Author: Casino Connection Staff

Hard Rock Atlantic City has made a dramatic impact on the casino market in the city. Now the second-highest revenue producer, the Hard Rock brings consistent high-quality entertainment to the city for the first time in almost a decade. Hard Rock Live (the Etess Arena) has played host to such superstars as Carrie Underwood, Pitbull, Maroon 5, Stone Temple Pilots, Blake Shelton, Counting Crows, Amy Shumer, Elvis Costello, Tim McGraw and many others. A secondary theater, Sound Waves, presents comedy and short-run shows, and the lobby bar has live music every day. And Hard Rock’s entertainment policy has forced the other casinos to keep pace by booking similar acts.

With more than $500 million invested in the Hard Rock Atlantic City, Hard Rock International CEO Jim Allen, a New Jersey native, is happy with the direction of the property

“We’re happy with where we are in our GGR (gross gaming revenue),” he says. “We certainly admire what MGM and Boyd have done in building the Borgata. We don’t have any goals of knocking them off the top of the mountain when it comes to GGR. Our focus now is to utilize the revenues that we’re generating to concentrate on margins and bringing the numbers to the bottom line.”

He’s not so happy with the state, the city or the CRDA.

“Candidly, we’re disappointed in Atlantic City,” he says. “There’s no other way to say it. I received so much criticism for putting half a billion dollars into this project. We didn’t go borrow that money. Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment wrote a check for $510 million in cash. There’s no debt on the facility. We do have minority partners who worked with us. There were all kinds of promises that Trenton and CRDA and the city made. And none of them were kept. I think Atlantic City is in worse shape today than it was two years ago. And that’s a shame.”

He’s particularly irked with the city.

“And now we have another mayor arrested,” he complains. “The parks that used to be green are now barren. There’s trash everywhere. Pacific Avenue has the identical problems it’s had for the past 30 years, and it’s only getting worse.”

But the state doesn’t get a pass from Allen, either.

“We’ve voiced our concerns to Sheila Oliver, the lieutenant Governor, as well as to Governor Murphy,” he explains. “Look. We’re bullish on Atlantic City but the state, city and CRDA don’t seem to be. We can’t have another mayor arrested. We can’t have all the corruption. We can’t have the trash. It’s a shame that they did not rise to the occasion with a company coming in and putting $500 million into that city.”

He’s happy that investment is finally coming into the center of town and says he’s happy about the development of the “Orange Loop,” but admits that more needs to be done.

“It’s a wonderful start,” he says. “I don’t want to criticize it in any way. And the new Stockton campus is great. But if it had been put in the center of town instead of the other end you would have seen some of the urban blight start to change. That could have been the catalyst to move development on both directions.”

Allen touts the changes in the entertainment scene and says he hopes it will change the way people think about Atlantic City.

“Atlantic City needs to focus on big name entertainment and creating excitement so the perception of Atlantic City changes,” he explains. “If you change the perception maybe the people who enjoy gaming are going to say ‘Maybe we’re not going to stay at our local casino in Pennsylvania or New York, maybe we’ll take an hour ride down to Atlantic City on this beautiful day.’ The more that is done in that area, the better off it will be.”

The last time horses raced around the famed oval at Atlantic City Race Course was January 2015. The track closed by the end of that month. Now only ghosts roam the legendary track: the ghosts of Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Kaye, investors as well as fans of the Mays Landing, New Jersey track that opened in 1946, and the ghost of Thoroughbred Iceberg II, who won the initial United Nations Handicap in 1953 with Jorge Contreras atop. The UN was considered perhaps the richest U.S. turf race ever run.

Then there are the ghosts of Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker and B. B. King, who headlined the three-day Atlantic City Pop Festival, held two weeks before the legendary Woodstock festival 50 years ago.

