David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - LVCVA

Quote of the Day

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:53:00 -0700

"What does $87 million buy Las Vegas in 2009? A slogan from 2003 ... This is the mother of all intellectual white flags." -- Vegas Rex, on the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority's reversion to the "What Happens Here, Stays Here" slogan.

Blimps on the radar

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:03:00 -0700

Dipping into the dispatch box, S&G finds the following tidbits, courtesy of the nice people at J.P. Morgan:

Alex Yemenidjian is serious about revamping the Tropicana Las Vegas. He's just inked a contract with Bally Technologies for a player-tracking system and other BYI goodies ...

... fading interest in MGM Grand Detroit has caused MGM Mirage to take it off the market. Also, with the company looking at price concessions to its CityCenter condo buyers (i.e., forfeiting money it was counting on to finance CityCenter), it may need to borrow against its Detroit palace, one of the few MGM properties still unencumbered ...

... Atlantic City, like Macao, is and will probably always be essentially a daytripper market. So there's symmetry in the fact that China State Construction Engineering Corp. has been signed to finish the stalled Revel project on the Boardwalk, to the tune of $1.7 billion. A July 11 opening is predicted. This is the best news to emerge from Atlantic City in quite a long while.

Speaking of good news, gaming revenues for Nevada's July are in and, basically, they don't suck. Yes, the Silver State was down 8% and the Strip was 11%. But June's year/year comparisons were far suckier (-15% on the Strip), so there's some consolation to be had. In fact, compared to a series of truly craptacular year/year comparisons -- all in double digits, except for last May -- it's darn near cause for celebration.

Table game drop was down overall but the casinos played lucky, particularly at baccarat. (Watch the first-season Mission Impossible episode "Odds on Evil," if you need a quick primer on this game. You'll get scintillating performances by Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in the bargain.)

Slot play is way down (-17.5% win on -15% handle) and North Las Vegas, bouyed by Aliante Station, was the only part of Clark County to have a positive month. Laughlin got hammered pretty badly (-19%) and neither Reno (-21%) nor South Lake Tahoe (-33%) seems likely to ever fully recover from tribal competition across the border, Tahoe especially. If there was a moment for some "unbundling" by overexposed companies, this is it.

Didn't get the memo. Would somebody break into the R&R Partners biosphere and let oxygen into the office of Billy Vassiliadis? "Billy V" was the author of this boneheaded pensée, which he shared with the Los Angeles Times:

"You've got to drop your rates, but you don't want to create a sense that this is a discount experience or that the experience itself has been diminished."

What the ... ? Las Vegas' recent success was built on the perception (and actuality) of a "discount experience," and lower prices are unlikely to "diminish" a tourist destination that is now synonymous with exclusivity and unaffordability. Vassiliadis, like Sheldon Adelson and the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, seems convinced that the current doldrums are -- to use my favorite Internet-board gaffe -- "a blimp [sic] on the radar."

They need to wrap their heads around the reality that 2004-like levels of business were damned good at the time (superb, in fact) and that Vegas needs to get back to the value-based messages that fueled the preceding 15 years of growth. Or, as David G. Schwartz writes in a particularly trenchant DieIsCast.com entry: "Of course, unpredictable events can make a hash of any predictions, so it’s possible that five years from now the casino industry will be employing 100,000 more people than it does today. That would be after the federal government offers Americans a $10,000 annual tax credit against travel to Las Vegas, and Las Vegas alone."

Seems like some folks in the marketing bidness should be taking Dr. Schwartz's classes.

Colony Capital comedy

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:29:00 -0700

Having borrowed money to buy the Las Vegas Hilton five years ago at a dirt-cheap $200 million, Colony Capital -- those financial wizards -- borrowed $250 million more to retire the first loan. (Does Colony intend to pay off the second loan by taking out a third?)

At some point, Colony may have to start like, you know, paying down these loans ... but not yet. It's extended the maturity on Loan #2 into 2011. The story (second item) is somewhat confusingly worded, but it sounds like Colony is down to its last extension. And the LVH is now losing money. Perhaps Colony should ring up Penn National Gaming and see if CEO Peter Carlino wants to talk "flip." It's still a classy property with a wealth of history and unbeatable proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center. There are much worse deals to be had out there (*cough* Fontainebleau *cough*).

Also: LVH headliner Barry Manilow is reportedly mulling a leap over to Paris-Las Vegas, another augury of trouble for Colony. Manilow's departure would leave the LVH with some tight trousers to fill.

Another setback for Ed Ad. Its attempt to lease the southeast portion of its ex-New Frontier acreage to a "Dinner in the Sky" outfit (complete with a 160-foot crane) got the back of the hand from the Clark County Commission. Both Boyd Gaming and Wynn Resorts balked at the prospect of diners dangling high above Echelon and Wynn Las Vegas. However, there's some pretty freaky shit on the Strip already and this seems tame by comparison. God knows, it couldn't be worse than the lametastic "Sirens of T&A" or whatever Phil Ruffin's nautical titty show is called.

The dream is dying

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:07:00 -0700

Just last week, UNLV's historical sage, Dr. Eugene Moehring, was taking a dim view of the fate of Las Vegas' working class. Now comes the Wall Street Journal to back him up with some sobering reportage.

Even at union salaries, Culinary Union-represented employees are hardly living on Easy Street. According to the WSJ's Tamara Audi, a hotel maid can expect to make slightly under $30K/year. She also finds a fry cook who was pulling in $36K annually, before he was laid off. (He's now making much less at union-free M Resort.) This goes to show not only the importance of union representation but also how close many of these people are to the economic precipice.

