David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - Labor

From the mailbag #7

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:47:00 -0700

Presumably foiled once again by the Comment-Eating Server, reader kerr_mudgeon writes:

From the article about the A.C. contract settlement: "In his praise of the deal, Don Marrandino, the Eastern Division president of Harrah's, appeared to refer indirectly to tortured negotiations with the United Auto Workers involving dealers, which have degenerated into a costly, bitter fight that is scaring away customers.

Two and a half years after the union won representation elections at four Atlantic City casinos, it has yet to sign a contract with any of them.
"Harrah's is proud of its record as a responsible union partner as further evidenced by this contract which was developed and agreed to in just a few short weeks and without disruption to the business and employees," he said."

- Is Harrah's equally proud that, after 2 1/2 years, it can't negotiate a first contract with the other union?
~~~
As for the hotels' prices for sheets, towels, etc., other posters' comments are correct: these are long-standing inflated charges intended to deter theft by room guests - and yes, I read of cases where guests stole the (unusable) TV remotes... and even the pictures on the walls.*

(By the way, I bought a $10 3-cup coffee maker at Walgreen's Drugstore, downtown LV, on my last trip to use in my room; I'll buy another next trip.)
There is a new revenue stream that David alludes to: High-end resorts selling robes, mattresses, wine glasses, etc. to hotel guests who appreciate the supposed superior quality of those goods - and are willing to pay inflated prices to own them.

* -- Editor's note: The pictures in the hotel rooms at Casino X were the only things looked to be worth stealing -- but they weren't for sale.

Give that man a blue ribbon: State Senate President David Williams of Kentucky may not be a friend of racinos but he hit the nail on the head recently. In a multi-point statement outlining his opposition to slots at Bluegrass State tracks, he said that horseracing was beset by "endemic" problems. He's the first public official that S&G can recall stating an overdue truth: that the ailments afflicting the horsey set can be temporarily soothed by slot revenues, but not cured.

Buy our casino, please!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:11:00 -0700

Any well-furnished casino that doesn't try to monetize its fine appointments is missing a revenue opportunity. However, it's one thing to covet the lovely furnishings of, say, the Sky Lofts at MGM Grand. It's quite another to check into a hotel room in a struggling Nevada market (hint: think blood-red aluminum siding) and see the following:

"Take A Little Something Home With You"

... followed by a list of prices for virtually everything that isn't nailed down. At the high end, you could pay $175 for a bed spread or $100 for a phone, while hand towels ($10), washcloths and pillow cases ($5) occupied the bargain end of the spectrum.

In between, you could drop $45 for a Lilliputian coffee maker or $25 for the TV remote. Since the TV was not for sale and remotes tend to be brand- and model-specific, you wonder who'd be fool enough to spring for that last item.

Not only is Casino X clearly desperate for anything on which it can turn a buck, it also has rather inflated ideas of the value of its appurtances. I can see paying $175 for an Encore bedspread, but Steve Wynn doesn't operate out in the sticks, if you get my drift. Oh, and Casino X might want to think about staffing up its players' club and check-in windows, if the length of the lines at both is a telling metric.

Harrahs' new BMOC. The incoming president of Harrah's Entertainment's Flamingo-centered bloc of casinos departs Indiana to rave reviews. Philanthropic, community-oriented and socially aware, Rick Mazer sounds like just what the doctor ordered for Vegas -- to say nothing of being someone upon whom we should keep close tabs.

Justice delayed. Employees of Station Casinos who may (or may not) have been short-changed in their paychecks, will just have to bloody well wait for their day in court, if Clark County District Court grants Station's request for "breathing room." Station is pleading hardship due to its current bankruptcy. Since the company has no one but itself to blame for being in Chapter 11, it's difficult to muster sympathy. But perhaps the judge will be of a more forgiving nature.

Don Marrandino's first coup. The newly installed boss of Harrah's Atlantic City casino quartet inks a new labor pact with Unite-Here. That was a piece of cake. Now, about those dealer-contract talks with the UAW ...

Meanwhile, back in Gary Loveman's 'hood ... You know those on-again, off-again Massachusetts casinos? Well, they're "off." Again. Not that there's any reason to rush, especially as the repeated delays lend additional borrowed time to struggling Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.

ColSux gets smacked (again)

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:52:00 -0700

In case you've wondered whether Columbia Sussex's endgame in its interminably protracted -- and often preposterous -- negotiations with the Culinary Union was to provoke a strike at the Tropicana Las Vegas, the company's actions elsewhere leave little doubt. (I have it on good authority that ColSux had drawn up plans to drive the Culinary out, in the great Margaret Elardi/Paul Lowden tradition.)

Now those anti-union chickens have come home to roost. The 13,000-member Alaska chapter of the National Education Association has ripped up its contract with ColSux's Anchorage Hilton and calling for boycotts of all 71 ColSux-owned hotels. That'd include ...

... Las Vegas' own Westin Casuarina.

What a stroke of luck. At a time when Strip hotels are mostly just muddling through in terms of occupancy and convention bookings, William J. Yung III goes and pisses off one of the U.S.'s leading unions. Less bidness for him -- and more for everybody else!

Thanks, Bill. Keep up the good work. We could use non-casino hoteliers with your infallible reverse-Midas Touch. Would you alienate a few other major convention-holding bodies (especially ones who might like to convene in Vegas) while you're at it? It would really help your competitors speed up this economic-recovery thing.

From the mailbag #5

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:26:00 -0700

Our Comment-Eating Server has been at it again, so here are a few reader remarks that got devoured in cyberspace (where no one can hear you scream at your computer) ...

With regard to "Gambling Scandal Ensnares Eight More":

This is disgraceful! How dare the Federal government interfere with private enterprise like this? Undoubtedly the casinos' self-government practices would have detected these infractions, right?

If -- and I'm not sure about this -- you're referring to tribal casinos, all generalizations are false, including this one. The Tran Organization took down 26 scores that ran the breadth and depth of casino industry: Strip resorts, locals casinos, backwater Isle of Capri operations, U.S. ones and Canadian ones, the smallest tribal casinos and the biggest, too. Even Barona Casino & Resort, which prides itself on being ahead of the industry, technologically speaking, got taken. The moral I draw from this is that too much stock is being put in game-protection technology and not enough in the human component. All the king's PTZ cameras and all the king's digital scratch pads don't know what a "false shuffle" is.

Another reader caught a hasty slip-up I made, when I wrote that Harrah's Entertainment's "$10 million a year for energy conservation isn't even 'a blimp on the radar' when it comes to Harrah's gargantuan annual budget. Heck, it's less than 2/3 of CEO Gary Loveman's compensation package for 2008 alone."

