Despite Scandal, Miss America Receives $4M Subsidy From Atlantic City’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority
Miss America is remaining in Atlantic City for at the very least another pageant.
Minus a stint in Las Vegas, Miss America has long called Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall its house. That will carry on for the 2019 competition.
The pageant was approved this week for $4.325 million in state funding despite a scandal that shook up the organization in December over derogatory emails sent and received by then-CEO Sam Haskell and two board members regarding former Miss America winners. The New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) voted unanimously on Tuesday in favor of honoring the last installment associated with the three-year, $12.5 million contract.
Dick Clark Productions was quick to drop the broadcast after the scandal emerged, and NJ Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (D-Atlantic) called on the CRDA to annul the funds.
‘we understand the CRDA had to fulfill its contractual obligation to the Miss America pageant this year and I respect that,’ Mazzeo told The Press of Atlantic City. ‘However, as this contract ends, we would urge the CRDA leadership to better over utilize the $4 million on endeavors that will bring a better return on the investment to Atlantic City.’
In a brief statement, the CRDA said it had been ‘encouraged’ by the leadership change at Miss America and the 2019 competition’s ‘focus on females’s empowerment.’ No date has been set for the pageant.
The Miss America Organization board has been overhauled. Seven of the 10 members are now ladies, with former Fox News host and commentator Gretchen Carlson its chair and CEO.
Casino Reinvestment?
Founded in 1984, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is really a state agency that gathers taxes from Atlantic City casinos and is by using the funds to buy public and private projects that benefit the town and state.
According to its web site, the CRDA ‘uses casino reinvestments as a catalyst for meaningful, positive enhancement in the lives of New Jersey residents statewide. In doing so, the CRDA has dramatically and absolutely changed Atlantic City’s residential, commercial, social, and social landscape, while financially supporting quality-of-life improvement efforts.’
How making use of more than $4 million to support Miss America in Atlantic City lives up to that mission happens to be questioned by some area officials. The 2018 competition telecast on ABC drew just 5.6 million audiences, the lowest number in five years.
‘The CRDA needs to seriously rethink and prioritize how it spends its cash, and it will begin with its subsidy to the Miss America Organization,’ Mazzeo declared in January.
CRDA Funding, Projects
The CRDA has several revenue sources.
Its funding that is primary stream historically been a 1.25 percent tax on gross gaming at Atlantic City casinos. However, during the city’s bankruptcy, those funds had been directed away from the CRDA and alternatively earmarked to help pay down debt.
The CRDA also puts a $5 per night hotel room tax, and $3 per day fee that is parking. The agency additionally taxes hotel that is total at nine %, alcoholic drinks three percent, and concert tickets nine %.
The CRDA has spent, or as they choose ‘invested,’ $10.4 million in improvements and renovations of Steel Pier. That includes $6.4 million to construct a 200-foot ferris wheel.
The Atlantic City Gateway Project has also received a $17 million investment from the CRDA. A residential and campus that is educational of University, the project is always to open this fall.
Pennsylvania Casinos Set Monthly Record, Join Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan in Posting Brand New Highs
Pennsylvania gambling enterprises generated more than $300 million in gross video gaming revenue (GGR) last month, the first time in state history that the threshold has been passed away.
Slot players waited for devices back in 2010 when SugarHouse Casino opened in Philadelphia, but Pennsylvania casinos never enjoyed a busier monthly than March 2018. (Image: Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) released final figures this week that showed table that is gross income at $79.54 million in March, and slots accounting for $221.35 million. Combined, GGR for the Keystone State’s 12 casinos had been $300,516,011.
That number easily eclipses last March’s take by four percent. It tops the prior record that is all-time most of $296.7 million, which was set in March 2013.
Parx Casino north of Philadelphia led the way with $54.6 million in March revenue, a 1 x bet 10 percent premium in the home’s 2017 March haul.
Sands Bethlehem was next at $46.7 million, but that represents a 3.3 percent year-over-year reduction. Sands Bethlehem is along the way of being sold to a tribe in Alabama for $1.3 billion.