Blame the casinos in Atlantic City for hastening the track’s demise. In the years since Atlantic City introduced gaming, plans and schemes have surfaced to replace horse racing. Some of the surrounding land morphed into the Hamilton Mall. According to the Press of Atlantic City, in 2004, a town-center complex lacked support. In 2005, a rep from Cabelas thought about purchasing the parcel for a $1.6 billion outdoor sportsmen’s retailer. In 2010, plans for an offshoot of the aviation research park fizzled. In 2014, the open-air Mercato Market opened but suspended operations after only one month.

Hamilton Township has declared the site an area in need of redevelopment, says Township Administrator Michael S. Jacobs. Earlier this month, the Township Committee approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with owner Greenwood ACRA so both entities can work together on a proposal for the 250-acre site. Greenwood, which also owns Parx Casino and Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, purchased the race course in 2001 for $15 million.

“We want to promote proper development,” Jacobs said.

The MOU is just a declaration of intent to negotiate a plan for redevelopment of the racetrack,” said M. James Maley, Jr., an attorney with Maley Givens & Associates. “We are in the early stage of discussions. The plan will establish zoning laws for the site, so there will like by broad parameters set for the types of uses that would be permitted at the site. The Township has no specific plans beyond seeing a productive reuse of the property in a way that benefits the township at large.”

Hamilton Township set 180 days as a target to come up with a proposal. Why so long? “It’s a big project,” Jacobs said.

The question is begged: Why will this time work? The answer may lie in the May 2018 Supreme Court decision overturning the 1992 ban on sports betting, which opened the floodgates for sportsbooks, both brick-and-mortar and online in the state. New Jersey, which brought the lawsuit that rolled back the ban, has jumped out in front as a leader in sports betting, much of it linked to existing casinos in Atlantic City.

How does that play into the future of the Atlantic City Race Course? Simple. When New Jersey drew up the rules and regulations for sports betting, in addition tying sportsbooks to casinos, sportsbooks could be associated with two tracks, Monmouth Part and Meadowlands.

But the rules said something else too. Former tracks can also build a sportsbook, so long as it’s on the site of the physical track.

“Per the New Jersey sports wagering statute, Atlantic City Race Course is one of the New Jersey racetracks and former racetracks eligible to apply for a sports wagering license,” said Leland Moore, spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. “The state statute allows the owners of a closed racetrack to apply for a sports wagering permit within the oval of the racetrack. That application would be made to the New Jersey Racing Commission.”

Bingo.

With the success of sportsbooks at Meadowlands and Monmouth Park, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that one in Hamilton Township stands to be profitable, especially surrounded by other amenities like a hotel.

New Jersey online casinos and poker sites raked in $41.1 million in combined revenue during September, setting a new record for the third consecutive month. That total surpassed $40 million in back-to-back reporting periods after reaching $30 million for the first time in January of this year.

Internet gaming win rose almost 60 percent from September 2018. Sports betting revenue jumped 59.3 percent to $37.9 million. Of that, $29.4 million came from online sports betting. Year to date, internet win rose 57 percent to $339 million while sports betting increase from $40.3 million last year to $190.6 million this year.

The Golden Nugget continues to set the pace for New Jersey’s digital industry. The market leader cleared another peak in September, setting a new record of $15.6 million in revenue for the month. It has held the top spot since December 2016, and no competing operator has ever reached eight figures in any single month.

Resorts AC again claimed second place, booking a win of $8.9 million. That’s a new personal best for its network too. Along with Ocean Resort, those two operators were the only ones that reported growth from August to September.

Ocean Resort saw internet win increase almost 60 percent to more than $517,000, while sports wagering took in $3.1 million, up 140.4 percent.

The Borgata/MGM network finished with $6.9 million in revenue across casino and poker segments.

FanDuel Sportsbook dominates, responsible for almost $17 million of the total revenue on its own.

New Jersey sports betting handle climbed to a monthly record of more than $445 million in September 2019. Revenue shot up to nearly $38 million as well, with a strong hold of more than 8.5 percent. That comes as little surprise given the start of college football and NFL betting, as well as the spread of New Jersey sports betting apps.