Maybe his compensation has gone down since 2002? I don't think so:

"Loveman, himself, is doing a bit better too: His business school professor's salary, approximately $120,000 (before consulting fees), is now well over $3 million, including stock options. He shuttles between his Boston-area home and Harrah's casinos around the country in a corporate jet. He has long since traded in his professorial Honda Accord for a Ferrari F-355 Spider. After 12 years in the same house, the Lovemans are currently building what neighbors describe as 'a very large' house in the Boston suburb where they live."

Maybe he's riding in a "green" corporate jet now?

Good point. What I was trying to compare was Harrah's $60 million in energy savings over six years. That is less than 2/3 of Loveman's $92 compensation for 2008. (His base salary for '09 is $1.9 million.)

And with regard to labor strife at Trump Plaza:

"While the casino's latest appeal is tied up in federal court, Trump Plaza management has refused to bargain at all.

"Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which owns Trump Plaza, has said it expects to win in court. The case was first filed in September 2008.

"The court could side with the casino or uphold the National Labor Relations Board's ruling requiring the casino to bargain.

"'Throughout this entire process, it has not been our intention to attack any dealers who have chosen to support the union,' Juliano continued."

... David, you said "Kudos to Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Mark Juliano for going out of his way to soothe potential animosity between labor and management."

- I would say: Kudos to Juliano if Trump would bargain in good faith with the union that won the election. As it is, Trump Entertainment Resorts owns & controls Trump Plaza and refuses to dignify their employees with negotiations that they voted for.

That's a major reason that we need passage of a "card check" law, which includes heavy fines against employers like this who refuse to negotiate (for years) with their workers' duly elected representatives.

Fair enough. And finally:

I don't gamble on the Internet because of security concerns with unregulated offshore sites, but I agree with this comment [same blog entry, under ["Health care reform + Internet gambling?"]: This is great! Ron Wyden is an innovative and responsible law maker. As an Internet gambler, I'd be happy to support American-based companies, and pay my patriotic taxes, instead of sending my "business" to Costa Rica.

Thanks to everyone for corresponding.

Atlantic City sucks ...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:05:00 -0700

... says the Motley Fool, in essence. Even Borgata, which posted a higher operating profit year/year, is deemed merely to suck less than everybody else. I'm not sure I'm with the Fools on this one. For instance, shouldn't Sands Bethlehem be doing better than fifth among Pennsylvania casinos, especially when you consider its proximity to New York City?

Elsewhere on the Boardwalk, the UAW is fighting Trump Plaza, the Plaza is fighting the National Labor Relations Board and Trump dealers are fighting amongst themselves. Since 32% of dealers initially voted against UAW representation, it should be a cinch to round up 30% to sign a decertification petition. Kudos to Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Mark Juliano for going out of his way to soothe potential animosity between labor and management.

MILF convention in A.C.: On Oct. 3, former Bunnies and other veterans of the short-lived Playboy Hotel & Casino will return to the shore to relive the good old days. A few might even wriggle into their old Bunny costumes. Maybe a re-infusion of the Playboy brand is what Atlantic City needs. It can only help. Are you listening, Carl Icahn? Revel? Pinnacle Entertainment? Anybody?

Finally, a reason to visit Orlando ...

... or maybe not. And that dude from Scotland is in serious need of subtitles.

Resort-style casinos come to Colorado and doesn't Ameristar's new hotel look lovely? Now, if only somebody would build a mid-market property like this on the Strip. Why must average Americans settle for older, second-tier properties if they're to afford a Vegas vacation?

Health care reform + Internet gambling? Is it just me or is Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) onto something here? This may be just the carrot to dangle in front of legislators who still balk at allowing Americans to wager on the Web.

Creditors screwed again. How much is Greektown Casino worth? Is it the $725 million its creditors claim? Or the $540 million that Greektown asserts? Or maybe the lowball $485 million that lead bidder Tom Celani is willing to pay? Greektown's recent -- and well-publicized -- inroads into the market share of its Detroit rivals lend merit to the higher-end valuations. If the place was in the doghouse, I might sympathize with Celani (who's likely to boot the very management team responsible for Greektown's turnaround), but Fine Point Group has definitely enhanced a once-seedy casino's value.

It's official. VIP-player commissions in Macao will be capped. Since the war over junketeer commissions was threatening to make Macao a negative-revenue proposition, the new ceiling will greatly improve cash flow for Macanese operators. Middle-of-the-pack Galaxy Entertainment is expected to benefit the most (+27% EBITDA), followed at some distance by Stanley Ho (16%), with Las Vegas Sands and MGM Mirage bringing up the rear. Although the elderly Ho may be on his deathbed, he's lived long enough to broker peace in a potentially destructive situation where the only sure winners were the sought-after junket operators.

Worst Trend Yet

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:07:00 -0700

This is the sort of bottom-feeding move you'd expect from Columbia Sussex but not from Hyatt. Suffice it to say that if casino-hotels try this cheapjack number in Atlantic City, Detroit or Las Vegas, there will be holy hell to pay, especially the next time the collective-bargaining agreement is up for renewal. As it is, some hotels (*cough*Tropicana Las Vegas*cough*) have tried to operate with skeletal cleaning staffs and one shudders to imagine the consequences.

Quote of the Day

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:03:00 -0700

S&G yields the floor to former President Jimmy Carter:

Runner up, among many choice quotes, goes to South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian: "I think [Rep. Joe Wilson]'s conduct was asinine, but I think it would be asinine no matter what the color of the president. I don't think Joe's outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth." (Harpootlian knows Wilson from way back.) And, as a former South Carolinian, let me say, please don't boycott the Palmetto State. (Even though they still have a hangup about casinos down there.)

Meanwhile, in its fruitless search for comity at all costs, the White House turns a blind eye to the whole mess. Which ought to remind us that all it takes for evil to triumph is for people of good will to do nothing.

Health care "reform": It's out and it stinks, basically. It incorporates the one truly bad, deal-breaking idea of the '08 McCain campaign by making health benefits reportable as income. But don't worry: Sen. Harry "Hapless" Reid (D-NV) promises to make the bill even worse.

I have only five words remaining: You da man, Jay Rockefeller!

Quote of the Day

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:26:00 -0700

"I can't personally say whether or not I believe there's any skimming going on, however, a large number of dealers suspect that it is." -- Wynn Las Vegas dealer Daniel Baldonado, to the Las Vegas Tribune, about closed-door reallocation of tokes. Lemme get this straight: Baldonado doesn't know whether he believes tip money is going missing but he does know that other dealers are of that opinion? Puh-leeze!

Of course, by locking the toke committee out of the counting process and only making it belatedly reviewable on videotape, Steve Wynn is leaving himself wide open to such quasi-accusations. The story itself is nothing new: I've been hearing it for years. But, were I a dealer at Wynn LV and my tips were being counted and divvied up by management, I might be suspicious, too.