Many of the causes of our current plight (like real estate speculation) are outside my remit. However, a great deal of the blame falls upon casino CEOs who -- encouraged by banks that pushed too-easy credit like "happy dust" and by cheerleading Wall Street analysts -- succumbed severally and variously to a collective psychosis.

The Plaza: Rooms available, starting the 12th of Never.

The hyper-optimistic mentality that produced a rapid-fire succession of (in no particular order) CityCenter, Cosmopolitan, Fontainebleau, Echelon, Palazzo, Encore, the Hard Rock Hotel acquisition/expansion, and even will o' the wisps like Crown Las Vegas and Viva, rested upon a bizarre assumption. Namely, that the Las Vegas Strip could not only absord literally thousands upon thousands of new rooms (preponderantly at the high end) but could do in a compressed time frame.

A few companies even thought this could be done even after they'd glutted themselves with LBO debt. (True, Harrah's Entertainment now says it never intended to go the metaresort route but the available evidence testifies otherwise.) As I've written before, a bubble was mistaken for a baseline, thereby magnifying the consequences when the economic fundamentals began to crumple.

Distance evidently lends clarity, at least to Harvey Perkins of East Coast-based Spectrum Gaming Group. He calls for a complete rethinking of the luxury-based Vegas business model, repositioning the Strip's posh palaces slightly downmarket. It'll mean eating a lot of pride but what alternatives are there?

It's a glass half-full perspective, which is preferable to the overdose of gloom quaffed by MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren. He darkly prophesies, "There won't be another property built in Las Vegas for a decade."

Just wait 'til the next economic upturn and see if Murren is still saying kaddish. There will be new casinos in Las Vegas before 2019, I'm fully confident -- but they'll be ones positioned around affordability and (hopefully) generating double-digit ROI. Because, frankly, Las Vegas isn't the investment it used to be.

The St(ump) Regis, as it was to have been.

Then there's the schizoid-sounding Sheldon Adelson, who harrumphs, "I don't see any opportunities for any development in Las Vegas." Emphasis added; the Las Vegas Sands CEO seems to swing from bullish to bearish by the day.) It'd be nice for Sands if Adelson had been vouchsafed this insight before he started work on the St(ump) Regis in the midst of a condo-market meltdown. Now it's big bloody nose right betwixt the eyes of the Venetian and Palazzo.

The polar opposite of Adelson is Culinary Union boss D. Taylor who sounds like a flack for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, so giddy is his optimism. Hey, D., have you talked to your workforce lately -- you know, the ones who just had to defer a $710/year pay bump?

At least some amusement is to be had from the Strip map prepared for the WSJ by Bill Lerner's new outfit, Union Gaming Research:

I don't think I'd take investment advice from a firm that doesn't know the correct spellings of "Echelon" or "Caesars." City Center seems to fallen off the map entirely. It'd also take issue with the classification of many sites (like the in-foreclosure FX Real Estate plot) as "ceased or delayed" as there was never any work to cease or delay at, say Elad Properties' "Plaza" site or Crown Las Vegas (aka "Archon"). Ditto MGM/Kerzner, Africa Israel, etc. However, the Cosmo, which really is in limbo, doesn't make onto the map.

At any rate, as land prices on the Strip continue to return to earth, there's going to be plenty of prospective acreage for the company that's ready, willing and able to build a mid-market casino on the Strip.

LVCVA has lemons, makes lemonade

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:43:00 -0700

What do you do if your expensively wrought, expensively litigated marketing slogan has jumped the shark and become the most tiresome cliché in America.?If you're the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, you figure out a way to monetize the fact that your catchprase is played out ... thereby ringing up a few extra changes upon it. Congratulations to R&R Partners for this splendid example of advertisement jujitsu.

Oscar Goodman, Voice of Reason

Thu, 21 May 2009 18:15:00 -0700

Even as MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren and Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin are preparing to stomp out any incipient recovery in Las Vegas by jacking up room rates, words of restraint are coming from the unlikeliest of sources: Mayor Oscar Goodman. Quoth Hizzoner: "There are a lot of people [here] now; I understand they may not be spending as much as they have in the past."

(And if Ruffin really doesn't want $50/night customers, as he's said, I can inform him that Harrah's Las Vegas would be very happy to take them off his hands this very evening. As for Columbia Sussex's Westin Casuarina, those guys are living in a f***ing dream world, demanding $109 for a room on a night when I can get one at Caesars Palace for but a dollar more. Hmmmm ... Westin Casuarina, Caesars Palace ... Casuarina, Caesars ... such a tough choice.)

Goodman was counseling moderation in the context of praising what he called "very conservative" projections by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. The recent double-whammy of low occupancies and ADRs obviously sucks, but if occupancy truly is beginning to ramp back up, there'd be no better way to nip that in the bud than by repricing as though a full-blown recovery were underway.

As for the LVCVA, it sure didn't waste any time ditching the "bargain destination" message in favor of the same old "Party like it's 2006" crap. Do you get the feeling that selling a message of affordability really chaps the LVCVA's ass? (That band of brothers and sisters from Cranfils Gap, Tex., seems to have done a quick disappearing act. Anybody seen them lately?)

