Look what just fell into the S&G mailbag:

Beginning January 1, 2010 Penn National Gaming will partner with RPM Advertising to develop and execute a brand identity for Hollywood Casinos.  The full service assignment will incorporate research, brand development, media planning/buying, creative execution, production services and direct marketing.  Penn National, one of the top five gaming companies in the world, owns and operates seven Hollywood Casinos across the country including facilities in Aurora, IL; Bangor, ME; Baton Rouge, LA;  Grantville, PA; Lawrenceburg, IN; Bay St. Louis MS; and Tunica, MS.

Forgive me if I have a coughing spasm after reading Penn National describe itself as "one of the top five gaming companies in the world." I suppose it would depend on your definition of "top" (number of facilities and/or employees, market cap, etc.) but in an industry that contains MGM Mirage, Harrah's Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Boyd Gaming, Station Casinos and even woebegone Trump Entertainment Resorts, the best Penn could hope for in terms of name recognition would be eighth place. (Enter RPM, stage right.)

As for the marketing alliance, given the timing of the belated decision to try and unify the brand, it looks like Penn is going to attempt a Harrah's in reverse: acquire a Strip property (Fontainebleau) and then create a company-wide brand-loyalty program to incentivize customers to visit its shiny new megaresort.

Sounds a bit cart-before-horse to me but, after today's bulletin, it's no stretch of the imagination to suggest that F-bleau could soon become Hollywood Las Vegas or some close variant thereof. At least in terms of brand equity, it would represent a step or two up from F'bleau, whose name recognition factor is now entirely negative.

Green shoot? Weekday room rates for early December at Vdara have nudged upward to $145/night (from $129) according to J.P. Morgan analysts.

What's wrong with this picture? The media night for Wayne Newton's new Tropicana show, Once Before I Go (could we have that in writing?) looks more like a Dancing with the Stars tour stop. In addition to former contestants Sabrina Bryan and Jennie Garth, four DWTS regulars -- including Cheryl Burke and Kym "Tina Sparkle" Johnson -- will be on hand.

Except for Ms. Johnson, who's presumably in town to rehearse current partner Donny Osmond, the quartet is available because they've all been eliminated. (For instance, Alec Mazo helped Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin dance her way to a premature exit.)

Trouble is, they'll be in the audience and the Wayner will be onstage. Wouldn't you prefer the reverse proposition? And since Newton is strictly a short-term proposition for the Trop (six months and out), would it be too much to hope for a Vegas offshoot of DWTS as his successor?

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"Steve Wynn was the worst offender on that score. Last year, he used his aircraft for a $1 million of personal travel, which Wynn [Resorts] shareholders paid for. To do $1 million worth of travel, I worked it out that you’d have to fly to Hawaii and back every week for a year to rack that kind of a cost up." -- investor activist Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital, on the subject excessive perks in the casino industry.

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Penn National Gaming "has not lost its senses and, [contends] that at the right price and through the right vehicle (and only with a sizable strategic partner who would bring something special to the project, presumably some hotel experience), its involvement in Fountainebleau could make sense.” -- quote from Penn's 3Q09 earnings report, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. This is the first we're hearing about joint-venture F-bleau partners, though.

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MGM Mirage has announced that it's writing off approximately $1.3 billion (i.e., taking an "impairment charge") against CityCenter, with $348 million of that chalked up to falling real estate values. (Some $174 million of that will apparently be fobbed off on MGM's partners, bringing MGM's writeoff down to $1.1 billion.) The value of MGM's half-share of the project has been restated at $2.44 billion (a 31% decline). No word yet from Dubai World as to what it thinks its half of CityCenter is worth.

Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. shook a rhetorical fist at Wall Street, stating in a press release that there is "substantial unrecognized value in MGM and CityCenter that is not reflected in the market value of MGM’s stock." It's nice to know that even mega-corporations can feel underappreciated.