Cro-Magnon economics; Packer play?; Harrah's boycotted

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:57:00 -0700

Still snowed under with non-S&G commitments, but here's a brief dispatch. First, with apologies to Woody Allen ...

"The federal stimulus package is so bad"

"Yes, and such small portions."

That's the sum and substance of this diatribe, penned by the old biddies over at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The federal stimulus dollars which the R-J opposed (as did its man-crush, Gov. Jim Gibbons) aren't trickling down in sufficient numbers for the editorialists' liking.

Ergo, 13% unemployment and a housing market that's "years away" from recovery are things from which Uncle Sam is meant to rescue us. Yes, and never mind that the real culprit is the overreliance of Nevada on a service economy, plus insane overexuberance in the real estate sector -- two phenomena for which the R-J has never had a discouraging word.

Mistaking one owl for a winter, R-J Publisher Sherm Frederick goes into full doom-and-gloom mode. His can't-miss economic barometer? A half-full flight into Las Vegas. (From Austin. On a Tuesday.) I've been flying into and out of this city for nigh upon 12 years and many's the half-full flight I've taken into McCarran International Airport. It's a side effect of Las Vegas being so liberally serviced by the major airlines.

Also, Frederick's half-baked "analysis" reeks of that local entitlement mentality whereby Americans are obligated to spend their money here -- during a recession, no less. (Maybe more of them would do so if we didn't continue to shift our tax burden onto their shoulders.)

We've got to take our lumps with the rest of the country and, as I've pointed out several times before, Southern Nevada would be weathering the current doldrums much better had it not been for an insanely euphoric attitude in our business community, with its pie-in-the-sky economic models. Harrah's Entertainment claims that, in the course of its mega-optimistic LBO, it projected a worst-case scenario in which revenue fell 30% and Harrah's came through just fine.

I don't believe it. Either that or Gary Loveman needs to sack his number-crunchers and find some ones who use real math.

Trouble at Cannery. Who knew? Things seemed to be going pretty well for them. But President Tom Lettero has been demoted from chief operating officer to CFO. His vacated portfolio will be taken up by Xavier Walsh, from Crown Ltd. Is minority shareholder James Packer flexing some muscle? Or has Cannery Casino Resorts decided that what works for Crown in Australia might be worth trying in Nevada and Pennsylvania?

Harrah's attempt to play hardball with its dealer unions has caromed off the company's noggin. The American Federation of Teachers is pulling its convention business from Harrah's-owned properties until contract negotiations with the dealers at Bally's Atlantic City and Caesars A.C. You might say that Caesar's fine Roman nose has been cut off to spite his face,

A provocative question is posed by Dr. David G. Schwartz. If there are fewer slots and table games on Nevada's casino floors, does this bode an ongoing decrease in casino revenue? Prof. Schwartz is far better educated than am I in these matters ... yet it seems that the proposition boils down to More gaming positions = More revenue.

But how many casinos are running at 100% game usage even a small part of the time? Also, with penny slots yielding higher hold percentages than their nickel and quarter brethren, denominations are trumping sheer numbers. Lord knows, people are drawn to those penny machines as though to a spider web because the (perceived) value overrides the (documented) less-favorable pay tables. In any event, Dr. Schwartz's in-progress study promises to be one of the most interesting casino-related documents emerging this year.

Quote of the Day

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:13:00 -0700

"I have been pleasantly surprised by the tremendous reservoir of good will that exists in our work force ... Considering how previous administrators have neglected the property, neglected the operations and neglected the employees, it was very refreshing to find that despite all that neglect so much pride and passion can be harnessed. And regardless of what happened in the past, I am keenly aware that change can be scary for many of our team members. But change also irrigates the human condition." -- Tropicana Las Vegas CEO Alex Yemenidjian, on the future of the property.

Senator Sue?

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:49:00 -0700

Why should Nevada have only one former casino executive in the U.S. Senate when it could have two? Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada Landing) might soon be keeping company with Sen. Sue Lowden (R-Santa Fe Gaming Corp.), if a poll commissioned by Lowden supporters is in any way indicative. Lowden, an ex-legislator who was drop-kicked by her constituents in '96, was co-owner of the Santa Fe Hotel until it was sold to Station Casinos in 2000. Station then did to the pro-union workforce what the Lowdens could not: sacked every last one of them. Business suffered afterward (customers didn't appreciate the disappearance of familiar faces) but Station has always liked to live dangerously.

Lowden currently sits on the board of Archon Corp., proud owner of the Pioneer Hotel in Laughlin, as well as of the Wet 'n Wild remnants that almost became the site of James Packer's Crown Las Vegas. Archon has a habit of turning up in the newspapers every now and again, sometimes when investors get riled up about dubious, insider-friendly stock moves. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) may not even have to unpack his heavy artillery; the Culinary Union will be only too happy to unleash its attack dogs on Lowden ... again.

Case Bets: Ohio, Trump, Fahrenkopfian outrage

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:33:00 -0700

With racinos a done deal in Ohio, a suddenly frisky Harrah's Entertainment is shopping around for a Cleveland-area track. If anything, I'm surprised competing companies haven't beaten Harrah's to the punch, but it seems to have sucker-punched its rivals. Good on it.

Donald Trump's fire-sale acquisition of Trump Entertainment Resorts is far from a done deal, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bondholders who stand to have $1.25 billion flushed away in the Trump/Mark Juliano sweetheart transaction may be able to throw in a spanner in the works.

Casinos spread the wealth -- or do they? A Journal of Economic Studies report queries the premise, saying casino expansion dilutes local wage bases. However, casino companies -- and some academic allies -- aren't taking this lying down. Both Penn National and Cordish Gaming are making vigorous arguments to the contrary, as is one Frank J. Fahrenkopf.

McKee vs. Lerner

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:01:00 -0700

Actually, the headline misstates what was a very collegial -- if occasionally dissenting -- exchange of views between Union Gaming Group's Bill Lerner and Yr. Humble Blogger on Jon Ralston's Face to Face show. It was only my second-ever gig as a talking head -- and it shows. (Note to self: Consider Botox injections to paralyze overactive facial muscles.)

The ostensible subject of discussion was newly bankrupt Station Casinos, but it ranged as far afield as Singapore and Macao. Actually, we probably could have taped an entire week's worth of shows without exhausting the topic(s).

Lerner was a perfect gentleman, despite all the snarky things I've written about him in S&G (assuming he even reads it, which I doubt). I could certainly learn a thing or two from his poised on-air demeanor. I also found that, if you're in the middle seat on Face to Face, you need to "cheat" a little to your right and downstage or else you'll be masked in all the wide shots. And, as Ira David Sternberg taught me, don't ever look at the camera.