At this time in 2018, DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook produced more than $11 million in year-to-date sports betting revenue in New Jersey. Last month, FanDuel reported almost $96 million in year-to-date revenue via Meadowlands Racetrack. DraftKings reported revenue of $50.5 million through Resorts AC. William Hill checked in third with $18 million at Monmouth Park.

New Jersey sportsbooks held 5.4 percent of all football bets in September. Sportsbooks won 13.5 percent on parlays.

Atlantic City’s nine casinos are on pace to eclipse $3 billion in total gaming revenue this year, a mark not reached since 2012, when there were a dozen casinos.

Through September, the city’s casinos have reported more than $2.46 billion in total gaming revenue, according to data from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, up 15.8 percent over the same period a year ago.

It helps to have online gaming and sports betting to pump up the volume for the physical casinos. “We continued to see gains in sports betting and tourism numbers this summer, with gaming revenue increasing over 16 percent compared to last summer,” said Steve Callender, president of the Casino Association of New Jersey (CANJ) and senior vice president of operations for the East Region of Tropicana Atlantic City’s parent company, Eldorado Resorts Inc. “We believe this excitement will continue into the fall season as all major sports are in full swing.”

James Plousis, chairman of the state Casino Control Commission, added that capital investments and an emphasis on customer service contributed.

The industry has reported revenue increases for 16 consecutive months, going back to the openings of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City and Ocean Casino Resort in June 2018.

Rummy Pandit, executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University, said the revenue milestone was “an achievement and a feat that we need to celebrate.”

“We’ve been positioned to surpass $3 billion for the last few months,” he said. “Despite growing competition and the fact that other areas might have sports betting or online gaming, Atlantic City is becoming a destination resort.”

While online gaming and sports betting have contributed to overall revenue increases, table and slot revenues, or casino win, have declined for the seven properties that were operational before the openings of Hard Rock and Ocean. However, the losses have been offset by the revenue generated from the two newer casinos.

To date, Hard Rock has generated $250 million from table games and slots, while Ocean has reported just shy of $157 million. Casino win for the entire market through September is up more than 8.5 percent over the same period last year.

The $3 billion gaming revenue benchmark is also significant for Atlantic City because the city will receive additional payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) funding. The city will receive an additional $20 million, or nearly $152 million, from the casinos if total gaming revenue surpasses $3 billion this year. However, a crediting mechanism built into the PILOT legislation will negate a significant portion—about $14 million — of that increased revenue since the city will receive nothing in terms of investment alternative tax to pay down debt obligations.

To offset the good news, gross operating profits — a widely accepted measure of profitability in the industry — declined 16.8 percent through the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period last year. This year’s third-quarter results will be released November 22.

When Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen approached the Seminole Nation tribal council about buying Hard Rock International in 2007, he warned them that there was a lot of work ahead.

“I told them that it was a growth opportunity, but it was going to take some time,” he says. “They understood that and now it’s just started paying dividends.”

The time is now and Hard Rock International, chaired by Allen, is experiencing a growth spurt.

Gaming expansion has been one of the core elements of Hard Rock’s strategic thinking since the hotel and restaurant chain was acquired by the Seminole Tribe.

Hard Rock currently is comprised of 259 venues, including owned and licensed hotels, casinos, shops and cafes, in 75 countries. The company also owns the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip (but not the off-Strip Hard Rock Las Vegas, which is being rebranded under new ownership as a Virgin casino hotel).

The most dramatic evidence of the growth spurt was presented last week when the tribe’s original casino, Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, unveiled the company’s most dramatic project to date: a guitar-shaped hotel appropriately named, the Guitar Hotel. It’s the first building in the world with that shape, and it comes complete with LED “strings” that literally touch the sky—30,000 feet up.

Allen’s vision took more than 10 years to come to fruition, but the building is quickly becoming an icon in South Florida, attracting thousands of curious visitors on opening day—including a star-studded cast of guitar smashers, Hard Rock’s signature celebration that opens all its properties. Participants included movie star Johnny Depp, talk show maven Andy Cohen and reality queen Kim Kardashian, who marched in a two-hour red carpet parade.

