling tradition is deeply rooted on Asians’ beliefs on predestination and fate. Thus, as part of its marketing plans, Penn National Gaming, is adding a noodle bar and expanding Asian food menus to add more Asian flavor on the table games that will soon open at its casino at Charles Town. Dover Downs and Delaware Park are making similar improvements on their resorts. Now that many states are adding table games to their traditional slot parlors, one cannot lose in a wager that this gambling war will only get even tougher.