My ex cathedra pronouncements were, however, overshadowed by my alarmingly jowly appearance. When the video is posted, you will see that I look every one of my 200 lbs. -- and quite a few more! Since the episode isn't available on the Las Vegas Sun Web site yet, here's a preview:

Oh, my brain and mouth parted company on at least one occasion. I thought I said MGM Mirage would probably offload The Mirage for "one and a half billion to two billion dollars." What emerged, though, was "a half-billion to two billion dollars." So Jim Murren, wherever you are, I do not think you'd part with The Mirage for a (comparatively) measly $500 million ... just so we're good on that.

At least the high-angle shot at the end missed my bald spot. Thank God for small favors. The rebroadcast is starting; time to find out if I still know how to operate a VCR.

Adelson's newest problem

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:31:00 -0700

If you're hiring for a Las Vegas (hell, any U.S.) casino right now, you're apt to face an embarrassment of riches. In Singapore, it's the other way around ... as Las Vegas Sands is finding out.

The most expensive casino resort ever? Train-able labor in desperately short supply? Prohibitive entrance fees for Singaporeans? An untested market? A(nother) soft opening? A weak global economy? Naaaaah, I don't see how this can be anything other than a slam dunk.

Bare-knuckle Boardwalk brawl

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:26:00 -0700

"Leaky windows. Broken air-conditioning. Missing kitchen equipment. A weather-beaten building ... It also has missing kitchen equipment and broken air-conditioning units that have left guest rooms hot and unrentable. Further, it is plagued by a leaky roof, windows and skylights ..."

Is this the Tropicana Atlantic City we're talking about? Heck no, it's Trump Marina, as described the attorneys for all-hat, no-cattle buyer (wannabe) Richard Fields. His Coastal Marina LLC is accusing Trump Entertainment Resorts of blowing off Marina maintenance and siphoning away players. There's more -- much more. Fields' suit charges Trump (the company) with doing a chop-shop job on the hotel-casino and The Associated Press' story implies it may have been a Donald Trump "screw you" to Fields, a former courtroom adversary.

Assuming for a moment that the allegations are true (Trump's CEO says they're not) ... that's the way the game is played, dude. Just ask Ed Roski about his abortive acquistion of the Las Vegas Hilton or former Mandalay Resort Group employees about the dilapidation places like Luxor and Circus Circus fell into while the MGM Mirage takeover went through its paces. It's standard industry procedure. You don't spiff up a place you're selling; you leave that for the next guy.

In Fields' defense, the Marina's devolution into one of Atlantic City's three lowest-grossing casinos seemingly gives the lie to CEO Mark Juliano's, "We did the opposite by directing customers back to the Marina in order to maintain it." And if Juliano's accurate, then his people did a right rotten job of propping up Marina traffic, especially if Trump stood to suffer financial penalties if business cratered (which it did).

As to the promised repairs that Fields says went unmade, Juliano flatly denies the accusation, saying the work was indeed performed. Given Trump's parlous financial condition, if Juliano is correct, it was costing his company a pretty penny to be rid of the Marina at a rug-bazaar price ($270 million, marked down from $316 million).

Elsewhere on the Boardwalk, dealers and slot techs were lent some extra muscle by the UAW. "Harrah's Entertainment continues to question the UAW's insistence on interfering with customers who come to Atlantic City for relaxation and entertainment, particularly during these challenging economic times," harrumphed the company after workers had the temerity to stage a march.

Damn that First Amendment! Then again, what did Harrah's expect to happen as contract talks crept toward their third year?

Quote of the Day

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:08:00 -0700

"Privé. Gibbons. Ensign. Rampant foreclosure. Half-built, hubristic casinos. Record unemployment. UFC. Mob Museum. Maybe Las Vegas 2009 is just Tom Wolfe's next novel." -- Las Vegas Weekly Editor Scott Dickensheets, from Facebook.

Case Bets: Hard Rock, Puck, Station, Greek Isles

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:55:00 -0700

Morgans Hotel Group has never seemed able to make up its mind about what to do with the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (one of the stranger acquisitions of recent years). Then-CEO Ed Scheetz came in talking big about classing the place up and raising ADRs. Fast-forward to '09 and the HRH is staking everything on its skanky Rehab parties (does the staff have to don hazmat suits when cleaning up afterwards?) and going for the mid-price market midweek.

One can't fault the latter half of that strategy, especially if you're in an off-Strip location and could use the traffic. However, if Morgans goal was to increase Hard Rock ADRs, perhaps it shouldn't have embarked on a ginormous expansion that practically obliterates Peter Morton's original hotel and dilutes the asking price per room. Also, I don't know whether to praise Morgans for doing the impossible and completing (sort of) its Paradise Tower well ahead of schedule ... or criticize it for being in such a hurry to churn some EBITDA that it's opening it in an unfinished state.

But here's hoping the business model works. The HRH is one of the few places in town that's hiring, not downsizing. At lot of people's jobs are riding on its success.

One less Wolfgang Puck restaurant on the Strip? That's hardly a culinary tragedy, given that he's still got -- what? -- five other places in town and has become the Ronald McDonald of haute cuisine. A laughable poster in McCarran International Airport uses Puck's visage to push the message, "Less celebrity, more chef." Uh, better put that the other way 'round.

The real tragedy here (aside from the loss of jobs) is the temporary demise of Poetry, one of the few venues in town to cater to an upscale African-American clientele. Harrah's Entertainment and the Forum Shops went out of their way to put the dagger in Poetry. Now they congratulate themselves on a job well done. Thanks for nothing, fellas.

Bondholders finally lost patience with Station Casinos, tripping the bankruptcy lever. Interestingly, all Station casinos (small "c") are shielded -- which implies that it's Station's imperial expansion plans which are are shot and that its considerable real estate holdings could be up for grabs. It looks like über-resort Viva, long-suffering Durango Station, Losee Station and umpteen other projects are kaput.

Too bad for Station partner Colony Capital; if the latter goes forward with its Neverland Ranch tourist-trap plans, it may have to disassemble the old Michael Jackson Xanadu and relocate it, lock, stock and menagerie. And what does/did Station have in abundance? Raw land. It was a marriage made in businss heaven but it surely won't reach the altar now.

Speaking of suffering, what's back on the auction block but the Greek Isles, which is $23 million underwater. Even at a revised valuation of $44 million, isn't that far too much to ask for this unremittingly unsuccessful property, the second coming of the Castaways? Perhaps it's time to exorcise this ghost which haunts the dead zone that is Convention Center Drive.

