"We don't want them in there," huffs Ameristar Casinos' Troy Stremming (left) with regard to pathological gamblers. Stremming's high dudgeon rings a mite hollow now that the Missouri ballot initiative he crafted and shepherded to victory last fall is providing a free pass for problem gamblers. Once boarding requirements were repealed, away went the mechanism for screening self-banned gamblers. Whoops.

It's not like they still can't be caught on-property, though. Woe betide the player who hits a sufficiently big jackpot for his slot machine to go into "IRS lockdown." His identity has to be verified -- which means he can kiss those winnings goodbye and prepare to be handcuffed. To quote Geena Davis in Thelma & Louise, "The law is some tricky shit."

But Missouri's got nothing on Illinois, where casino employees double as "bounty hunters." If you're a self-banned player who's shooting dice at Alton Belle or Casino Queen, there's literally a price on your head.

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Icahn Capital, which purchased the Tropicana Atlantic City for $54 million, effectively, is projecting a conservative course for the property. Any sort of expansion is being ruled out for now, due to skepticism about "green shoots" of economic recovery.

Speaking of distrust, the New Jersey Casino Commission still needs to be convinced that Icahn's preferred operator, Tropicana Entertainment, isn't a stalking horse for Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III. (Both companies employ the same corporate mouthpiece, for instance.) Besides, if ties between TropEnt and Icahn are severed, what becomes of the "Tropicana" name?

(Also, calling TropEnt's eight raggle-taggle, non-Vegas/Atlantic City casinos an "empire" is pretty generous. A series of minor duchies and prinicipalities? Yeah, that's more like it.)

It doesn't look like a standalone A.C. Trop would have ownership of its name, as that remains with the "OpCo," that "empire" under which all the miscellaneous former Aztar Corp. and ColSux casinos are bunched. Tropicana Las Vegas boss Alex Yemenidjian apparently didn't read the fine print and may have to shell out $2 million a year to keep the name that is, along with its land, the LV Trop's main equity.

Would a Trop by any other name be just as marketable? One highly doubts it.

The Wild, Wild Midwest. Back in Illinois, the guvmint continues to take a "Ready, Fire, Aim!" approach to its management of the casino business. In his zeal to get slot routes up and running, Gov. Pat Quinn didn't appropriate extra moolah or manpower to ride herd on the influx of new gambling devices.

So, if you're a bar owner in the Land of Lincoln, it's a free for all. The state's casino owners, meanwhile, will probably have to wait until at least early next year before any financial relief makes its way through the Lege. Illinois isn't just killing the golden goose; it's serving it for lunch at the governor's mansion.

Suing the Chairman. One of the many interesting revelations in the Terrance K. Watanabe lawsuit is that Harrah's Entertainment created a special "Chairman" tier of players in his honor. (Take that, you Seven Stars members!) Watanabe's counterfilings against Harrah's also allege confidential agreements between the company and the high roller whereby he had a two-month (or greater) window of time to make good on his markers.

The documents further allege that Harrah's violated the agreement by cashing in the markers early. It sounds more and more like Watanabe has Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman by the short hairs. If the covenants can be substantiated, then Harrah's made a loan -- which is unenforceable -- and may have been in breach of contract. The company better get ready to eat $14.75 million. Compared to the nearly $300 million Loveman just wrote off, that's walking-around money.

Not that Watanabe is a pitiable victim in this drama. Seems he was rather a prima donna, dictating which employees would and would not dance attendance upon him. He was also able to have gambling tables and slot machines moved into special curtained alcoves, the bettter to squander his wealth in seclusion. To paraphrase Fitzgerald and Hemingway, the rich are not like you and I; they have more neuroses.

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After frequent demurrals, the Victoria government has 'fessed up that it was on the receiving end of ham-fisted lobbying by Crown Casino owner James Packer. A delicate quid pro quo (higher taxes in return for more table games) was being negotiated. But, not wanting to leave anything to chance, Packer personally besieged both Victoria's premier and treasurer in re Crown.

The state comes out of this looking worse than Packer, though, as witnessed by this weaselly attempt at damage control: "The Government is adamant that any expansion of Crown's gaming tables was under discussion for a long time and that poker was a less addictive form of gambling than poker machines." [Emphasis added] So I guess that makes it all copacetic, right?

