Casino Winners and Losers, Opioids and Juvenile Sentencing – Tuesday’s Roundup

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When the Taj Closed, Who Gained? It might not surprise you to learn that Tropicana was the biggest beneficiary from the Taj’s strike and closure last year (Tropicana and the Trump Taj Mahal have the same owner – Icahn Enterprises). Perhaps more interesting from our exclusive analysis of the winners and losers since the Taj strike is that the Caesars properties lost casino market share. You can read the full story here on Route 40, with data. Safer Oxy Led To More Deaths
We have been following the opioid epidemic in Atlantic County closely and anyone else who is interested should take a look at this piece by Zachary Siegel in the Daily Beast.

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Where Did Taj Gamblers Go?

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When workers from the Trump Taj Mahal went on strike in July, other casinos in Atlantic City had an opportunity to move in on its customers. So where did those gamblers go? Tropicana increased its gaming market share the most, to 13.7 percent in the second half of last year – the period that coincided with the Taj’s strike and closure – compared to 12.5 percent in the second-half 2015. Over that six-month period, Tropicana’s casino revenue increased 13 percent to $190 million from $166 million in the year-earlier July-December period. Much of the muttering on the far end of the boardwalk during the strike centered around suspicion of a plan by Icahn Enterprises, the Taj’s owner, to close the casino in order to boost revenue at Tropicana, Icahn Enterprises’ other property.

More about: Business, Borgata, Caesars Entertainment, division of gaming enforcement, Resorts, trump Taj Mahal

‘Safer’ Oxy Meant More Deaths, Report Finds

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In 2010, Purdue Pharma released a new form of their blockbuster pain drug OxyContin that supposed to deter abuse. It was harder to crush up and snort or inject to get high. 

Instead the new-formula Oxy seems to have led a lot of long-term abusers, already deep into the disease, to switch to heroin, and many thousands of them likely died from that drug. This according to a report from the RAND Corporation and the Wharton School. Possibly 80% of the spike in heroin death since 2010 is due to reformulated Oxy, the report’s authors say. The actual RAND/Wharton paper (“Supply-Side Drug Policy in the Presence of Substitutes: Evidence from the Introduction of Abuse-Deterrent Opioids”) is behind a paywall, but you can read Zach Siegel’s story on it here.

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Atlantic City’s Water, Policing and Traffic – MLK Day Roundup

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Atlantic City’s Water
Atlantic City’s water authority in May hired a well-known New Jersey-based financial advisor to help it craft a concession plan that could free up some cash for the debt-laden casino resort and stave off a state takeover. Just a few months later, the financial advisor abruptly abandoned its contract with the water authority to begin working with the New Jersey department that would eventually take over Atlantic City. What exactly happened, and what might the state’s insight into the water authority, gleaned through advisor Acacia Financial, mean for its future? Route 40 takes a look here. Policing
Meanwhile, the city’s police will show up for work no matter what happens in talks with the state over cuts to the force or salaries and benefits, PBA president Matt Rogers said, responding to rumors of a strike.

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State Could Use Water Authority Advisor’s Blueprint For Valuation, Sale

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In May last year Atlantic City’s water authority hired advisory firm Acacia Financial Group to craft a concession agreement that would help the authority both retain its independence and stave off a state takeover of the city. Acacia Financial helped draft two 100-page-plus documents chock-full of inside information and financial details but just a few months later it abruptly ended its $20,000 contract with the water authority because it had accepted another contract – with the New Jersey department that held state-takeover powers. New Jersey, now tasked with plucking Atlantic City from its financial death spiral, is sitting on a detailed plan that would help potential buyers put a price on one of the casino resort’s few remaining assets: its water authority. What’s more, the plan calculates the future water-rate rises that might be possible for the authority. “Their analysis sets forth what a combined rate structure could be, given a concession model,” said Bruce Ward, executive director of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority said in an interview last month.