Double-whammy for Planet Ho

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:36:00 -0700

True, Planet Hollywood is feeling some pain in the wallet after the Nevada Gaming Commission approved a $500,000 fine. But it's Clark County Department of Business License which fired the shot across the bow that will really get the casino industry's attention. By scotching the liquor licenses of both Planet Ho's Privé and Living Room clubs, it signed their death warrant. That, more than anything, ought to get scofflaw club owners and laissez-faire casino owners to clean up their act.

It's hardly an excessive move when you consider that the bill of particulars against Planet Ho's clubs included "drug use, prostitution, underage drinking and assault." Besides, if you want those things, perhaps you should patronize one of Las Vegas' many "gentlemen's clubs." Nevada regulators' concern about on-Strip prostitution is laudable, if tardy. When it was rampant at the Tropicana, gaming's policemen snoozed at their posts, otherwise known as "monitoring the situation."

If the message still hasn't sunk in, the Nevada Gaming Control Board's Randall Sayre sent out an "invitation" for casino executives and middle management to discuss a wide range of potential concerns. Gov. Jim Gibbons appointed Sayre to the NGCB with a mandate to beef up its law-enforcement role and Sayre's made good on it. (Even Midnight Jim has his moments of perspicacity.) It's good to see the spirit of Bobby Siller living on in Carson City.

"Damn those customers!" What do you do when business takes a not-unpredictable nosedive during a recession? Blame the customers, of course. At least, if you're Golden Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta, that's what you do. When times were good, Fertitta was bullish on gaming (which was essentially propping up his Landry's Restaurants empire).

Oh, what transformation a few bad quarters brings! Moans the Texas tycoon, “I feel very good about restaurant hospitality, I do not feel very good about gaming.” Hmmm, maybe you should have pondered that change of heart when you were proceeding with a new $150 million hotel tower (opening ~~Aug. 1~~ Nov. 20) in the teeth of an economic tailspin?

As for the patrons, "discounted room rates appear to have attracted a clientele who are spending less on gaming and other amenities," harrumphs a company document. Yes, because in case you haven't noticed, we're on the verge of a depression. People have less money to spend. Period. Like many others like him, Fertitta needs to get hip to the fact that we're entering a period of diminished expectations. Shaking your fist at the rain isn't going to accomplish anything.

Other Fertitta scapegoats include MGM Mirage, for having the audacity to discount its rooms during the downturn. Sounding rather whiny, Fertitta utters, “You ought to go online and look at some of these rates and packages you can get. That is where we are just being murdered, trying to be competitive with the MGM and the Bellagio.”

Welcome to the NFL, man. And if you think -- with all due respect to the downtown Nugget -- that you're in the running against Bellagio or even the Green Monster, well, you're in a world of denial. I've not had time to read the last Landry's quarterly filing but, for once, it sounds like a real page-turner.

Station wins one, albeit on a technicality. All parties involved will be back for a grudge match in local court.

Harrah's reveals A.C. strategy

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:30:00 -0700

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

In a word, scabs. But who in their right mind expects Harrah's Entertainment to meekly shut down its table game pits and surrender that business to the competition?

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.

Strike!

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:47:00 -0700

Under CEO Gary Loveman's leadership, Harrah's Entertainment keeps tripping over its own feet. In the latest development, management's foot-dragging approach to negotiating with Atlantic City casino dealers and slot technicians has resulted in pro-strike votes at two casinos. Caesars slot technicians, in fact, voted unanimously in favor of striking (at some undetermined future date). The dealer votes were 92% in favor at Bally's Atlantic City and 97% "aye" at Caesars Atlantic City. Legislation currently before the U.S. Senate could turn up the heat under Harrah's considerably.

Closer to Harrah's HQ, this morning's drive-by of The Rio suggests that the corporate motto is, "Maintenance? What's that?" Not only does the paint continue to peel off the older Rio tower, which is starting to look outwardly seedy, but a big sign for Fuego continues to adorn the marquee, even though the club closed weeks ago. Expect giant cobwebs to cover the property any day now.

Jeff Beacher and his crazy critters are making trouble again, this time in Florida. Seems cops had to take down an Oompa Loompa in Beacher's employ.

It's lonely in the bunker; Luxor gets its groove on

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:35:00 -0700

Two resignations made the news today. First, the publicist for Criss F. Angel took a hike. Given the choice between the much-reviled Angel and unlikely rising star (and reportedly much, much nicer person) Holly Madison, Fantasy flack John Flynn left the sinking Angel ship.

With Guy Laliberté literally fleeing to outer space, defenders of Angel and his Believe debacle are growing fewer and fewer. (Hey, Cirque du Soleil, keep the title and redo the show as a Cher tribute. It can only be an improvement.)

"Would the last person to leave my office please turn out the lights?"

In an unrelated but symbolically parallel development, yet another high-ranking staffer has joined the exodus from the office of Gov. Jim Gibbons. Departing exec Mindy Elliott managed to drag Midnight Jim into yet another scandal when she persuaded the Gibber to exert influence on behalf of Boyd Gaming in a dispute with state OSHA. Unfortunately, the state's burgeoning jobless population will now have to deal with Elliott in her new role as head of the Dept. of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation. Is this a case of "failing upward"? "Sideways"?

Luxor? Sexy?!? It seems that the answer is, "Yes," judging by this creative marketing ploy: "Singles in Sin City." People come to Vegas to hook up, however briefly, so why not A) organize a promotion around it and B) class things up a bit? The four packages are, in ascending order of sexytime, "Get a Room," "Get Lucky," "PDA" and "The Player."

Well, it sure beats "First Base," "Second Base," etc., no? (If the funky vocal stylings of Robin Thicke don't make you want to get busy, nothing will.) And with the Strip currently floundering in disgrace -- and deservedly so -- Luxor's promotion is high heavens above, for instance, the cattle call that is Rehab at the Hard Rock Hotel. When they (foolishly, IMO) bought the place, Morgans Hotel Group claimed they were going to go upscale. Instead, by all accounts, they dove headfirst into the deep end of the cesspool.

Back from Michigan

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:25:00 -0700

With the cats fed and their indiscretions cleaned up, I can report that I have just returned from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, land of indescribable scenic beauty and intermittent Internet access. I spent the better part of five days in the bosom of a truly wonderful -- and big -- family, and only one did I hear the dreaded words, "Michael Jackson." And, lemme tell ya, the annual Pioneer Days fireworks display in Negaunee, Mich., put Las Vegas' most recent Fourth of July shoot 'em up to shame.

Along with souvenirs, I also brought home a nasty cold, so I beg your indulgence as a I get back up to speed. While on the subject of bacteria, I see that "Johnny Casino" has dragged his dad, ex-Circus Circus coporate ringmaster Mike Ensign, into his increasingly sordid sex-fund scandal. Oh, and S&G was way ahead of Huffington Post on this angle. As my U.P. pal Sydney Dorow would say, "Score!"

