How much gambling revenue could be racked up in those four graveyard-shift hours?īy its own admission, Full House leadership was stampeded into opening The Temporary on 24 hours’ notice of approval by the Illinois Gaming Board, in part by public curiosity and in part (although Lee is too polite to say this) by the impatience of Wall Street analysts, whose myopic near-term focus has driven many a bad business decision in Big Gaming. The second excuse is that The Temporary isn’t open around the clock yet. A purpored failure by a slot machine provider has also rendered 100 one-armed bandits hors de combat, a blow to a casino heavily reliant on slot profit margins. The first is that The Temporary is grossly understaffed (think 50%), virtually eliminating on-site dining and crimping the number of operational table games to 28. So why is Full House splurging on billboards along the expressway from downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Aiport? We’ve seen them.įull House had two excuses for its underperformance. And we were told that Chicago denizens don’t drive to Lake County if they can help it. Now, for instance, opening without an Illinois database is realized to be a severe handicap.

Stock boffins were treated to a fair amount of revisionist history by Full House. So you will forgive us if we are underwhelmed by its debut. Trouble is, the company led us to believe The Temporary (and its eventual permanent successsor) would be above average, especially as it sits in prosperous Lake County, with outmoded, antediluvian riverboat casinos its nearest competitors. Full House is trying to spin these numbers as average for an Illinois casino.

(The State of Illinois says $3 million.) That’s $80 per gambler per day in the first week, $97 in the second, according to Lee.

We tweeted after the opening of The Temporary at American Place (yes, that’s its cumbersome nomeclature) that it was “a hit.” We were wrong.Īccording to Full House Resorts CEO Dan Lee and CFO Lewis Fanger, The Temporary eked out just under $1.5 million in gaming revenues during its first two weeks of operation.

The golden nugget wendover