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Resort poses 'Myriad' questions

Posted At : April 16, 2008 03:29 PM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories: Mississippi

You've got to love the casino industry, not least because it provides us every day with Tales of the Bizarre like this one. Big-thinking entrepreneurs with a few bucks and a crazy idea may seem like anachronisms in today's casino industry (Bob Stupak, come back! All is forgiven!), that doesn't mean they're not out there.

Take Canada's Scott Hawrelechko. He's trying to scrape together the capital to build a six-casino complex in Tunica, Miss. That's right. Six casinos. In Tunica. Oh, and he needs $70 million just to keep the dream alive through the end of the year. And he just sacked his CEO. And the chair of the audit committee resigned abruptly last December. Other than that, everything's fine.

But there's this small -- trivial, really -- matter of Myriad Botanical Resort's budget having doubled from $1.62 billion a year ago to almost $3.2 billion today (and even that may not be enough) for the first two casinos. Maybe Hawrelechko shouldn't have bought his tribal partners out. And perhaps it wasn't necessary to purchase a marketing firm instead of just hiring one.

True, some of the planned metaresort's goofier features (like an indoor golf course and snow park) have been jettisoned. And Myriad is targeted for a market whose casino market could probably use some new blood. A Fortune article archived on Myriad's Web site questions, though, whether the Tunica market can support more casinos, particularly in the absence of economic diversification.

It might help a bit if Myriad's proposed location weren't far below the southern end of Tunica's casino strip -- meaning that Memphis-area customers driving in will get nine bites of the casino apple before they even get within eyeshot of Myriad. Plus, "Myriad executives still have visions of high-rollers betting big on the resort's casino floors, tourists filling its hotel rooms and big-name entertainers performing in its arena space, among other things."

High rollers? Um, you did know you're building in Tunica, right? But hey, they've got a cool water feature planned. And did I mention you can snap up Myriad stock for just pennies (17.6 cents, to be exact, when last checked)?

So if you're still bummed about the deflation of the Crown Las Vegas tower or have some extra scratch after Dubai World bought out your shares of MGM Mirage -- $70 million would do the trick -- I'm sure Scott Hawrelechko would love to hear from you ... and if not, there may be a few Arab petrocrats with a surplus dollar or two who'd be receptive to his pitch.

After all, Myriad has some of that over-the-top Crazy Quotient they just love over there. It could be the Dixie Dubai.

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