The indiscreet charm of the douchebagerie appears more to the LVCVA's liking. According the authority's guru-on-retainer, Billy Vassiliadias, customers seek "some comfort that this is the Vegas they've always known and loved." You mean that high-end-centric, $500-for-a-bottle-of-Absolut-and-some-cranberry-juice Vegas? Yeah, that's the ticket.

Goodman gets it. Too bad Vassiliadias apparently doesn't.

Quote of the Day

Wed, 13 May 2009 12:31:00 -0700

"We don't see them getting worse. The problem is we don't see them getting better." -- Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith on 2009-10 tourism statistics for Las Vegas.

LVCVA gets with the times

Tue, 05 May 2009 11:39:00 -0700

Just yesterday, I was comparing a dazzling Macao promotional spot -- one which made the most of what diversity that enclave has to offer -- to the staler-than-stale recent efforts churned out on Las Vegas' behalf by R&R Partners. Little did I know that a topical one-shot ad spot from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority was running in Monday's USA Today.

Seizing upon Vice President Joseph Biden's recent "gaffe" about steering clear of swine flu, the LVCVA ran a full-page ad featuring Biden's mug and the tagline, "Mr. Vice President, if you had said it here, no one would have known."

Har-de-har. Actually, having worked with quite a few professional singers in a previous incarnation as an arts journalist, I can tell you they'd vouch for Biden's advice re being wary of confined conveyances -- especially airplane flights -- right down the line. As is so often the case in Washington, simple candor becomes a "gaffe." The Naval Observatory (official resident of the Veep) just might be the only place in or around D.C. where Diogenes could safely stop these days.

The Biden ad, of course, rings yet another change on "What happens here, stays here." Well, as the Carrie Prejean kerfuffle conclusively proves, what happens in Vegas has a half-life of forever nowadays. Besides, that "what happens in Vegas" cliché jumped the shark when convicted felon O.J. Simpson tried to employ it to excuse a botched heist at Palace Station. Surely it's time to put that line out to stud or send it to the glue factory, perhaps.

Macao in 3 minutes

Mon, 04 May 2009 14:57:00 -0700

Splendid! Call me jaded but I've never seen a Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority spot that was nearly as appealing ... and probably won't as long as the LVCVA remains wedded to the tired ideas of R&R Partners.

What happens in Moscow ...

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:53:00 -0700

These days, one is constantly reading gripes that it's no fun to play in Las Vegas anymore. They sure don't have that problem in Russia, as this compilation of eye-in-the-sky footage proves. (Thanks to GamingFloor.com Editor Ian Sutton for the link.) True, the dealers can't deal and nobody can keep their hands to themselves -- but these comrades sure know how to party! Forget R&R Partners: This is the kind of promotional spot Rossi Ralenkotter needs.

Be sure to watch until the very end or you'll miss the best laugh in the entire reel.

Update: I don't think all the casinos are in Moscow, that's just a figure of speech. (I wanted to headline it, "What happens in Murmansk ..." but decided this blog was obscure enough already.) The locations are all identified at the end, I believe, but my Cyrillic is right up there with my Swahili.

Public Service Announcement

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:23:00 -0700

Ever wonder where the taxes you pay on your Las Vegas hotel room go? Well, some of them underwrite brilliant ideas like this one:

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and its resort and hospitality partners are encouraging everyone -- your employees, suppliers, neighbors, family and friends -- to wear blue on May 12 to show support for travel and tourism. Blue is an official color of the State of Nevada and this simple gesture will show your pride in our community.

No joke, that is an official LVCVA proclamation. People actually get paid to sit around and think up beyond-meaningless ("puerile" is more like it) gestures like that. So if you just happen to squeeze into a pair of blue jeans on May 12 you're supporting travel and tourism! But if you're merely traveling to or touring Nevada, I guess you're just an ambulatory collection plate from which LVCVA salaries -- and juicy lifetime contracts for R&R Partners -- are subsidized.

Now, about Boulder City ...

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:32:00 -0700

Thursday, I asked what was wrong with a Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority graphic urging Southern Nevadans to "Stay and Play" in a five-city area that included Las Vegas, Primm, Mesquite, Laughlin and Boulder City. (As opposed to Yuma, perhaps? Victorville maybe?)

It's probably hair-splitting but ... to the extent (and I'd argue it's a large extent) that "Stay and Play" implies gambling, the inclusion of Boulder City is rather piquant. It is, after all, the one Nevada city in which you cannot gamble -- giving one that much more time to enjoy its many other charms, however.

First, some good news

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:19:00 -0700

In a refreshing change of pace comes news of a casino that's on schedule for its opening. OK, so it's in Dodge City, Kansas, but we'll take good news wherever we can get it these days. Whoever thought avionics firm Butler National would be the sole casino bidder to make good on its Sunflower State commitment?

How quickly we forget that the original plans for Red Rock Resort called for three condo-hotel towers. Station Casinos was feeling its oats back then, thinking big even as it projected only single-digit ROI at Red Rock as far out as 2011 or longer. Overconfident much?

They like us. They really, really like us. Casinos in Southern Nevada feeling the recession's pinch are suddenly overflowing with newfound lurve for area customers, long taken for granted. Here's what's on offer so far. Satellites like Primm and Mesquite weren't any great shakes during Vegas' halcyon years. Why you'd go out there now when oligopolists Herbst Gaming and Black Gaming have helped run their respective markets into the ground is difficult to fathom. (Primm, at least, has a good outlet mall. Mesquite ... not so much.) Oh, and what's wrong with this "Stay and Play Here" graphic?