Design and construction of such a building was complicated and time-consuming. Strict Florida building codes—including a 450-ft. height limit due to the flight path of nearby Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport and high wind resistance standards—had to be addressed.

Allen gave credit to the lead architects, Klai Juba Wald, which designed the original Seminole projects in Hollywood and Tampa, interior designers the Rockwell Group and landscape designers EDSA.

Hard Rock retained New York-based DeSimone Consulting Engineers to put the puzzle together. Allen remembers a conversation with the founder.

“Vince DeSimone called me and told me I lost my mind,” laughs Allen. “But he did a great job as usual.”

DeSimone accomplished the difficult task, which at times required support columns at wildly different angles, so as much as 40 degrees.

The $1 billion project complete changed even the existing Hollywood Hard Rock casino, which remained open throughout the three years of construction. The result is more than 1,400 rooms and suites, 195,000 square feet of gaming space, a 13.5-acre pool and lagoon experience with overwater cabanas, an ultra-luxury spa and fitness center that spans 42,000 square feet, more than a dozen restaurants, multiple bars, an elegant spa and many other non-gaming amenities, including a new 7,000-seat live performance venue, Hard Rock Live!

But Hollywood Hard Rock is only the latest in new and improved facilities. Two weeks ago, Hard Rock completed an $800-million renovation of the nation’s most profitable casino, Hard Rock Tampa. The following week, Hard Rock Hotel Los Cabos opened in Mexico, and next week, Hard Rock Sacramento at Fire Mountain will debut.

A year earlier, Hard Rock Atlantic City opened, just nine months after the purchase of the former Trump Taj Mahal was completed. Just recently, the property became the second highest performing casino in the market.

Allen traces this Hard Rock growth spurt to management changes made several years ago.

“We were really able to re-structure the company,” he says. “We expanded the hotel and casino divisions. We never want to forget the cafés and the relationships with our franchise partners, but the restaurant business is very difficult on a global basis.”

On the horizon is a casino in Gary, Indiana, a proposal to build a project in Rockford, Illinois, and a second tribal casino in California.

Internationally, Hard Rock is one of three finalists for an integrated resort in Greece at the former Hellikon Airport near Athens, and has won a bid to build an IR near Barcelona in Catalonia, although Allen admits that with political upheaval in Catalonia, the company has more work to do.

Allen says the guitar theme will be replicated in Mexico City and possibly in Japan where the company has been laser focused on the Hokkaido prefecture. While it’s not the biggest region in Japan, Allen says it’s still a worthwhile effort.

“My analogy has always been, everyone who trains for the Olympics wants to win the gold medal,” he says. “But there’s nothing wrong with a silver or a bronze. We felt we has a better chance to plant our flag in Hokkaido than either Osaka or Tokyo, so we’ve spent a lot of time working with local government, vendors and communities.”

Meanwhile, Hard Rock International has its eyes on the Las Vegas Strip, and the timing would appear to be right for the global gaming and hospitality giant to make a move.

Eldorado Resorts has said at least one of Caesars Entertainment’s eight destinations on the Strip is likely to be sold after Eldorado completes its $17.3 billion acquisition of the gaming giant sometime in the first half of 2020. Observers have identified a number of well-known Caesars names that could wind up on the block: Bally’s and Planet Hollywood, to name two, and possibly Paris.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Radio, Hard Rock Chairman Jim Allen said the Strip is “certainly” is on the company’s radar. “We look at this as a great opportunity for our brand.”

Allen, who also is CEO of Seminole Gaming, Hard Rock’s casino arm, said he finds Planet Hollywood “very interesting” and believes Bally’s also is “one of the possibilities,” given its located on “one of the most legendary corners” on the Strip.

Hard Rock has been rumored to be interested in the Cosmopolitan earlier this year, but insiders say the price asked by the owners, the Blackstone Group, was too high for the Florida operator.