Bottoming out? Air traffic into and out of Las Vegas was almost flat, year over year, -1.2% in September, helped by passenger-load increases -- and I don't mean those hefty people who take up two seats -- on nearly every domestic carrier not named US Airways (-26%). Considering that international traffic was -21%, this is augurs well for a return of domestic consumer confidence in Sin City. And, yes, flat is the new "up."

Pennsylvania: Rendell intervenes. Never accuse the Keystone State Lege of acting in haste. The table games bill is still mired in conference committe, prompting Gov. Ed Rendell (D) to wade into the fray. Rendell's magic number for the amount of revenue table games must yield in fees and taxes is $200 million. To get there, the guv believes the tax rate must be 16%. But he's closer to the GOP position, warning that the higher levies favored by Dems would "kill the golden goose" and deprive Little Johnny's school of needed funding. Meanwhile, Rivers Casino continues to disappoint, with the lowest revenue-per-slot in the state.

Finally, a taker! Out of left field, a contender has emerged for the orphaned casino license in Cherokee and Crawford counties in Kansas. You'll recall that it was awarded to Penn National Gaming, seemingly ages ago, but Penn -- spooked by nearby tribal competition -- all but spat on the license before leaving in a huff.

Enter Ozark Trail Gaming, a consortium of Kansas businessmen, offering to build a $225 million, 900-slot, 30-table casino. After some bad experiences with carpetbagger casino developers trying to dictate terms to the Sunflower State, you have to think the Kansas Lottery Board will look kindly upon this native-son effort.

ColSux loses again. A $41.5 million summary judgment has been slapped on Columbia Sussex for abrogating its purchase of the President riverboat in St. Louis (now the property of ColSux arch-foe Pinnacle Entertainment). Regulators for Missouri didn't like the looks of ColSux and its CEO, William J. Yung III (above). The latter pulled his license application and used that as an excuse to void the President purchase, but a federal district judge wasn't buying it.

The former President owners were also suing ColSux for jacking up parking rates for casino patrons by 560% (no, that is not a typo), a truly Yungian move. If poetic justice were served in this case, the court would award the ship to ColSux. Since the President's days on the water are numbered and Yung will licensed in Missouri only in his wildest dreams, trying to dispose of that near-worthless asset might be the aptest punishment of all.

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Just as I said, CityCenter is becoming the mid-market epicenter of Las Vegas. Today's mailbag yielded a $129/night offer for Vdara, plus $50 in amenity credits -- more evidence of the downward pressure CityCenter is exerting on the Strip. But anything that means greater affordability for John Q. Public is A-OK with S&G. Besides, having bunched as much as 85% of the new room product at the upper end of the market, companies like MGM Mirage were bound to have this come-to-Jesus moment sooner rather than later.

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"I predict a rough winter for Vegas. Swine flu may not be a pandemic, but it may really mess with the casino business. It could make the economic downturn look mild." -- a locally based casino-industry expert, in an e-mail to LVA.

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... as even Pennsylvania racinos face hard times. It was inevitable that the American appetite for casinos would achieve a saturation point. We've not only reached it, the ongoing depression has pushed us well beyond the point of inelasticity.

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Contrary to repeated assertions by J.P. Morgan, it would appear that MGM Mirage is putting out promotional specials for Bellagio ... and very aggressively so. Note however, that Steve Wynn's masterpiece is maintaining its price point and Aria is the one having to come down to meet it.

Also, an unscientific survey of mid-week rates parallel to Aria's opening shows that what the CityCenter flagship is doing is sucking the air out of the rest of the Strip, especially other MGM properties. Even Wynn Las Vegas is down to $159/night that week (quotes were predicated on a three-night stay).

The absolute bargain was Downtown's Golden Gate ($12.71) and unless you count Hooters and fellow bottom-feeder Wild Wild West, the lowest on-Strip price was $21.21 at MGM's Circus Circus. The Sahara ($22.40) and Imperial Palace ($25) were close behind. They were ever-so-slightly outpriced by the Riviera ($27) and Tropicana ($29.33).

