"No corporate liposuction." With those words, new Tropicana Las Vegas CEO Alex Yemenidjian not only coined the catchphrase of the year, he implicitly repudiated the policies of forerunner William J. Yung III, whose Columbia Sussex modus operandi was to solve all problems by sacking large numbers of employees, stripping out amenities, raising prices, slashing marketing and decimating advertising budgets. (A super-stupid policy, it turns out, as revenues and cash flow at at least three of four former Aztar Corp. casinos plummeted under Yung's reign of error.)

A-Yem's approval hearing with the Nevada Gaming Commisson was marred only by a senior moment from Commissioner John Moran Jr. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Moran "applauded Yemenidjian’s efforts and recalled playing golf at a course near the Tropicana, adding that he hopes new management will be able to return the property to its glory days."

WTF? Is Moran flashing back to the Tropicana golf course that used to be in back of the old Marina Hotel and was cannibalized by MGM Grand? Or maybe the Dunes Golf Course across the street? That was more than 10 years ago, dude, and what's it got to do with the price of tea in the Trop? Is he suggesting A-Yem put in some links? The only ones you could fit into the current Trop site are the putt-putt kind -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

Yemenidjian's $440 million debt-for-equity swap effectively reprices the Trop at $12.9 million/acre ... possibly even less depending on how great of a discount Onex Corp. obtained on that debt.

Kudos to NGC Chairman Peter Bernhard (pictured) for crafting a sensible solution to the problem of licensing Las Vegas Gaming CEO Jon Berkley. Both the new CEO and his company have been stumble-prone, so Bernhard's provisional one-year license is a prudent compromise, giving Berkley just enough rope to either hang himself or prove that he's the Mr. Fixit his lawyer says he is. As for Las Vegas Gaming, it's where your phone call rolls over when you dial up ...

... the Ensign scandal's casino connection. Over at the Las Vegas Gleaner, Hugh Jackson has unearthed "the forgotten Ensign," brother Bill, onetime COO of Nugget Gaming, a company with a remarkable development slate. When S&G rang up Nugget's executive offices on Ali Baba Lane, we got Las Vegas Gaming instead. Neither Bill Ensign nor Nugget CEO Stephen Crystal were to be found on the voice-mail directory either.

Crystal was the chief huckster for Barrick Gaming, an underfunded company that fronted Lichtenstein-based Tamares Group's stealthy acquisition of six downtown Las Vegas casinos, before vanishing in a cloud of insolvency. During my early months at the Las Vegas Business Press, I quickly learnt to take Crystal's public pronouncements cum grano salis. (Well, he was an ex-politician, after all.)

Helpfully, the Nugget Gaming site actually provides old news clippings that show just how hilariously full of it Crystal and front man D.W. Barrick were. A former colleague who had a ringside seat for Barrick Gaming's licensing told me that Nevada regulators were desperate and convinced themselves the (wholly unrelated) Barrick Gold Corp. fortune stood at Mr. Barrick's back. As the Barrick/Crystal house of cards was collapsing, I called Toronto-based Barrick Gold spokesman Vince Borg for comment. He'd never heard of Barrick Gaming. So much for that.

DINO? Not as in "Martin," sadly. Reporter Dennis Myers breaks down why casino executives and other bidness bigwigs are lining up behind Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Yes, this is the same Reid the Las Vegas Review-Journal routinely and hysterically calls "socialist." Then again, the R-J thinks anybody to the left of Grover Norquist is a pinko.