Allen explained to GGB that although interesting, the rights to the Hard Rock name in Las Vegas still have to be clarified and nothing will happen until the original Hard Rock Las Vegas, never a part of Hard Rock International, closes for renovation and rebranding to a Virgin hotel, next month.

Still, a Las Vegas presence for Hard Rock seems to be inevitable.

“I think it would be good for them,” said Michael Parks, senior vice president of real estate giant CBRE and a member of its gaming group. “With Las Vegas being one of the most recognizable leading markets in the world it shows they’re a true player in the global gaming arena.”

Brendan Bussmann, a partner with Global Market Advisors, said a Strip asset could give Hard Rock a “leg up” as it competes for one of those highly coveted licenses.

“Nevada still holds the gold standard of that (gaming) regulatory structure, (and) the Japanese have definitely signaled throughout this process that they want a strong regulatory market,” he said. “Anyone licensed here can operate in a much more meaningful way in Japan.”

The reason for the Hard Rock success is simple, according to Allen.

“We’ve got the best balance sheet in the business,” he says. “And we’ve got the support of a great tribal council that encourages us to invest and make the business stronger.”

MGM Resorts International has reached agreements to sell two of last three resorts it owns on the Las Vegas Strip, Bellagio and Circus Circus.

In the much larger of the two transactions, Bellagio will go to a new division of private equity giant Blackstone Group, which also owns the Cosmopolitan next door, for $4.25 billion.

Unconfirmed reports of the talks first surfaced a few weeks ago, including an outline of the terms, which will see MGM continue to operate the marquee Las Vegas Strip property under a long-term lease with Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (REIT), in which MGM will own 5 percent. The joint venture will lease Bellagio to a subsidiary of MGM for annual rent of $245 million. The deal will net MGM around $4.2 billion.

MGM Chairman and CEO James Murren said the deal will allow the company to pay down debt, “to build a fortress balance sheet and return capital to shareholders,” adding that the transaction “confirms the premium value of our owned real estate assets.”

The sale is expected to close before the end of the year.

“As big believers in MGM Resorts and Las Vegas, we are thrilled to partner with MGM to acquire the Bellagio on behalf of our BREIT investors,” Blackstone President and COO Jon Gray said. “We look forward to a long and productive partnership with this world-class company.”

Like the Bellagio deal, Circus Circus’ sale to Kansas billionaire Phil Ruffin, who also owns the TI on the Strip (formerly Treasure Island) had been in the rumor mill for weeks. MGM had made no secret of its to determination to pursue what it calls an “asset-light strategy” aimed at paying down debt while pursuing a license for a megaresort in Osaka, Japan, a project some observers say could cost in the neighborhood of $10 billion to bring off.

Not surprisingly, the company also is reported to be shopping its flagship MGM Grand on the Strip, the last gaming resort in Las Vegas it still owns in total (not counting its 50 percent interest in CityCenter), the rest having been sold to its spinoff REIT, MGM Growth Properties.

The company also owns the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, though MGM Growth is expected at some point to acquire that property as well.

Unlike Bellagio, Circus Circus will be transferred to Ruffin outright in a deal valued at $825 million and noteworthy perhaps more for its sizable land bank, 70-plus acres in all, than the 50-year-old casino hotel.

“The opportunity to own 102 acres on the Las Vegas Strip was very interesting,” Ruffin said. “From a strategic standpoint, Circus Circus is the most recognizable name on the North Strip. Treasure Island is the crown jewel in my portfolio, and Circus Circus adds another layer of gaming customer to my holdings.”

Ruffin entered the gaming industry in 1998 with his $165 million purchase of the New Frontier in the middle of a protracted labor strike. He settled with the union, ended the strike, and sold the aging casino hotel in 2007 for $1.2 billion to investors who planned a $5 billion megaresort. That plan never got off the ground when the global financial crisis hit in 2008-09. In 2009, Ruffin bought Treasure Island for $775 million from a cash-strapped MGM desperate to save its uncompleted CityCenter project from the fires of the financial crisis.