Goodman one-ups Adelson. Although he's never exuded warm fuzzies toward the Culinary Union, neither has -- to my knowledge -- Sheldon Adelson called his longtime adversary "evil." So Mayor Oscar Goodman stepped into the breach -- or stepped in something. As for the Culinary, it's got much bigger problems to worry about.

Any company that planned an ultra-high-end Elvis Presley-themed resort (a conceptual disconnect if ever I heard one) doesn't have both oars in the water. This one doesn't have money in the bank, either, and may soon have its Strip parcel sold right out from under it.

Las Vegas' best low-cost attraction is on the move, down the road to 1610 E. Tropicana Ave. If there's a guest list for the grand reopening, Elton John isn't on it.

Family-friendly Vegas is back

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:32:00 -0700

Anybody thinking that renting out a Las Vegas Strip condo unit is a ticket to the gravy train will have their last few illusions disabused by the latest promo from MGM Mirage. It touts Signature as the summer's family bargain destination, with suites going for as little as $105/night. What's more, the headline on the ad is, "Who said Vegas is just for grown-ups?"

Uh, well ... you did, MGM, along with nearly every other casino company in town, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and the latter's Siamese twin, R&R Partners. (You know, the "What happens here, stays here" folks.) Today's a red-letter day for the latter, as R&R was juiced into an uncontested three-year extension of an advertising contract that's believed to predate the Dead Sea Scrolls. Just bidness as usual.

Unwanted Vegas bargain

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:35:00 -0700

So, after making the big bad Fire Department the fall guy for Dec. 31's sucktastic fireworks display (more of an obfuscation than a display, really) it turns out that the culprit was organizer Las Vegas Events. Perhaps, in a new bow to Truth in Packaging, it will rebrand itself Las Vegas Non-Events.

The problem wasn't that -- as initially reported -- new fire-safety rules prevented launching fireworks from Strip rooftops. Rather, LVE was too cheap to pay the $200K that compliance would have required. This is the first time I can recall hotel-tax money being spent thriftily, as the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (the prime room-tax beneficiary) is in the habit of flinging great gobs of it to the four winds. But spend an extra 200 grand on the Strip's single biggest party night? Nosiree Bob, can't have any of that. There's a recession on, you know. Or, "The first priority is the experience on the Strip," to borrow the excuse du jour. Although, if the latter is the case, why bother firing off pyrotechnics from the Convention Center (well off the Strip) and beneath the Fremont Street Experience canopy ('nuff said)?

Based on experience, I'd say to expect LVE to stay atop its high horse for maybe another fortnight and then, when it hopes nobody is looking, admit that "It was a mistake." Sort of like how NBA All-Star Weekend was the greatest thing since sliced bread -- until it wasn't.

MGM's bum rap

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:18:00 -0700

Scroll through a "Comment" thread on a Las Vegas Review-Journal gaming story (if you're of a sufficiently masochistic disposition) and you're liable run across this sort of imbecility: "Mgm should be focusing on it's Vegas property's instead of pouring money in over sea's investment's."

The punctuation-challenged individual in question is railing uninformedly against MGM Mirage's licensing of its brand to a Ho Tram Strip hotel in Vietnam. (Similar fist-shaking by "ex gambler" can be found here.) If these persons would actually bother to read the stories they festoon with their cast-iron prejudices, they'd have noticed that MGM is getting paid to brand and manage a hotel. Which means that the company has devised a means of tapping an overseas revenue stream with minimal exposure, if any.

And guess what? A week after the MGM-Ho Tram story broke, developer Asian Coast was getting taken seriously by lenders, to the tune of nearly $800 million. Which may be coincidence, but I'd say it tells you a lot about the power of the MGM brand and the credibility of its management. I wouldn't call that "pouring money" overseas. It looks like astute and fiscally responsible leadership, at least from the peanut gallery.

LVCVA vs. NPRI. I don't want to open this can of worms now. I'll just say that I've covered the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority long enough to say that skepticism of its spending practices is occasionally warranted and that, even if NPRI board member William Weidner has an ulterior agenda, that hardly invalidates the questions being raised. Weidner, in his capacity as president of Las Vegas Sands, has made little secret of his desire to de-fund the LVCVA. But while NPRI may be blowing a certain amount of smoke, there's some fire here, too.

Light a cigar with 'em, why doncha?

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:37:00 -0700

"I have the discretion of expenditures up to $100,000. The board members gave me that discretion." -- Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority CEO Rossi Ralenkotter, whose use of those discretionary Benjamins was anything but discreet.

I hate G2E

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:35:00 -0700

Allow me to clarify.

The annual Global Gaming Expo is a great and good thing, bringing together industry members, vendors and academics from the four corners of the globe. You see the newest -- and oftimes the strangest -- products on offer. Many are all the more tantalizing for not having received regulatory approval -- placing them tantalizingly out of reach. I'll confess to a childlike fondness for the huge table game with the dome under which plastic horsies go 'round and 'round in a sort of mock Kentucky Derby. Silly, yes, and an absolutely pointless wager, but G2E doesn't stint on oddball entertainment value.

The sheer amount of brainpower that is directed into that outwardly frivolous activity known as "gambling" is an awesome sight to behold, especially when crammed into the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The conference tracks are an embarrassment of riches (especially when a speaker makes a particularly egregious faux pas). It's Sophie's Choice to the fourth power to have to select between panels sometimes. Heck, most times. And if there are any detractors of Native American casinos out there, if you subtracted the tribal attendance from G2E and many other industry conferences, they'd either be A) much smaller, B) ghost towns or C) defunct.