Lawrence Ho & James Packer: less to smile about these days

Hammered in Macao. Packer's new City of Dreams is getting stomped by nearby Venetian Macao. VIP baccarat play for Melco Crown Entertainment properties was off 19% -- which is even worse than its sounds when you count on it for 60% of your total gambling revenues. Mass-market baccarat play was 12% up, so there's some consolidation. (Meanwhile, in some parallel universe, the Wall Street Journal is nattering on about a "brighter outlook" for Macao, even as revenue continues to decline and City of Dreams flops. Visitation was -16% in June and the Mainland China subset of that was -22%.)

A good thing for Sheldon Adelson that Venetian Macao's play is so strong. Bloomberg News reports that 85% of Las Vegas Sands' Macanese revenue is casino-derived ... which ought to raise serious questions about Adelson's hotel-, retail- and convention-premised Cotai Strip™ business model.

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A future Harrah's employee?

Harrah's Entertainment is poking its snout into the prospect of obtaining a management contract at bankrupt Twin River Casino, a dog track with VLTs in Rhode Island. The paraphrase of the explanation given by Harrah's senior veep Jan Jones seems fairly counterintuitive: "the state might be motivated now to give the company a shot because Massachusetts was on the brink of legalizing casinos."

OK, so Massachusetts is likely to legalize casinos, which makes this the perfect time to expand into ... Rhode Island? With its 60% tax rate? The part of Jones' explanation that makes more sense is that Harrah's would be able to tap into its New England base of Total Rewards players much closer to home (the nearest Harrah's outposts being Chester, Pa., and Atlantic City).

This could all be moot if the R.I. Lege scuppers a gubernatorial compromise that would can the dog racing and keep the casino open 'round the clock. Greyhound racing is a sport that really needs to be put out to pasture. Besides, it's only in place at Twin River because of a Byzantine legislative arrangement that Steve Friess rightly calls "a very weird deal," much of which involves propping up the dog-race union. (I never knew there was such a thing, but there is.)

So it's a win-win, right? A corporate savior for Twin Rivers and no more suffering doggies, yes? Well ... no, not if you're a nearby homeowner like Hal Perry, whose semi-rural lifestyle has been impinged upon by creeping incrementalism at Twin Rivers. Rather than lower the usurious tax rate, the state (which is seriously hooked on VLT revenue) simply keeps moving the goal posts -- longer hours, more machines.

Here comes Harrah's and, if you're a Twin Rivers neighbor worried about your property value, the noises are ominous indeed. As Jones tells Friess, "you couldn’t build a hotel right now ... So all of this is a process. But it's the beginning of the process and the point is that it's an excellent opportunity."

"Right now ... process ... beginning." In other words, Mr. Perry: Sell! Sell now! Get out before Harrah's drives you out.

Harrah's wins one. Sort of by default, but a win is a win. Dissident bondholders S. Blake Murchison and Willis Shaw had a shyster for an attorney. Case dismissed. Clearly, their due diligence with regard to lawyers was even worse than that they displayed as investors.

Gunshot? What gunshot? Although the Las Vegas Hilton was able to keep an on-property suicide out of the local papers, the news eventually surfaced via the Louisville Courier-Journal.

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Editor's note: An item involving Crown Ltd. contained factual errors, which have been corrected (as you'll see). I apologize for the misinformation. My thanks to the reader who pulled my head out of my @$$.

California gamblers stay and play ... at home. While the recession has made some inroads on tribal-casino revenue in the Golden State, it's losing less ground than Las Vegas. Some of those Vegas losses will eventually be recouped, but this day of reckoning was bound to come.

Unlike Las Vegas, which is arguably suffering from having too many competing profit centers within each resort, California casino bosses interviewed still view entertainment as either a loss leader or a one-off. I never thought I'd say this but Las Vegas could use a little more "old school" thinking right now.

James Packer, the guy who can't catch a break, is finds his casino company in even more hot water, in a case of the sins of the father being visited upon the son. The plot surrounding Crown Ltd.'s courtship of a self-banned high roller (and convicted felon) is thickening considerably. Seems paterfamilias Kerry Packer may have been pressuring crony John Williams to get pathological gambler Harry Kakavas back to the tables.