Wynn vs. Dealers: The final (?) round of the tip-confiscation controversy played out last week. The Transport Workers Union is right about one thing for sure: If Wynn Resorts prevails, its policy will spread like wildfire throughout the state.

Peepshow 2.0: The second time's the charm. As for nearby After the Show, how much you like it will probably be in direct proportion to how many drinks you've had.

Blood: The Last Vampire: Internet responsive to this Chinese-Argentinian-French sanguinary spectacle has been universally derisive. So, wouldn't you know, I liked it.

It's Wynn + Laughlin

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:19:00 -0700

Despite rumors that it would be a no-show at Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek's three-day hearing on Nevada's tip-pooling law, the company sent outside attorney Gregory Kamer for the first day of testimony. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the witness list includes "Nevada Resort Association Chairman John Hinchliffe, and Steve Willett, assistant games manager at Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort in Laughlin," along with two other pro-Wynn witnesses.

So it's not to be eminence grise Don Laughlin himself but a relatively minor emissary. Due to Laughlin's late and shadowy emergence in thie hearing process, I didn't get a chance to find out why a tip-redistribution system that predates the 1971 law by five years has probative value. Meanwhile, an amicus curae brief written by the law's co-author (ex-state Sen. Donald Mello) has been deemed irrelevant by Tanchek. And, if Tanchek leans heavily on the Laughlin precedent rather than the law per se in his eventual ruling, does he reopen the door to litigation? In that case, the not-so-merry-go-round will just keep a-spinnin'.

Fertittas reinvest ...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:22:00 -0700

... not in Station Casinos but in Orange County real estate, it would seem. The neighborhood is popular with casino moguls who have run their companies into the ground: A nearby, $35 million crib is a domain whose master is Jerry Herbst, late of Herbst Gaming, recently surrendered to its creditors.

At least Frank J. Fertitta III can argue that he was bargain-shopping, as his Emerald Beach pied-a-terre was purchased for 24% off list price. Station employees, however, aren't likely to be house-hunting anytime soom.

I'm reminded of something Transport Workers Union representative Joe Carbon said last week: "That's what it's about ... the CEOs making their $25 million and the workers having their health plan cut." He wasn't speaking of Station or Herbst specifically but the consequences of poor leadership at both redound primarily to the workforce -- and the creditors.

Laughlin to rescue Wynn?

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:02:00 -0700

I've just returned from the Grant Sawyer Building, one of many seats of guvmint in Nevada. (Judging from some the makeshift signage in the building, money is super-tight these days.) While I was down there, a couple of people told me the strangest thing.

Seems Wynn Resorts isn't going to send any representatives to a series of hearings convened this week by Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek ... or so the story goes. Since the hearings are for the purpose of interpreting Nevada law on tip-pooling and distribution, you'd think Steve Wynn would have a vested interest. But supposedly he's sending Don Laughlin, owner of the Riverside Resort to speak on Wynn Resorts' behalf.

That'd be strange but not crazy. Laughlin's been doing the same thing as Wynn (cutting management in on tips) for decades. So even with the firepower at his disposal, Wynn Las Vegas President Andrew Pascal, General Counsel Kevin Tourek, etc., Wynn would be effectively ceding the letter-of-the-law argument. By using Laughlin as a stalking horse, his case would boil down to: "It's OK for us to control the tips because, look, here's Don Laughlin and he's been doing it for ages. Tell 'em, Don."

There's no hope of confirming this from the Wynn side of the fence. They all figuratively dove under the table when CityLife came calling last week. I'm waiting to hear from Laughlin himself, who can clarify this bizarre potential turn of events. If true, it'd be a sad day for the Most Powerful Man in Nevada when he has to have a rural casino owner do his heavy lifting for him.

Atlantic City strip tease; Sheldon sacks the help, etc.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:37:00 -0700

Unfortunately, it does not involve some Cinemax hottie like Kim Dawson but rather Mayor Lorenzo Langford, who's doing a fan dance involving Bader Field. He's had discussions with interested developers -- too interesting to discuss! He'll have "exciting" revelations -- too exciting to reveal! And it will -- brace yourselves -- "have some connection with casino gaming."

Why, you could knock me over with a feather.

Right-sized into oblivion. The workforce at Palazzo-Venetian has fallen below 7,000 with yesterday's purge of 194 employees. "It's an effort to continue to right-size our business," wailed the company. Geez, if they're so intent on trimming the ship, how 'bout asking for a give-back from their $2 Million Man, President Michael A. Leven?

Sands bombs in Bethlehem. Forget those roseate cash-flow projections Sheldon Adelson made when building Pennsylvania's second-most-expensive casino. Revenues at Sands Bethlehem have been in a steady decline since the place opened, reducing it to the #5 casino in the Keystone State.

Primm and proper. Although Sin City Kitties has closed (sniff!), there's still reason aplenty to visit the Herbst Gaming trio of casinos in Primm, Nev., Liz Benston contends. Most of those reasons entail copious freebies ... or at least bargain-basement prices.

The story doesn't mention the single most interesting phenomenon I've observed out there: a higher-than-[Strip]-average number of African-American and Latino players (it's the most integrated casino floor I've set foot upon). But Benston's look-in makes a strong case for those of us who think Herbst CEO Ferenc Szony is the man to turn these places around.

The money quote is from Szony's man in Primm, General Manager Michael Starr, who says, "I have yet to make money on a vacant room in this business." There's but a few CEOs in Vegas who couldn't stand to have that chiseled into their bedroom wall so that it's the first thing they see in the morning and the last thing at night. Those are words of wisdom, Mr. Starr. Long may you flourish.

There's theatre in Vegas. True, you have to poke around behind the dodgy Sportsman's Royal Manor on Boulder Highway to find it sometimes. But the trip to the dark side is definitely worthwhile.

Harrah's goes to the dogs

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:49:00 -0700

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.

Quote of the Day

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:08:00 -0700

“If you want smaller government, you’re going to have to take a half-day off of work to register your car. You can’t cut government, advocate for lower taxes and expect to walk in and out of the DMV in half an hour. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” -- local AFSCME chair Dennis Mallory on the impending consequences of Nevadans' unwillingness to pay for government services. In other news, Clark County is mulling closing fire stations on a rotating basis. It's a red-letter day for arsonists.

Seven essential Web sites ... and other news

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:23:00 -0700

Yes, you too can can be a gaming-industry blogger, with the help of but a few absolutely indispensable Web sites. The ones that I check Monday-Friday without fail (and, as they say on Dancing with the Stars, "in no particular order") are:

GamingFloor.com: The best aggregator of casino news from around the globe, especially since Editor Ian Sutton has an eye for the bizarre. Tons of eye-catching video, too, plus Ian's own on-the-spot reporting from far-flung venues like G2E Asia.