Then there's the yearly "State of the Industry" panel, which more recently has been "The Gary & Terry Show," with American Gaming Association President Frank J. Fahrenkopf serving questions to Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman and MGM Mirage CEO J. Terrence Lanni. Except that Lanni canceled his 2008 appearance a short while back -- a harbinger of his resignation? IGT CEO T.J. Matthews will also be there, which should be, uh, interesting, especially with Loveman having launched a pogrom against "Wheel of Fortune" and other participation games.

However, there will be "added value" in the form of Ernest Stevens Jr., the Fahrenkopf of tribal gaming, taking his rightful place amidst the panel -- another sign that we've moved past the days when companies like Circus Circus Enterprises actively tried to suppress tribal gaming in neighboring states. (Speaking of Fahrenkopf, he had a cameo in this week's Frontline biography of GOP dirty trickster Lee Atwater, the man who brought you Willie Horton. It included a scene of Atwater spewing bile while Fahrenkopf stood at his left elbow. Whaddya wanna bet FJF wishes he could "disappear" that footage.)

Loveman gets all huffy if you challenge him about stuff (like why he lives in Massachusetts), so that can add to the fun. He's also very difficult to understand sometimes, because he's got the strange habit of swiveling his head constantly from left to right while answering questions, meaning that the microphone ... catches ... roughly ... every ... other ... word.

And yet ...

G2E is an ordeal. It's the Bataan Death March of the casino industry, as we haul ourselves from one end of the exhibit floor (which seems to extend beyond the curvature of the Earth) and back again, then repeat the exercise. Noise, crowds and the relentless pounding of one's feet on thinly-covered cement; it all takes a toll, especially for someone like myself who suffers from the triple whammy of fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and recurring back trouble. The reams of paperwork one has to plough through beforehand can also drive you to despair.

In short, G2E is not for the faint of heart nor the frail of constitution. With that in mind, I offer 10 survival tips.

• The F&B Pavilion is your friend. Make liberal use of it, especially any free booze you can snag.

• The most important booth is not IGT's but rather the one where they sell the massaging insoles. I bought a pair last year and they were life savers.

• Chair massages. 'Nuff said.

• Sit down. As often as possible. You may not want to get up again, but duty calls.

• Cell phones. Set them on LOUD (as in jet-engine loud). In G2E, no one can hear your phone ring.

• Tchotchkes. The fewer you pick up, the better. The same goes for goodie bags. They'll just weigh you down and make your job harder. Travel light. Except for ...

• Business cards. Pack as many as you think you'll need. Then double it. At minimum.

• Downloadable slots. First, see if you can spot them (last year's bunch were indescribably bland). Then have a drink for every time somebody tells you they're "one year away" from deployment. Sort of like handheld gambling devices. (Remember them? They were The Next Big Thing ... three years ago.) For extra fun, use the term "vaporware" around the Cantor Gaming booth and see what kind of looks you draw.

• Don't play the slots unless you can get a sales rep to set them so they immediately trigger a bonus round. Otherwise you can waste a lot of time. Why they're not set to the bonus round as a matter of course remains a mystery.

• Fowl play. Remember the tic-tac-toe-playing chicken from Atlantic City? See if he has a booth this year. Then try to beat him. If you can, you're a true Master of the Universe 'cause that chicken's got game.

Get buzzed at the Trop. LVA just conducted a poll on casino smells, particularly the sort of piped-in aromas you'll encounter at The Palazzo. Which prompted a reader to ask, "So…… That moldy marijuana smell at the Tropicana is pumped in????? Interesting……"

Well, it'd be one way to get people to want to eat at that buffet.

Vegas's newest comedy club

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:56:00 -0700

Being housebound with Day Four of gastrointestitis (which is basically what you might call an extended-stay stomach flu), I got to sample some fine daytime TV, inthe form of Vegas One's ongoing coverage of the Elizabeth Halverson disciplinary hearings, live from the Las Vegas Convention Center. Since CNN.com has been streaming some of this Fellini-cum-Kafka spectacle to the entire wired-up world, it's safe to assume that Las Vegas' reputation as a hotbed of grotesquerie remains intact.

And what great free publicity for the LVCVA, too! It's like one giant product placement for the Convention Center (if only Sheldon Adelson had thought to offer space at Sands Expo Center instead). The on-site spectators can be heard and seen deriving much mirth from the stand-up stylings of Halverson's attorney and his bizarrely disjointed presentation. If you remember Bob & Ray's Slow Talkers of America, this guy must have been a charter member. Entire Bolivian military juntas have come and gone in the time it takes him to frame a question.

Vegas Right Now = Bargain Country

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:28:00 -0700

While the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority may blanch from peddling bargain-oriented messages, we don't. While it wasn't that long ago that some of us were mourning the apparent demise of on-Strip bargains -- or redefining said bargains as $100/night -- the downward economic spiral of the U.S. has dramatically reconfigured the equation. And a 39% drop in MGM Grand room prices or a 45% plunge at Green Valley Ranch definitely qualifies as "dramatic."

Boulder Strip quality at Las Vegas Strip prices

On the lighter side, you've got wonder what they're smoking at the Longhorn or Speedway that leads them to believe they can justify price points equivalent to Sunset Station, Excalibur or Harrah's Las Vegas -- and 2.5X those at Palace Station. Oh well, optimism is an admirable quality.