Rivers Casino had been third however the percentage gain winner that is biggest. The Pittsburgh casino saw GGR increase 11.1 percent to $33.5 million.
Philly’s two other casinos, SugarHouse and Harrah’s, were next respectively at $28.7 million and $24.7 million.
March Madness
Pennsylvania joins Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan’s Detroit casinos in posting record monthly highs in March.
- Maryland’s six casinos posted a combined $150 million in GGR, which easily surpassed its previous $141.1 million set that is high March 2017.
- Ohio’s four land-based casinos won $81.7 million month that is last and hawaii’s six racinos built-up $96.4 million. Both figures are monthly records.
- Detroit’s three casinos won $138.6 million, significantly more than $3.3 million a lot more than the town’s previous GGR mark that is best.
March was unseasonably warm throughout a lot of the country, but additionally damp. Casinos additionally benefited from A saturday that is extra in 2018 in comparison to 2017.
In Pennsylvania, March was one of the snowiest periods associated with 2017-18 winter, especially in eastern and central portions of the state. But hot temperatures in the times surrounding the snowfall didn’t keep residents housebound long.
No Satellite Bids
Nine of Pennsylvania’s 12 gambling enterprises posted gains that are monthly March. In the coming years, they might face competition that is additional the so-called ‘mini-casinos’ begin popping up.
Under the state’s expanded gaming work signed into law year that is last Governor Tom Wolf (D), as much as 10 satellite video gaming venues can be built, with up to 750 slots and 30 table games each.
On Wednesday, the PGCB did not get any bids for the venues. Five earlier auctions awarded Category 4 satellite licenses, with Penn National Gaming securing two associated with the 15-mile radiuses that are regional.
Headquartered in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Penn National was against the gaming expansion, but said it’s securing the satellite locales to be able to protect its Hollywood Casino near the Harrisburg state capital in Grantville.
Unwilling to raise taxes, the GOP-controlled General Assembly got behind gambling in order to help bridge a state funding gap.
The legislation authorizes internet gambling and daily fantasy sports, airport terminal gaming lounges, slot machines inside certain truck stops, and creates a regulatory framework for sports betting along with the mini-casinos.
Elaine Wynn Vows Board Shake Up at Wynn Resorts, Expect Heads to Roll
Wynn Resorts’ shareholder that is biggest, Elaine Wynn ,wants an instantaneous shake up of the board that once backed an answer, led by her ex-husband, Steve Wynn, to oust her.
Elaine Wynn says she thinks the Wynn Resorts board needs to be ‘reconstituted straight away’ with new blood that does not have any loyalty to either her or her ex-husband, Steve Wynn. (Image: Associated Press)
The day after Ms. Wynn settled a longstanding battle that is legal the business and her former spouse, she composed to the board demanding it reopen the window for shareholders to schedule new company and nominate new directors.
In a letter filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, she advised a 60-day reinstatement of the nomination procedure ‘to allow a fully vetted nomination process to happen’ in time for the company’s forthcoming AGM.
Ms. Wynn said she does maybe not plan to seek a board position herself but believes sweeping changes to the business structure are needed. She would nominate blood that is fresh was separate of her, the organization, and Steve Wynn in order to ‘restore the business’s reputation,’ she added.
Steve Wynn Procedures Down
We believe that the company’s governance structure needs become reformed and that the board of directors needs to be reconstituted,’ she published. ‘This must be done immediately and undoubtedly before any product choices are made that could affect the long-lasting interests for the shareholders.’
Ms. Wynn became Wynn Resort’s shareholder that is largest, with 9.25 %, after her ex-husband sold his equity in the company final month to guard its gaming licenses from an escalating sexual misconduct scandal. Lawsuits from disgruntled investors have been mounting, claiming the board must have understood about its chairman that is former and’s so-called behavior but failed in its responsibility to protect the company.
‘The nominees is highly respected and, generally in most cases, have significant public company experience,’ wrote Ms. Wynn. ‘They might have the expertise that is requisite experience to help the organization address both its possibilities and challenges. The nominees would help the board adapt to current guidelines with regards to diversity and would be chosen with a view to applicable licensing requirements.’