Williams, for his part, rolled on the late Mr. Packer, who's now got some 'splainin' to do. No wonder the young Packer's pursuit of Cannery Casino Resorts collapsed like a pup tent. The money quote, if you will, is: "[Williams] said it was common for patrons to rip up [self-exclusion] cards and that, in his view, Mr Kakavas's loss of $2.3 million in 28 minutes was recreational gambling."

If you lose $82,000 per minute, it's not recreation. It's degenerate gambling.

Globe-trotting Ian Sutton is back from Macao and G2E Asia. The sights! The sounds! The smog!

(Update: Ian says it's not smog but mist, as forthcoming videos will show.)

Holy Cow II: GlobeSt.com, normally a continent source of business news, is shocked -- shocked! -- that Steve Johnson's proposed casino on the former Holy Cow site will include a Walgreens. Smelling salts, stat!

But there are some interesting revelations, For one, the reason that Palazzo's flagship retailer is also a Walgreens is that it was a compromise Sheldon Adelson effected with the landowner ... Steve Johnson. (The mere fact of Adelson compromising is newsworthy enough.)

Turns out, that purchase may set the record for an on-Strip acquisition, at an alleged $50 million per acre -- Phil Ruffin, eat your heart out! Johnson also paid through the nose for the Holy Cow site. The price? $23.5 million/acre for land north of Sahara Avenue. Egad!

Columbia Sussex's casino portfolio continues to crumble. Tropicana Entertainment parent Tropicana Casinos & Resorts is selling its Amelia Belle riverboat (thereby forfeiting the New Orleans market) barely two years after the ship was acquired. Amelia Belle is former Harrah's Entertainment vessel, having been Bally's Belle of Orleans.

It's a canny strategic move for new owner Peninsula Gaming, which now has a Louisiana riverboat as well as a racino and four OTBs, not to mention a small flotilla of Midwest riverboats. TropEnt CEO Scott Butera, meanwhile, has less and less over which to preside. At the moment, his ambit consists of four riverboats, mostly in tertiary markets, two casinos in Laughlin and one on Lake Tahoe. Is this TropEnt's future: A succession of piecemeal asset sales? Sure looks that way.

Bad news for Sheldon Adelson. Over in Singapore, rival Genting's mega-budget Resorts World at Sentosa is letting news outlets like Bloomberg know that 60% of the project will ready for a soft opening in early 2010 (i.e., February-March). Projected attendance figures have been revised 20% downward.

In a rapier thrust at Marina Bay Sands, a Genting exec said the company was having regular meetings to make sure it came in on its $4.5 billion budget. Full completion of Sentosa is projected for 2012. Sands is going to have a sufficiently tough time making its nut without Genting crashing the party so soon ... to say nothing of the fact that Genting enjoys much higher brand equity in that corner of the world.

RoboPoker has risen from the grave. Electronic table games have been OK'd for eight New York State racinos. Though the Lege hasn't signed off, the Empire State's lottery board is confident it has the authority to make this move unilaterally. Poor Atlantic City is dying the death of a thousand cuts.

Congratulations to Penn National. It's scheduled to inaugurate a new pavilion for Empress Joliet today. A March 20 fire resulted in a three-month closure of the boat and substantial fiscal hardship for Penn National. In a noble gesture, CEO Peter Carlino kept employees on the payroll even though his ship was hors de combat. Capt. Carlino, S&G salutes you.

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State of the art Las Vegas ... if you're David Brooks.

OK, so David Brooks didn't go that far in his latest New York Times think piece, but if you applied his nostrums to the casino industry, Las Vegas would still look a heckuva lot like it did in 1988.

"The methodical executives at successful companies just make the same old four-door sedan, but they make it better and better," he writes. Then, further down: "The C.E.O.’s that are most likely to succeed are humble, diffident, relentless and a bit unidimensional. They are often not the most exciting people to be around. ... the virtues that writers tend to admire — those involving self-expression and self-exploration — are not the ones that lead to corporate excellence."