Speaking of bargains, Wall Street is punishing Las Vegas Sands for its room discounting, not to mention predictions of a delayed opening (as in months later than planned) for Four Seasons Cotai. At $43.09 and falling, LVS is definitely a "bargain play," off $105.67/share from its 52-week high.

Bargains? Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Wed, 28 May 2008 13:24:00 -0700

Liz Benston takes a look today at the newest message from the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and finds the LVCVA "thinks it's bad form to make references to 'affordable' and 'cheap.'" Oh yes, God forbid anybody should think there are deals to be found here (though there are) when they could spend that money closer to home, perhaps at one of the finer tribal casinos. Harrah's Entertainment has a nice one in SoCal, I hear.

UNLV's Prof. Jeff Voyles, says (in Benston's paraphrase) that "it would be disingenuous for Las Vegas to market itself as a bargain because room rates will bounce back and the Strip will be punctuated by expensive, high-rise hotels bargain seekers can little afford."

Yes, but that's partly how we got into our present pickle: by creating both the perception and the reality that the Strip isn't meant to be affordable anymore (which may account for the newfound market strength in Downtown, especially as Strip bargain plays bit the dust).

Las Vegas' newest bargain joint

Also, I don't mean to disrespect an academic -- the parlor sport of choice among the low-forehead types at the Dogpatch Daily -- but Voyles seems off base when he says, "We can't change our market segment based on a dip in the economy." Seems to me these are precisely the circumstances that would dictate a change in positioning. Principled talk of "sustaining the growth that we have" is fine (even though recent declines in gambling revenue and visitation make me want to ask, "What growth?"), but the bottom line -- so to speak -- involves putting fannies on slot stools and in poker chairs, to say nothing of hotel beds.

(MGM Mirage would seem to tacitly disagree with Voyles, seeing as it's just created the position of "President of Marketing-Customer Development. It'll be filled by Joe Brunini, whose brief will be to "identify emerging customer markets and create methods of attracting new audiences." My congratulations to Mr. Brunini, who started in the business as a dealer in Atlantic City 28 years ago.)

In this respect the Bad Timing Award goes (with our sincere condolences) to Sheldon Adelson, who unleashed 3,443 hotel rooms and suites on the Strip, in the Godzilla-size form of Palazzo. Now weekend rooms at Palazzo are going for $219/night. Adelson could scarcely have chosen a worse moment to flood the market with new capacity if he'd had a crystal ball.

While we're on the subject of marketing messages, what the heck went through the LVCVA's mind when it dreamt up the final panel of this:

"In crowd," "velvet ropes", "bottle service," "intrigue"? Isn't that the Pure Management Group scam-dal in seven words? Do these people read the papers or "the Internets"?

Nostradamus Dept.: In this little blast from the past, various prophetic utterances are made regarding the effects of an orgy of private-equity buyouts in the gaming sector, such as: "My fear is that they're going to look at casinos as an aggregate bunch of transactions and start coming up with proposals such as reducing labor on the F&B side or reducing marketing, or taking other steps to squeeze out more profitability." (Dennis Conrad)

Then there's, "Industry sources said that, if Station is purchased, the new company ... likely would put expansion projects on hold for at least 18 months until it paid down debt significantly." (author Bob Shemeligian)

Flash forward 18 months from the date of the article and all Station Casinos projects are on hold -- until early 2010, at least. That might not have been necessary if Station's top honchos hadn't insisted in lugging away over $420 million in swag as part of buying out their own company. As for the Conrad quote, it's a prescient précis of what customers say is going on at Harrah's.

Quote of the Day

Tue, 13 May 2008 18:28:00 -0700

"The message is, 'Don't think about how crappy your economic situation is, just come to Vegas, damn it. If you don't, you're a wallowing loser.'" -- Atlanta resident Tania Franco, in Newsweek, panning the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority's " ... do without thinking. Do Vegas now" ad spots. Franco's spouse recently suffered a salary reduction.

Columbia Sussex sinks to new low

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:55:00 -0700

Let's say you're Columbia Sussex, owner of the Westin Casuarina and notorious for your pinch-penny ways. What do you do if a convention organizer can't pay up on its $50,000 tab? Why simply -- and sneakily -- bill it to the attendees, of course!

That's the rude surprise that dental trainee Don Dible got when he received his bill from the Westin: an extra $665 charged to his credit card -- five months after the fact. According to the AP's Kathleen Hennessey, who has seen the offending document, 'ColSux' hit Dible up for "pro-rated amount per attendee." A Houston dentist got socked for $1,027 ... presumably penalized the extra $362 because he had the temerity to be a speaker at the conference, not just an attendee.

House of shame

The Westin's invoices are written so that it can pass the liabilities of companies like Coaching Center of Austin onto third parties. Besides Dible, at least 20 other complainants are reported to have surfaced -- some of whom the Coaching Center says it has reimbursed.

"Columbia Sussex owns 13 casinos and 80 hotels in the United States and abroad, pulling in revenues of some $3 billion a year," writes Hennessey. Small wonder, with tactics like these, which came as quite a surprise to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority's Erika Pope.

Congrats to the AP for snagging this story, stealing a march on both the Las Vegas Sun and its sleepier crosstown competitor.

More Trop trouble. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission has to decide whether to place the Atlantic City Tropicana back in the hands of ColSux affiliate Adamar of New Jersey to shelter the asset from a Delaware lawsuit. Wilmington Trust Corp. is suing ColSux for $960 million upon which it alleges the Kentucky hotelier has defaulted.