More about: Government, Watchdog Journalism, Acacia Financial, ACMUA, Atlantic City, bruce ward, Capehart Scratchard, Commissioner Richman

Kings of Leon, Trump Museum, Booker’s Vote On Cheaper Meds – Friday’s Roundup

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Kings of Leon
The band Kings of Leon were in Atlantic City this week, which appears to have been a very-well-kept secret (until the careful PR campaign that announced it). They were there to rehearse an upcoming world tour, according to Atlantic City Weekly, but maybe it was some very smart thinking by Comcast’s venue management company Spectra, which operates Boardwalk Hall and Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center (coincidence! Kings of Leon play there next Thursday). In which case, hopefully Spectra is cottoning on finally to how to exploit its Philadelphia/AC synergies. There’s another issue here that kind of fascinates me: having a band like Kings of Leon come and ‘rehearse’ secretly-but-not-really is the kind of stealth marketing that Atlantic City really needs.

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Atlantic City Has An Amazing Community Spirit and The Boss – Thursday’s Roundup

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Atlantic City Area Has An Amazing Community Spirit
It’s not quite the middle of January, everyone’s got energy bills, taxes and that back-to-work-or-school feeling on their mind. But a video of Alex, a homeless man who is well-known to many in the area, was posted by the Atlantic City Crust Kings and there’s been a spontaneous outpouring of affection for him and a successful fund-raising campaign. And it’s not about the money. You should read the comments and willingness to help here on the Scan AtlanticCity page and watch the video:

Sometimes it’s really hard not to be ground down around here by the foreclosures or the drug crisis or the casino job losses or just the winter weather. People are still angry after a divisive election.

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Christie Also Talked Pensions, Atlantic County Food and MLK Recognition – Wednesday’s Roundup

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Christie Also Talked Pensions

We covered the State of the State address here and while everyone focused on the outgoing governor’s main message on tackling the drug crisis, he also alluded to more reforms to the state’s public-sector pensions. Those comments seemed important but they have not gotten as much coverage. This is from his transcript, on the subject of the state’s pension system: “We have done more to restore solvency to this broken system than any recent group of leaders in this city. There is more to do and I will present more ideas to finish the job we started in 2011 when I present you with my 2018 budget.” So there’s that to listen out for.

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Chiesa Cuts Worry Local Legislators, Sweeney’s Latest and Inside ACDevCo – Tuesday’s Roundup

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Mazzeo, Whelan Worried By Chiesa Cuts
The governor’s emissary to Atlantic City, Jeffrey Chiesa, would like to cut 101 firefighting jobs from the Atlantic City Fire Department, as part of a commitment to public safety and economic revitalization in the World’s Playground. Cuts to the ACPD are on the horizon as well. This is old news, as we say. The new news is that local representatives Sen. Jim Whelan and Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, having sponsored the legislation that brough Chiesa and his mighty hatchet to Atlantic City, now possess concerns he may wield that hatchet too frothily. “We must be cognizant of public safety concerns related to a depleted and understaffed public safety department,” they wrote, in a letter to Chiesa, obtained by the Press of Atlantic City.

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Tax Filing Shows ACDevCo Had No Staff, Little Income In 2015

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The non-profit development company behind the $206 million project to build Stockton University an Atlantic City campus was little more than a shell company in 2015, with no staff and a tiny revenue eked out from parking fees, according to its latest tax filing. The Atlantic City Development Corp, founded in February 2015 by New Brunswick Development Corp’s President Chris Paladino and three colleagues from the Governor’s Commission on New Jersey Gaming, Sports and Entertainment, lost money in its first year and its only revenue came from charging the Knife & Fork restaurant $7,500 for the lease of a parking lot. Route 40 requested the filing from Paladino’s office last year. The ACDevCo did, however, hold land worth $11.7 million, including a 9.5-acre package it acquired in 2015 for the Stockton project. “One of the lots had been leased to the owner of the Knife and Fork for restaurant parking for a number of years,” Paladino explained in an email.

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