Ruffin also owns a casino with 1,000 machines games and electronic table games near Miami, though he’s probably best-known known nationally as President Donald Trump’s partner in the non-gaming Trump International hotel in Las Vegas. Trump was the 84-year-old Ruffin’s best man at his 2008 wedding to a former Miss Ukraine.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is asking the state’s Gaming Commission to declare Steve Wynn “unsuitable” to hold a gaming license in the state.

The request is contained in a five-count complaint that amplifies numerous accusations that the disgraced former casino tycoon preyed on female employees for sexual favors at the Las Vegas casino hotels that bear his name.

According to the document, “The evidence from the investigation demonstrates a pattern of Mr. Wynn recklessly engaging in sexual conduct with subordinate employees, which even if it was consensual as maintained by Mr. Wynn, is oblivious to the significant power imbalance between the CEO of a major gaming company and subordinate employees dependent on Mr. Wynn’s approval for continued employment.”

The accusations first surfaced in an explosive January 2018 Wall Street Journal story that led to Wynn’s resignation as chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts and the divestiture of his sizable shareholding. It ended with a purge of the executive ranks and the board of directors and a record $20 million state fine against the company for repeatedly failing to respond to complaints from employees about his alleged misconduct.

In Massachusetts, where Wynn Resorts opened a $1.3 billion super-casino this summer, regulators there fined the company $35 million and CEO Matt Maddox $500,000 on similar findings.

The complaint asks the commission to find Wynn “unsuitable to be associated with a gaming enterprise or the gaming industry as a whole,” alleging that he “is not a person of good character, honesty, and/or integrity,” and that he “repeatedly violated Nevada’s gaming statutes and regulations, bringing discredit upon the state of Nevada and its gaming industry.” It adds that his conduct and the media attention that followed “damaged the public’s confidence and trust in an industry that is vitally important to the economy of the state of Nevada and the general welfare of its inhabitants.”

It also asks the commission to fine him on each of the five counts.

If approved, the finding likely would banish the 77-year-old billionaire for life. He would be just the 25th person to be declared “unsuitable” since 1980 and the first in this decade.

Ironically, it will happen in the state where he launched an unparalleled career stretching across half a century and made his reputation as the visionary behind the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio𑁋destinations that would serve as a template for blending luxury cachet with mass-market appeal in ways that contributed to transforming the Las Vegas Strip and helped define the concept of the casino megaresort as it’s known around the world today.

He was also a pioneer in opening up the massive Macau market, which now generates the lion’s share of Wynn Resorts’ gaming revenues and where Wynn was the only non-Chinese bidder to win one of its three casino concessions.

“It certainly is a pretty momentous decision,” David Schwartz, director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research, told the Nevada Independent. Wynn, he said, is “really somebody with a huge influence, not just in casinos here but everywhere.”

Wynn has denied the accusations and has largely disappeared from public view. He is believed to be living in Florida, according to news reports. He will have 15 days to respond to the complaint.

Some experts point out that Wynn has never been charged with any criminal offense—all legal proceedings thus far have been civil complaints—and the Nevada Gaming Board has never banished an individual without proof of criminal wrongdoing.

Nonetheless, the board states in its first count that its investigation found evidence “of multiple instances of sexual contact by Mr. Wynn involving subordinate employees. By engaging in this conduct, whether consensual or not, Mr. Wynn disregarded Wynn company’s policies and procedures.”

The second count addresses his abuse of “the inherent disparity of power between himself and the employees with whom he has had sexual relations.”

The third count explicitly addresses a 2005 accusation that Wynn sexually assaulted a Wynn Las Vegas salon manicurist and paid a $7.5 million settlement to the woman and her husband from a secret account that was not disclosed to the company’s board of directors.

The fourth count focuses on a $975,000 settlement with a cocktail server and her parents in 2006.

The fifth count cites Wynn’s failure to attend a hearing last September conducted by investigators to address the accusations of sexual harassment and assault that were piling up against him.