Trop trustee Justice Gary Stein finds himself in the awkward position of having to advocate that the NJCCC undo his own conservancy lest a court-ordered bankruptcy "affect my ability to sell the asset," a process that hasn't exactly had potential buyers beating down the door so far. My guess is that the NJCCC will feel boxed in and have to go along, but it doesn't sound like NJCCC Chairwoman Linda Kassekert is any too happy with the situation -- or with the behavior of Tropicana Casino Resorts CEO/President/Secretary/Treasurer/Sole Director William J. Yung III.

News flash: I was wrong. If ColSux goes belly-up that's just too damn bad, says the NJCCC. Or words to that effect. Stein's proposed solution would left him only nominally in the driver's seat, with Yung regaining title to the A.C. Trop. The NJCCC also dealt a verbal smackdown to Stein, partly for exceeding his mandate -- not to mention his employment of a car service to ferry him to and from Hackensack.

Meet the new boss, quite different from the old boss. "In 25 years I never had a layoff, and I don't intend to start now." With those words, Robert Dingman (above) got off on the right foot as trustee of Casino Aztar. (Dingman says he might even -- Gasp! -- increase staffing. That sound you hear is Bill Yung reaching for his defibrillator.)

The Evansville riverboat is entering an odd interregnum in which it will be run by the State of Indiana on Columbia Sussex's dime (and I use "dime" advisedly) while the state vets would-owner Eldorado Resorts, whose interests include co-ownership of the Silver Legacy -- an exceptionally comfortable casino-hotel, the nicest in downtown Reno, when I was hosted there ... admittedly, back in the last century.

Having faced off with the Carano family during his Harrah's Entertainment years, Dingman gives them the thumbs up as "great operators ... our nemesis in Reno."

The latter ponied up $220 million* for the gaming vessel ($5 million less than expected) on the very day Columbia Sussex was likely to be stripped of its license. Yung's company had reneged on commitments to the city of Evansville, both in terms of employment levels and bringing in a new boat. It also ceased Aztar Corp.'s practice of supporting local charities and vendors.

Eldorado -- which evidently relishes challenging riverboat markets -- plunked down $169 million two years ago (plus an additional $9 million last month) for a Bossier City, La., boat and that would put Casino Aztar within its price range. Still, with credit markets being what they are, I'm awaiting disclosure of the terms of sale with bated breath.

"Our long nightmare is over," added Dingman. Although he's worked in some of Harrah's most far-flung markets, from Vicksburg to New Zealand, serving in the Vietnam War will probably turn out to be Dingman's best preparation for dealing with the scorched-earth tactics of Bill Yung. (As more than one Courier-Post reader points out, the new casino resort in French Lick has leapfrogged past Casino Aztar while Yung was busy subdividing pennies.) Apparently Yung's can't-fail business strategies included eradicating or severely diminishing promotional allowances.

No wonder Casino Aztar is 11th out of 11 Hoosier State casinos. (Only third-lowest in revenue, though.) In FY07, French Lick was breathing down Casino Aztar's neck, $111 million to $123.5 million.

This Should Be Interesting Dept. The Courier-Press adds that "Dingman has been granted broad powers to spend Columbia Sussex's money on operating and improving the casino," which apparently suffers from a shortage of dealers, among other things. But has he been granted broad Columbia Sussex money to spend? Yung is notoriously loath in that respect, so Dingman can probably look forward to having to play hardball with the corporate colossus of Fort Mitchell, Ky.

Bottom line: I've seen how the Caranos operate and I've seen how Bill Yung operates. Eldorado in/ColSux out is a happier ending to this story than we could have hoped for, say, two months ago.

* -- The price is sometimes reported as $245 million because of a conditional $25 million Eldorado will kick in if it hits certain (undisclosed) metrics. The two companies are essentially making a wager that Eldorado can do something comparable to what it did in Bossier City, where it grew revenue 18% over a two-year period, in a declining market.

Oscar the Wise

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:29:00 -0700

You know you're living in a topsy-turvy world when the Voice of Reason is embodied by none other than Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a man usually associated with intemperate outbursts. However, Hizzoner's recent behavior has been -- how shall I put it? -- positively statesmanlike.

First, when all state agencies were frozen with indecision and impotence, Goodman took upon himself to pull the license of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, a menace to public safety. (Just ask the 40,000 people who are having to be tested for hepatitis and HIV, our own Jean Scott among them.)

Now Goodman has some sagacious things to say about the disingenuous pair of petitions being circulated under the aegis of ex-state Treasurer Bob Seale, who is believed to periodically morph into this man. The petitions, if passed and enacted, would roll back Las Vegas Convention & Visitor Authority funding to 2006 levels and freeze them there, save for small adjustments to soften the effects of inflation.

Protesting that Seale's initiatives would wreak havoc with local-government funding, diverting room-tax dollars to Carson City, Goodman couldn't resist pointing out that the Nevada budget "is a giant black hole at this time." (Short by $800 million, with no relief in sight.)

"Seale has said the petitions were his idea and Las Vegas Sands is not involved." What a jokester. Of course any shortfall in the LVCVA budget (say, in its growing debt-service load) would have to be made up out of higher rental rates, which just might redound to the benefit of a certain Sands Expo Center, where the rates are considerably higher.

It's an interesting concept of free enterprise: If you're having trouble competing, don't lower your price -- get guvmint to force the other guy to raise his. Maybe it's a bidness concept that Adelson, I mean Seale picked up from that worker's paradise, Communist China.