DieIsCast.com: Very eclectic but Dr. David G. Schwartz pounces on fascinating (and not very obvious) stories, often making droll pop-culture connections ... which frequently involve Star Trek.

TwoWayHardThree: Terrific discussions of casino architecture, intermingled with scoops that eagle-eyed moderator Hunter Hillegas snaps up -- not infrequently beating the local papers to the punch. His readers/forum contributors are some of the best-informed you'll encounter.

Las Vegas Sun: You're not going to find better gaming coverage this side of the Wall Street Journal and labor reporter Michael Mishak is one of the finest in the business. (The R-J's pathologically anti-union stance is probably to blame for its feeble coverage of workplace issues, as that paper's editorial-page psychoses leach into its news priorities.) Unlike its cross-town rival, the Sun doesn't take its marching orders from the Chamber of Commerce, either.

Press of Atlantic City: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed paper is king. Oh, and Press: Your new "reader-friendly" redesign blows donkeys. But if there's news a-brewin' on the Boardwalk, this is the first place to look. For more selective -- but in-depth-- coverage, Suzette Parmley in the Philadelphia Inquirer is tops in the region.

Vegas Happens Here: No morning is complete without a jolt of news from the indefatigable Steve Friess. His blog isn't casino-centric but he's quick to spot a breaking story or one that might fly under the radar ... and his Min-and-Bill relationship to Steve Wynn makes for tremendous ongoing fun. Lots of pictures, too.

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Only because it exists (which, existentially, is open to debate). Like the elephant in your parlor, it must be acknowledged and sometimes its slave-driven reporters turn in exceptional work, despite their editors' best [sic] efforts to beat them down. (Inexcusably, last week the entire gaming staff was detailed to chronicle seemingly every hand played at the World Series of Poker.) The paper's shining achievement was Joan Whitely's exposé of dangerous corner-cutting at Harrah's Entertainment. Relative newcomer Arnold Knightly has ferreted out some laudable scoops, too. Howard Stutz, look to thy laurels!

Honorable mentions go to three sites that I can't always check on a daily basis, but which should not pass without notice ...

Pechanga.net: An exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) aggregration -- but it's a sieve which captures many tribal and regional gaming stories that would otherwise escape notice.

VegasTodayandTomorrow.com: Anybody -- and I mean anybody -- interested in the history and future of Sin City should have this site bookmarked. Mark Adams pores over the Web and any other source at his reach, presenting what bids fair to be the definitive online museum of Las Vegas' evolution. Our "Question of the Day" about the never-built Conrad was greatly aided by Adams' preexisting work. And the Coke-vs.-Pepsi map is must-see Internet.

The Movable Buffet: More showbiz- than bidness-focused. However, in a Vegas blogosphere infested with sycophants, Richard Abowitz provides a needed corrective to the local fawning over the celebutard of the moment. If you wish to following the continuing meltdown of Criss F. Angel step by step, Abowitz is your man. He even makes a colloquy with Holly Madison interesting. The chap's a miracle worker!

Farrah Fawcett, R.I.P.: One of the greatest of Seventies icons has died, at age 62. I was always more of a Cheryl Ladd fan myself, but Fawcett showed herself to be seriously "misunderestimated," especially in her Oscar-worthy turn as Robert Duvall's adulterous wife in The Apostle. Haven't seen it? Rent it! Ditto the severely underrated See You in the Morning, a still from which graces the Los Angeles Times obituary. Speaking of movies ...

Scott Walker 30 Century Man: A rock-and-roller who draws frequent comparisons to Samuel Beckett? Meet reclusive American expat Scott Walker and discover that the analogy has surprising validity. His handsome baritone is also one of the most compelling singing voices to emerge from the U.S. And speaking of singing ...

Patti LuPone's Orleans gig last weekend may just be the downpayment on a long-term deal. If so, it'd be one of the best shows in town and it fits the Orleans Showroom hand in glove. If only LuPone would drop from her set list that anthem to codependency, Oliver!'s "As Long As He Needs Me." She unloads so many mannerisms upon it that it's like Bill Sikes pummeling Nancy. Still and all, I'd take it over a second visit to American Superstars (also reviewed). Aaaaaaaaaaannndddd speaking of shows ...

I've received a critique of the Harmon Theater's new Monday-night, witching-hour potpourri, After the Show. While I'm not at liberty to quote any of it, suffice it to say that After the Show is described in such hallucinatory and pejorative terms that the bottom line is, even if you're a local resident and thus get in free, you've still paid too much. Better we should stay home and watch Jon Stewart, with a Conan O'Brien chaser.

Danny Gans: Still dead -- but not yet resting in peace. For the truly morbid, the R-J has published the 911 call made by his widow (as did the Sun). Listen if you care to; I didn't.

As F'bleau turns ...

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:48:00 -0700

Fontainbleau's grisly zillion-grievance bankruptcy has been sent to mediation. (I don't envy the mediator.) In the process, F'bleau has obliquely confirmed lenders' accusations of cost overruns. F'bleau has a union-affiliated financier lined up to provide funding above and beyond the final $656 million that the $2.9 billion (and climbing) resort's bankers have withheld.

One possible instance of profligacy involves F'bleau's on-hold condo component. Then-CEO Glenn Schaeffer had a handsome preview center erected along the Strip and staffed it up. But ... no matter how much you might want an F'bleau condo they wouldn't sell you one. No, they'd just take your contact information and get back to you -- sometime. With such half-assed decisionmaking, no wonder F'bleau alienated its backers.

And now the lawsuits pile up and contractor Turnberry West is being accused of featherbedding. This project really needs a third-party rescurer, but who would want it?

Burton is back? That's what Mike Weatherford is reporting. Lance Burton, it is hinted, will be returning to his Monte Carlo gig on July 1. Why all the delay and mystery? If I had to guess (and I do), my hunch would be that MGM Mirage is angling for a bigger slice of the gate receipts.

Atlantic City Death Watch: This is particularly worrisome -- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is opening the door to full Class III status for the Keystone State's slot parlors. Sensibly, Rendell advocates waiting and seeing until all of Pennsylvania's planned slot houses are up and running before upping the ante.

However, he's also giving legislators his tacit blessing to force the issue. His advocacy of expanded video poker in Pennsylvania isn't going to do besieged Atlantic City any favors, either.

A-Yem to the rescue

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:14:00 -0700

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harrah's Azov?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:23:00 -0700

Bloomberg News reports the following: Harrah's Entertainment, the world's biggest casino company, may build a resort on the Azov Sea, Vedomosti reported Tuesday.

Harrah's may join U.S. construction company Asati in building a complex in Azov-City, one of four gambling zones planned in the country, Vedomosti said, citing Asati founder Alex Kogan.