Hmmmmm. Steve Wynn can be egotistical, assertive, self-contradictory, multifaceted, expressive and reflective -- often all of the above in the space of a few sentences. His business track record must be a complete train wreck, mustn't it?

So hit the bricks, Wynn. You too, Anthony Marnell II & III, Glenn Schaeffer and Jim Murren, you art-collecting college-boy snobs. (They probably sip wine too, doncha bet?) We don't need none of yer out-of-the-box, smarty-pants thinking. Just give us the next iteration of the Boardwalk or Bingo Palace and make it snappy, OK?

The sound of obsolesence: The next time Review-Journal Editor Thomas Mitchell pens one of his endless series of musings wherein be strokes his moustache and is mystified by the decline of the newspaper bidness, he might ask himself this: Why did his paper run this wire-service story when the Sun had gotten to it two days earlier and in far greater detail?

The sad saga of Terrance K. Watanabe is rife with disturbing moral, ethical and regulatory questions. About the only clear-cut conclusion is that Watanabe's defense is a non-starter. (Harrah's Entertainment may be in trouble, but that's a separate issue.) Former Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose tried the same thing and had even less luck in court than at the tables. Fortunately, David G. Schwartz is right here to provide us with the relevant history and the precedent that augurs so poorly for the luck- and sobriety-challenged Mr. Watanabe.

It must be frustrating to keep trying to influence events and yet events refused to influenced, mustn't it? Let's ask this guy. He doesn't have a Puliztzer Prize, 'tis true. (Running stories two days after the Sun does might have something to do with it.) But some guy in Cedar City, Utah (who apparently couldn't find a copy of the Deseret News) is a big fan.

This just in: Schwartz also has the early word on a proposal to legitimize Illinois' gray-market slot route business. At first blush, this looks like a really good way to drive a dagger into the heart of the state's already-struggling casinos. Maybe Neil Bluhm should rethink that Chicagoland casino he's planning.

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Did somebody build the inaptly named Lucky Club  (above) over an Indian burial ground? A deprivation of access is but the latest indignity suffered by this North Las Vegas grind joint. While it was still the Speedway Casino, it was ravaged by fire. Years earlier, it was the Cheyenne, most famous for having its bookeeping described as "smoke and mirrors" by then-Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible. That rumpus -- and a few others like it -- would dog casino speculator Shawn Scott for the rest of his spotty career. Last we heard, Scott had hunkered down in the Virgin Islands.

Better fortune was in store for the long-on-the-market Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas, which couldn't find any takers not so long ago. I'm guessing "undisclosed price" is code for "fire sale."

(Update: It sold for $98 million.)

At least I'm not alone in thinking that Las Vegas Sands is headed over the brink. So does John L. Smith who has more bad news for Sheldon Adelson.

Need to raise awareness of your bookmaking service? Hire a gambling addict as your pitchman! The surprise isn't that this, er, novel marketing initiative was ashcanned but that it got as far as it did. Earth to Better Bet, Earth to Better Bet ...

Earth to Wynn ... Weather forecasters have been predicting high Thursday gusts of wind all week long. But Wynn Resorts must not have paid its cable TV bill because it sent window-washers up Encore anyway. Not surprisingly, something went wrong and they had to be rescued. Now that everybody in Vegas is on a curtain-wall craze, expect crises like these to multiply exponentially.

Going out on a limb, the Las Vegas Sun says that Sens. John Ensign and Harry Reid were doing the right thing ... now that a consensus has formed and the story has faded, making it safe to take a stand.

Wendover: Casinos, yes; mental health care ... not so much.

If you're going to lose your marbles in Nevada (some would say I already have), don't do it in Wendover. It's still OK to lose money there, though. Wendover Will approved this message.

On second thought, you might not want to bring your money here, either. At least not if you use debit cards. Where do I sign the petition to abolish the Nevada Legislature? They don't need any stinking due process, do they?

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Today's Gambling in Space has an excellent take-down of the hypocrisies rife amidst the cant of Dr. James Dobson and other anti-gambling zealots. As David Matthews points out, the charade of OK-ing gambling as long as it's in a moat or an a riverboat implicitly connotes that God's down with gambling, provided you don't do it on land.