But let's let the ever-quotable Oscar have the last word: "We have a pretty good thing going in Southern Nevada. Southern Nevada drives the rest of the state. Why tamper with something that seems to be working?"

Photo/PDF snafu corrected

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:54:00 -0700

It seems that our two computer servers here at LVA HQ were having a bit of a snit and not communicating with one another. As a consequence, some of you were unable to see a lovely photo of Isle of Capri's Waterloo casino water feature, and renderings of PBL Melco's City of Dreams, Pinnacle Entertainment's St. Louis County project and the Prasada condo-hotel recently announced for Atlantic City. Also, PDFs of two initiative-and-referendum petitions to freeze Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority funding at 2006-07 levels were unavailable.

All these links have, I'm happy to report, been fixed. My apologies for any frustration or disappointment that readers may have experienced. We'll try not to let it happen again.

Pinnacle remains sanguine

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:46:00 -0700

... despite pulling back somewhat from its commitment to redevelop the site on which once stood the Atlantic City Sands. Does Pinnacle's hesitation regarding the Boardwalk portend ill for riverboat projects in East Baton Rouge or St . Louis County (below)?

"In a word, no," says a Pinnacle representative. The costs of these projects are but a fraction of the Atlantic City one ($250 million for Riviere, in Lousiana) and it's really a matter of returns, the company says. The expected returns on Riviere, for example, would make it worth financing, even in a softening economy. A multi-billion-dollar property in a market that isn't license-limited (read: Atlantic City) is a different story, though.

There's no deadline, Pinnacle maintains, no gun to their heads. Financing doesn't need to be raised until late 2009 or even 2010, by which time the credit markets could still be quite a different story.

Still, hindsight being 20/20, you have to wonder if Pinnacle would have been in such a rush to demolish the Sands had it known last July what it knows now?

And Oswald acted alone, too. Local newspaper finds man who takes sole credit for two ballot initiatives that would cap Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority funding at 2006-07 levels (even though they couldn't go into effect until 2011), adjusted for inflation. I guess the fact that these initiatives would accomplish a prime objective of Sheldon Adelson is just a big coinky-dink, after all. Whew! There I was, all worried about nothing.

Same paper, different day. "The sky is falling!" Why? Because most Nevadans, polls show, want to raise the privilege tax on gaming from the lowest to the second-lowest. That ink might have been better spent lobbying for a gross-receipts tax that would spread the (relatively modest) pain across a broad spectrum of businesses. But to decry a 9.75% privilege tax rate as The End of the World As We Know It when companies like Las Vegas Sands are jostling to pay 50% in Kentucky doesn't pass the laugh test.

Quote of the Day: "Lets see? Four guns, deadly poison and books on anarchy. I don't think we have anything to worry about. " -- Keith Hulbert, in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, commenting on Las Vegas Metro's response to last week's ricin scare.

Adelson is omnipresent

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:01:00 -0700

There we were, smugly thinking that because he's half a globe away, testifying in Israel, Sheldon Adelson couldn't possibly affect the Nevada news cycle today.

HA! The ingenious casino impresario has launched two javelins at the heart of the hated (by Adelson, that is) Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority via a pair of ballot initiatives. One would redirect any money above 2006-07 levels into the state treasury, another would prescribe how it is spent.

As always, you have to be a light sleeper to steal a march on Adelson.

McCain tipping his hand; LVCVA's bad idea

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:18:00 -0700

Out on the hustings, Sen. John McCain downplays the hoary old notion of "regional balance" on the presidential ticket. Which is overtly construed as a rebuff of a 'Southern strategy' anchored around Gov. Mike Huckabee. (See "Dobson hearts Huckabee," below.)

It also may be that McCain is laying the groundwork for choosing deficit-hawk soulmate Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) as his #2 man. The chattering classes seem to believe that Coburn is McCain's personal preference and, since they both represent the Southwest, it would explain why McCain is citing the Clinton-Gore ticket as proof that "regional balance" is an idea whose time has come and gone.

Stop us before we vote again! Conservative editorial writers who can't control themselves in the voting booth, apparently, sing the praises of term limits. I'd say we have the best form of term limits already. They're called "elections" and they've been working pretty darn well, IMO.

Dept. of Bad Ideas: Local leaders, including Oscar the Grouch and water tsarina Pat Mulroy, went to Washington at the behest of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. (BTW, the original Oscar the Grouch [seen here with the John Wayne of American music] is my soulmate -- as though it weren't self-evident.)

Now, I can't go to Windsor, Ontario to get a Cuban cigar or two unless I'm carrying a passport. However, the LVCVA & Co. would like Congress to "allow visitors from friendly countries [read: "high rollers"] to travel to the United States for limited periods without visas." Would these "friendly countries" include -- for instance-- those Al Quaeda-fundin' folks, the Saudis, perhaps?

I'm all for "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," when "what happens" is the laying down of some cold, hard cash, but ...

Not only is this an affront to John Q. Public, whose freedom of movement and assembly becomes increasingly inhibited in our post-9/11 climate, I've got serious national security and law-enforcement concerns here. Besides, with Las Vegas-based casino companies branching out into England, Spain, Slovenia, Singapore and let's not forget Macao (with more to come), if our casino giants don't capture the high-roller dough here, they'll probably win it somewhere else.

It's at times like this that I think, "You know, Bill Weidner's got a point ..."