Wynn Resorts, an attorney for Wynn and Gaming Commission Chairman Tony Alamo all declined requests for comment, the Independent said.

The news site said officials with the Republican National Committee (RNC) said they planned to wait until the investigations were complete in Massachusetts and Nevada before deciding whether to return Wynn’s sizable donations, the most recent, amounting to nearly $250,000, coming in May of this year.

Wynn had served as finance chair of the RNC, appointed to the post by Donald Trump shortly after his election. He resigned when the scandal broke.

The introduction of two new Atlantic City casinos—Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Ocean Casino Resort—has put a crunch on the other seven casinos in the seaside town. To secure its place, Resorts Casino Hotel unveiled a new branding campaign October 8, dubbed “One of a Kind.”

Mark Giannantonio, president and CEO of Resorts, said the campaign represents the “next evolution” of the property’s growth since owner Morris Bailey and partner, Mohegan Sun, took over nearly a decade ago. In addition to a casino hotel rebranding, Resorts has partnered with Hard Rock and Ocean Casino to market that section of the Boardwalk as North Beach Atlantic City.

“We think we got it right,” Giannantonio told the Press of Atlantic City. “I really believe we have it right with this ad campaign and how we are going to project ourselves to the world.”

Giannantonio said the goal is to “keep this business in Morris’ family for the next 50 years.”

The campaign is a natural fit for Resorts after the nearly $140 million capital investment Bailey and Mohegan have made in the property. The DraftKings Sportsbook upgrade cost almost $6 million, the $2 million Landshark Bar & Grill expansion turned retail space into a food and beverage revenue producer, and the $1 million build-out of East Wind and Mukashi Sushi Bar near the Boardwalk entrance are all evidence of the company’s commitment to the brand and the 41 year-old property.

“We’re really looking beyond a month or a quarter, and it really being generational,” Giannantonio said.

The “One of a Kind” branding campaign is the result of market research, guest feedback and an introspection of what the property stands for, said Mary Tindall, vice president of marketing for Resorts.

North Beach showcases the three casino properties, as well as the iconic Steel Pier, the Absecon Lighthouse and the Orange Loop businesses on Tennessee Avenue as a destination experience for Atlantic City visitors.

Robert DeSalvio, who led the building of the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor for five years for Wynn Resorts Ltd., has been replaced four months after opening the casino. His successor is Brian Gullbrants, also a Wynn veteran.

Wynn CEO Matt Maddox commented, “Bob leaves Encore with a hand-selected team prepared to take on the challenges ahead. I salute him for his commitment to the project and, most importantly, his dedication to his team.”

Gullbrants also has experience opening casinos for Wynn, having done so at the Las Vegas Encore in 2008.

DeSalvio opened the Encore Boston Harbor June 23. Earnings were strong for tables but not as robust for slot machines. The most recent figures were from September, when the casino collected $48.9 million, a 7 percent decrease from the previous month.

Meanwhile, Wynn Resorts has been in discussions with John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Globe about a joint project to develop 11 acres the casino owns across the street from the casino in Everett, Commonwealth magazine reported last week.

The talks were first held “some time ago,” according to the magazine, which quoted two unnamed people familiar with the discussions. At that time, Wynn officials thought it was too soon after the casino’s opening to move on developing the adjacent surplus parcel.

Last year, Henry reportedly expressed an interest in purchasing the casino. At the time, Wynn was embroiled in hearings with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission about whether it would be allowed to keep its gaming license due to alleged sexual misconduct by founder and former CEO Steve Wynn.

The Globe has declined to shed light on the talks or to make Henry available for comment.

Wynn Resorts, through spokesman Michael Weaver, said the company has received several inquiries from companies interested in developing the land across the street.

Several months ago, just before the June opening of the casino, Maddox commented about the property, “We want to work with the city to create an entertainment district. It’s not all going to be our company—Wynn. We want to work with lots of local developers, potentially other hoteliers, convention centers, etc. But our idea, along with the mayor’s, is to continue to redevelop the area so it’s known as the entertainment district in the Northeast.”