It was a busy week for casino news across the country. We’ll start off in Long Island where one casino reeled in some impressive revenues in the month of August.
Jake’s 58 Earns $200 Million In August
We’ll start off on the news in Long Island where Jake’s 58 Hotel and Casino has had a great summer. They have been doing video lottery terminals for only six months, but earlier in the spring they made a decision to add 273 terminals and it has paid off handsomely. Fueled by 1,000 terminals, the casino reported at least $200 million in revenue (technically, it was at $199.6 million on August 26) in the month of August alone.
With the big wins, the casino’s plan is to upgrade the hotel aspect of the facility. There aren’t that many other betting options on Long Island where the population has a lot of disposable income. The plan is for the hotel to include bigger bathrooms and an improvement on their accessibility for the disabled, among other things.
Fontainebleau Sells For $600 Million
Shifting over to Las Vegas, the Fontainebleau resort has finally sold. The Witkoff Group, which has made their name in real estate, is buying the Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegas for $600 million. Originally, the property was under construction but the projects were stopped in 2009 due to the global recession. Since then, it has been used as a training site for firefighters while sitting on the market. The hotel’s previous owner, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, has made a fortune on Las Vegas booms and busts, and he ended up quadrupling his investment on this property in just seven years. He originally bought the place when it was in bankruptcy court in 2008, offering up around $156 million.
Now the Witkoff Group takes over and they’ll be looking to put some money into it, but as of right now there are no specifics. The Fontainebleau Resort is close to Circus Circus Las Vegas and the SLS Las Vegas Hotel and Casino and it is already close to 70% completed. The owners would like to have it up and running sooner than later, the report says, but they’ll have to spend close to $1.5 billion to have it ready for Las Vegas. They’re clearly placing a big bet that they can draw new customers to that end of The Strip. Right now, City Center is the heart of the action.
PlayTech Announces RoboCop Slot
PlayTech has announced a new slot game based on RoboCop, which has had a cult following since it came out in 1987. The movie features Murphy, the protagonist, as a cop who is shot but then comes back to get revenge on the people that shot him, taking on other crime as well. The new game follows the premise of the movie, more or less, and PlayTech feels like they’ll draw fans based on the brand.
MGM Interactive was also involved as they have the rights to the RoboCop brand, which was started up by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc as a film. They allowed PlayTech to use whatever they needed to in order to add to the realism of the game.