Casino news from http://www.philly.com/
When Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. lost its bid to acquire the owner of the Tropicana casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City last spring, it left open the possibility of going after another Atlantic City casino.
Could the Sands Casino Hotel, one of the smallest gambling halls on the Boardwalk, be next on its wish list?
While executives at the Sands and Pinnacle declined to comment, analysts and those who track Atlantic City said they have heard that the Las Vegas company was in talks to acquire the 26-year-old casino.
"Buying the Sands makes a ton of sense for Pinnacle," said Joe Weinert, managing editor of the Gaming Industry Observer, a trade paper that tracks the gambling industry. "Any smart regional gaming operator, like Pinnacle, wants to pursue a hub-and-spokes strategy in which they can reward their better players or encourage their better players to visit a destination gaming resort, such as one in Atlantic City or one in Las Vegas."
Weinert said the Sands was looking to fetch in the neighborhood of $240 million to $250 million.
Pinnacle, which owns primarily riverboat casinos in the Midwest, is also one of five applicants for two gambling licenses to operate a $300 million to $400 million slots parlor in Philadelphia.- Suzette Parmley
3 cheers for 3 beers
Another round of accolades is on the way for the Philadelphia region's thriving craft beer industry.
Three beers from the area made a list of the 25 best beers in America published in the October issue of Men's Journal, which goes on sale tomorrow.
Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA, an India pale ale, brewed in Milton, Del., ranked number two behind a pale ale from California.
The Pils made by Stoudt's Brewing Co. in Adamstown - the oldest craft brewery in Pennsylvania - came in third.
Victory Brewing Co. of Downingtown made the list at number 22 with its Victorious Doppelbock. All three of these brewers were among the 100 best in the world last year, according to RateBeer.com.
A Pittsburgh company, Pennsylvania Brewing Co., had the 13th-best beer - a Weizen, tying Pennsylvania with Oregon for the second most beers on the Men's Journal list behind California, which had five. - Harold Brubaker
What's in their wallet?
Barclays Bank Delaware is the nation's fastest-growing credit-card lender. Outstanding loans jumped 73 percent to $3 billion over the year ended June 30, according to the Nilson Report, the card industry bible.
By comparison, the dominant Visa and MasterCard leaders - Bank of America/MBNA, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, and Capital One - showed growth rates of 5 percent or less during the same period.
Internet-oriented Barclays has thrived on joint marketing deals with travel-related companies - Frontier, AirTran, Orbitz, Caesars Entertainment, Best Western.
"The bigger you are, the less efficient your marketing," said chief executive Richard Vague, citing the weak and declining response of American consumers to the blizzard of direct-mail appeals from the leading card lenders. "When you're small, you have room to grow."
The price of growth: For the last seven quarters, the Delaware operation has reported losses averaging around $20 million per quarter to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The bank could have been profitable by now, but it would be a lot smaller, notes president James Stewart, who helped Vague run industry leader First USA Bank in the 1990s.
Barclays' patient, Britain-based owners, who bought Vague's and Stewart's Juniper Financial Corp. two years ago, are willing to pay for a lot more marketing to boost their U.S. market penetration.
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