During his days at the helm of the New Frontier, owner Phil Ruffin was pretty shy with media access. So when he talks, it behooves one to pay attention. To wit:

• He says his deal with MGM Mirage has a one-year lifespan and then Treasure Island has to become a stand-alone property. The question of what this means for Mystere (considering Cirque du Soleil's exclusive arrangement in Las Vegas with MGM Mirage) is simply begged.

• Despite having made $1.2 billion (before taxes) on the New Frontier sale, Ruffin describes himself as "tapped out." So speculation about "What will Ruffin buy next" is likely to peter out, too.

• Citing his low ($275 million) debt load, Ruffin says Treasure Island won't have to compete in the $200-$300/ADR niche. Which will probably make it one of the first stops for comparison shoppers in Vegas who are looking for something affordable ... but classier than Circus Circus, let's say.

• According to Ruffin, he knew the handwriting was on the wall for the casino industry when people were taking out first and second mortgages against little or no equity. A pity others in the industry didn't twig to this as soon as he.

• It's interesting to compare the career trajectories of Ruffin and Columbia Sussex grand poobah William J. Yung III (who could personally lose as much on the foolhardy Aztar Corp. acquisition as Ruffin spent out of pocket to acquire Treasure Island). The one started with a lone gas station, the other with a single motel. But Ruffin sold at the top of the market while Yung bought. Not only that, the latter publicly proclaimed himself to willing to pay any price -- and piled the debt-laden Aztar buy atop a similarly costly acquisition of 14 Wyndham-branded hotels. Presented with a fiscal buffet, Ruffin was selective while Yung tried to eat everything in sight. Thus, when times are bad, Ruffin has money to burn (read: invest wisely) while Yung can only fume about the deals he might be making had he not splurged so shortsightedly. It'd make a good business-school case study.

• He may be the first casino owner to call for more regulation.

• On Iraq: "The fact that they might have better roads in Baghdad than we have in Massachusetts, that’s crazy."

• And if you wanted to summarize the casino crisis in three sentences, you couldn't do much better than Ruffin's "I don’t like a lot of debt and that’s what happened to very good companies, well operated, but they took that debt on, and that’s a real big problem. It’s not that they’re not doing business. They are doing business, but the debt loads are too heavy."