As for other properties in the lion's den: Excalibur ($31), Luxor ($48.37), New York-New York ($50), Monte Carlo ($58.62), the Green Monster (aka MGM Grand, $70), Mandalay Bay ($72.55), The Mirage ($76.50), THEhotel ($93.29), Vdara ($109) ... with only the Green Monster's Sky Lofts ($600) outpricing Aria.

So, MGM, are you sure this oligopoly business model is the way you want to go? I'm just askin'.

<crickets>

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Peepshow star/trainwreck-in-progress Aubrey O'Day likes to speak her mind, for whatever it's worth. Evidently the recklessly candid utterances of Ms. O'Day were worth not one, not two but, yes, three dispatches by Richard Abowitz.

The fascination is understandable, given an interview subject who readily owns up to being unhappy and describes her demi-celebrity as "fame-ish-ness." O'Day's costar, Holly Madison may have been dubbed "Queen of Vegas" but when Las Vegas Weekly tried to wrest similar prose mileage out of her, the result was better than Sominex. Strangely, I find myself rooting for the id-on-the-loose that is O'Day to go the distance here in Vegas.

A Bronx Tale. Kudos to Sheldon Adelson for rolling the dice on Chazz Palminteri's virtuosic one-man show, whose run has been extended for another week. Yours truly finds it a rather warm-and-cuddly depiction of Mob life but both Mike Weatherford and Joe Brown express nearly unmitigated enthusiasm. Whichever way you slice it, it's still three thumbs up for Palminteri.

Wynn still happy. If the Chinese government's aim in applying further curbs to Macao is to "tamp ... down" the Cotai Strip™, where Sheldon Adelson™ aims to build "Asia's Las Vegas™" no wonder Steve Wynn is a happy camper. Anything that handcuffs main rivals Las Vegas Sands and Stanley Ho is good news at Wynn HQ, especially with Encore Macau coming on line soon. How boring life would become if Wynn and Adelson ever suspended their running verbal gunfight.

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That's basically the message coming out of bankruptcy court, where Fontainebleau ownership requested permission to scrap all conventions and meetings through October 2011. Among many other disclosures in the fast-moving Chapter 11 was the sacking of seven top executives. (A well-kept secret, seeing as the septet had been let go last May.)

At the top of the list was F'bleau President Audrey Oswell. Since being forced out of Caesars Atlantic City by Park Place Entertainment, Oswell's resumé has taken a pummeling. She left Resorts Atlantic City just as Colony Capital was beginning to mismanage it into insolvency, then leapfrogged to Cosmopolitan (foreclosed) and then from the deck of that sinking ship to F'bleau. If it weren't for bad luck, she'd have no luck at all.

Here's hoping Oswell's next employer has steadier financial underpinnings than her last three. (Question for Resorts A.C. lenders: If you give Colony the boot but leave casino boss Nick Ribis in place, have you really solved the problem?)

Matthews out, Satre in: The much-admired Philip G. Satre has taken over as chairman of IGT, where he will no doubt act as a valued counselor to CEO Patti Hart, vouchsafing an insider's perspective on the casino companies with whom she must deal. Satre's ascent could also make for an interesting turn in the war of words between IGT and Harrah's Entertainment, whose CEO and CFO have made it a pastime to trash-talk the slot giant. Will Gary Loveman be so bold in slamming IGT now that his Harrah's predecessor chairs its board?

Bad timing? Despite the Chinese government's speedy flip-flop on access to Macao, the dynamic duo of MGM Mirage and Pansy Ho are mulling both an IPO on the Hang Seng stock exchange and further expansion in the casino enclave. But is this the moment for such aggressiveness? MGM Grand Macao is only beginning to perform up to expectations and the parent company is having to push a $5.6 billion debt payment into 2015.

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