My favorite line from the Focus on the Family jeremiad is, "Preliminary research indicates that a third or more of gambling revenues come from problem and pathological gamblers." I've never seen any study that came to that 33%-plus conclusion. Estimates of the prevalence of disordered gambling fall in the 1%-10% range (with the American Gaming Association not surprisingly favoring the lower number), nowhere near Dobson's alarmist scenario. "Preliminary research" in this case appears to be code for "stuff we just pulled out of our butt."

Update: Dobson is stepping down from FoF, but it's merely a cosmetic change. His sanctimonious utterances will continue to flood the airwaves for years to come.

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There's a bigger worry for casinos in Macao than whether the Chinese government eases visa restrictions: Some of the high-roller trade is dying -- literally. Macau Polytechnic Institute traced the fate of 99 VIP players who got into trouble with Chinese authorities. Not only were 15 facing death sentences, another seven had either killed themselves or been murdered. Two more had their death sentences commuted. And that's not counting an additional 20 in the hoosegow on lesser sentences. See what happens when you play too much Super Happy Fortune Cat?

Of course, it's easy to live the high-roller lifestyle when you're wagering with stolen money. Given that Chinese companies and governmental agencies were being sucked dry by kleptocrats with a gambling jones, Peking is understandably wont to tighten the screws on Macao. VIP-oriented operators like Melco Crown Entertainment and Wynn Resorts are most likely to feel the pinch, as we know is happening with Crown.

Ironically, for all its overreach in Macao, Las Vegas Sands made at least one sound decision when it targeted mass-market play. Too bad they proceeded to go and drink their own milkshake, as Venetian Macao sucks Sands Macao dry. (It's by now abundantly clear that it's no skin off the central government's nose if its effort to keep a close grip on where China's capital is flowing happens to throttle a few casino operators in the process.)

If Macao Chief Executive Edmund Ho (pictured) didn't have enough to worry about, a distant relative is wanted by Interpol. (Ian Sutton found the arrest warrant.) Even in American politics, the alleged misdeeds of your brother's brother-in-law might not arouse too much fuss and bother. But Chan Lin-ian and his missus are tied to the mega-scandal surrounding graft-meister Ao Man-long, who's currently doing 27 years' worth of hard time. If Sinologists are right that Peking wants to exert more direct control over Macao, this latest imbroglio would be useful leverage for pushing Edmund Ho out of office ahead of schedule, were it to suit the central government's motives.

The fine hand of Peking may be behind a newly organized and very umbrageous citizens group, Macau Residents, which has a Cotai Strip™-sized beef with Sheldon Adelson and his Las Vegas Sands.

Just for starters, the trademarking of "Cotai" (a conflation of Taipa and Coloane, Macao's two principal islands) sticks in the organizers' collective craw. Furthermore, the inevitable collision between the casino interests of Macao and Singapore has finally occurred. "We are hurt and angry that Sands Casino after making big monies from Macau had openly declared it will focus on Singapore instead of completing its unfinished works in Macau," rages the online petition. Taking as its pretext recent and massive layoffs at Sands' Macao properties, the group calls for the government to repatriate Adelson's land and casino concessions, and re-sell them to the highest bidder. (Oh, if only Gary Loveman could still borrow money!)

Macau Residents meet(s) the press, Jan. 19, 2009.

If I'm skeptical that this grassroots effort might be more like Astroturf, there are a few reasons. First, the group seems to be acting with a great deal of impunity, especially in deeply authoritarian China -- though the fine points of the Macanese/Mainland interrelationship may provide some wiggle room for those who want to take it to the streets of Macao.

Second, if the rift between Adelson and Chinese authorities is wide as has been speculated, what's the harm of ginning up an ersatz "people's revolution" to discomfit some capitalist running dogs (whose money just happens to have run out)? Perhaps you can even use it as a pretext to banish them in favor of somebody with greater solvency.

Third, the job cuts that "Macao Residents" is ostensibly protesting fell with greatest predominance upon guest workers, not Macanese citizens. Though, to be fair, a management-imposed workweek reduction hits very close to home indeed.

Sheldon Adelson™

Fourth, the threat from Singapore is not as severe as it's made out, seeing how the government down there has acceded to yet another Adelson-style soft opening, starting with the casino of course, with the rest of Marina Bay Sands' convention-oriented features eventually limping onto the scene. (Sound familiar?) It's an embarrassing climbdown for a government that had set as one of its goals making a high-impact splash in the international convention trade, not a dribbly "plop."

So these activists could be front men for Peking or they could be a bunch of Davids taking on Goliath. Either way -- and especially if some of the more attention-getting scuttlebutt proves to be true -- Sands' Macanese empire, its attempt to create Instant Vegas -- whoops, sorry, Asia's Las Vegas™ -- is presently being picked at like a beached whale during low tide.

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Only Donald Trump would have the nerve to blame his lender for his own inability to pay back a loan. And then sue for $3 billion. Maybe he shouldn't have flown solo on this project.

On the Strip, Trump is the latest condo developer to be sued by his own tenants. Chalk them up as yet another group of real estate buyers who are learning that a Vegas condo isn't the investment it's cracked up to be. Besides, anybody thinking they can rent out a condo on the Strip for $650/night midweek just isn't doing their homework.

Non-participation? There's a rumor afoot that MGM Mirage is pulling all revenue-participation games from its casino floors. Asked to verify the accuracy of aforesaid rumor (which came by way of an extremely reputable source), MGM's Alan Feldman responded:

We are changing the mix of our gaming floors (which, in general terms is always on-going) and, where appropriate, we are removing some participation games.  There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, but in some cases, we are making changes.  It has only come after considerable deliberation at each property.  By way of example, while some participation games are being removed in Las Vegas, those same games may well remain in Detroit or Biloxi.

Over at Station Casinos, they were kind enough to respond to our query as to why $662 million Aliante Station was going with a mix of in-house restaurants and franchises (a 90-degree shift from current policy at Red Rock Resort and Green Valley Ranch). Quoth media rep Lori Nelson:

While we have had an emphasis on creating our own restaurant concepts in the past, we also like to strike a balance of bringing entertainment amenities and offerings that the surrounding area needs/desires. As such, we held many community meetings with area residents and associations from the time we acquired the [Aliante] land to get their input. We also studied the area as well and determined that we would like to create an F&B line up that was a mix of our popular venues together with some new and exciting partner tenants. Obviously Rino Armeni opening up his first restaurant with us was a huge [coup].  We also liked the Camacho family out of Southern California and felt their style of casual Mexican dining was a good fit for Aliante and a new restaurant concept into the market.

Another recent example is LBS joining the ranks of Red Rock (the burger bar is owned by Billy Richardson). We had a void for a good burger joint in Summerlin and this was a great addition to our dining line up. And of course, we've had a great partnership with Original Pancake House at Green Valley Ranch. The line is always out the door there and the area residents are thrilled that the franchise owner, Stephan Freudenberger ... and TGI Fridays has just come into the market so strong and we felt they rounded out the offerings for the N. Las Vegas community.

Finally, we have brought our signature seafood/steakhouses (we have MRKT Sea & Land at Aliante Station) and The Feast Buffet to Aliante Station. Our steakhouses such as Austin's at Texas Station, Hank's Fine Steaks and Martinis at Green Valley Ranch, Sonoma Cellar at Sunset Station, Charcoal Room at Santa Fe [Station] and T-Bones Chophouse at Red Rock are very popular with the locals.

The food court is a staple throughout most Station Casinos properties. The location is right near the movie theatres and arcade (family friendly area) and in close proximity to the race and sports book and the poker room, so another convenient food option that can be brought into those gaming areas.  Don't be making fun of Dunkin' Donuts. I'm a girl from Detroit and am ecstatic they are here.

No offense intended. We've been known to break bread there ourselves.

Speaking of Station, our earlier report on the duo of dipshits who were busted for child endagerment at Tuscany Casino, elicited a note from a reader who'd "heard from a dealer at Red Rock some time ago was about how often people drop their kids off at Kidquest (or whatever they call it [Kids Quest -- Ed.]), then lose all their money gambling leaving them with nothing to pay for their kids' time there. They really should charge upfront."

Agreed. As for all you parental deadbeats out there, the good news is that well-funded programs exist in Nevada to help you get out of your disordered behavior before you pass that rampant douchebaggery onto your unfortunate kids.

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