The resort, which will include a casino, hotels and conference centers, will cost between $50 million and $100 million, Kogan said.

Wow! Try building a U.S. resort -- or even a Macanese one -- for so little money. I've asked Harrah's for confirmation but have yet to hear back. Although several overseas ventures have gone belly-up, the company continues to persist.

However ... despite the Russian government's decree that all casinos be moved to special zones, scattered around the far reaches of the empire, little headway has been made: "One Russian publication sent a reporter to check out progress on one of the zones, who discovered open fields filled with grazing cows." The Azov-City project, for one, has a long way to go.

And how is ~~Harrah's/~~Asati going to build a casino for $100 million or less? One word: tents. "Several foreign investors have begun preparatory work, including the Austrian company Asati. The company plans to build on the 20 hectares of inflatable structures, area of 100 thousand square meters," explains one investment site, "... the inflatable structure can be a casino and a water park and the congress hall. In addition to inflatable structures Asati company intends to build a 17-storey hotel and 34 bungalows."

If there's to be gambling under a big top, I'd suggest they call the place Circus Circus, but Jay Sarno got there first. Potential feeder markets for "Harrahs' Azov" would include Kiev and Odessa, but the closest major city appears to be Stalingrad ... er, Volgograd.

Yung & the restless: Closer to home, in Kentucky, the grand vizier of Columbia Sussex, CEO William J. Yung III, is loaning out the corporate locomotive for charitable causes. Company locomotive? No, we're not making this up.

Restiveness marks the labor situation at one of the distant outposts of Yung's hotel empire. Both in the slow pace of negotiations and the demand for employee give-backs, it's very reminiscent of the scrumdown that was the Culinary Union/ColSux stalemate of two years back. At least Scott Butera intervened to make peace before it reached the point of a Tropicana Las Vegas boycott.

Small beer? Just what Resorts International in Atlantic City needs ... more regulatory problems. C'mon, guys. We hook up beer kegs all the time here at LVA. It's not rocket science. Then again, it's difficult to "misunderestimate" Colony Capital.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:08:00 -0700

“We understand the economy has had a severe impact on the gaming industry. The [casino] companies have asked for temporary economic relief. And we’re asking for a variety of things too. Whether the two minds meet, we’ll see. But we’re not there yet.” -- Culinary Union boss D. Taylor on Strip and downtown operators' request for postponement of raises that are part of the current collective bargaining agreement. I think we all knew this moment was coming and it was only a question of when and how much.

Photo © Sparky Goldstein

Quote of the Day

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:01:00 -0700

“We’ve got to diversify the tax base. It’s painfully evident that you’ve got to make everybody pay, not just gaming. And if the Legislature won’t do it, you may find us doing it ... You can’t operate as the worst state in the nation and expect you’ll have economic diversification.” -- Nevada AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson, bruiting the possibility of a petition drive for a gross-receipts business tax.

Quote of the Day

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:18:00 -0700

"From a purely employment standpoint, I think we are already in overcorrection territory. How long can you sustain that lower standard of employment before you really start to impact customer service?" -- Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis, pointing out that Las Vegas is at its lowest workers/hotel rooms ratio ever recorded and is in danger of repelling visitation.

By request ...

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:42:00 -0700

A reader from the heartland of this great country wanted to know whether LVA HQ provided a good vantage point for a United Way car wash at The Rio last Friday. Since I have but an obstructed view of The Rio, the answer is "no," I'm afraid, although perhaps Anthony Curtis could see it from his southeast-looking office.

Also, I had business at Scoot City (of which more later), so I wasn't around for the festivities. However, since Harrah's Entertainment sent over some snaps, I'll let you evaluate the event for yourself:

If the United Way raised $1,700-plus at $5 per car wash that means that ...

... these seasonally attired young ladies -- drawn from the terpsichorean talents of Sapphire -- washed a minimum of 340 cars. With results like those, you can't fault the marketing angle.

Harrah's giveth and Harrah's taketh away, especially if you happen to be an 83-year-old porter at Showboat Atlantic City. The 21-year Showboat veteran got eight weeks' pay and no benefits. Way to reward employee loyalty, Harrah's! Murray Freedman, God bless him, is fighting back. That's not how you treat a guy who says he offered to take a pay cut but instead was shown the door, and not nicely.

Here's hoping the court system shows him more compassion than did his former employer. The casino industry would survive quite nicely without Gary Loveman but of Murray Freedmans there can never be enough. Customer service is the industry's bedrock and Freedman's work ethic is an example to us all.

Big Love: Sheldon + Unions

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:55:00 -0700

As best we can ascertain, Hell has not frozen over -- nor have we engaged in any clumsy Photoshop fakery. That is an actual newspaper ad, as photographed by Steve Friess, who's out East, covering the opening of Sands Bethlehem. Since he's there and I'm not, I refer you to his series of on-the-scene dispatches: The Exterior (he deems the casino "the least interesting part" of the whole shebang) ...

The Interior (copious imagery, including that creepy robotic blackjack you see at G2E); The "very, very soft opening" (by Las Vegas Sands? Shocking!); The Sudden Crime Wave (two careless people lose their wallets; clueless prudes vent outrage).

It's droll, there's lots of pictures and it's the first good news we've had out of Sands in what feels like forever. Go, read, enjoy.

QoD'd out

Tue, 12 May 2009 18:03:00 -0700

My apologies if the blogorrhea has been insubstantial of late. Not only do I have a five-day GamingFloor.com mountain of headlines to surmount but I've been deeply enmeshed in other projects, mostly for our Question of the Day feature. For the latter, I've been writing about the Frontier strike, the late Danny Gans, the underwriting of jackpots, more Danny Gans, and that pre-Brokeback Mountain couple, Vegas Vic and Wendover Will, not to mention their love child, River Rick. (Yes, there really is such a neon personage.)

In the meantime, you may have heard that J.J. Abrams' Star Trek film hit warp speed on opening weekend, raking in approximately $76 million. In honor of this accomplishment, here's vintage Trek ...

... in the style of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson. Since my 48-episode trip down the memory lane that is Space: 1999 ended last night, I'll be in withdrawal for a while yet. Damn you, Fred F. Freiberger!

Harrah's is right

Thu, 07 May 2009 12:25:00 -0700

Not only because it's putting some elbow behind Rep. Barney Frank's proposal -- finally unveiled yesterday -- to repeal the noxious UIGEA and replace it with a regulatory framework for Internet gambling in the U.S. The love child of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and ex-Rep. Jim Leach, UIGEA has had deleterious effects on Harrah's Entertainment's online-recruitment efforts for the World Series of Poker. It's also taken a bite out of sponsorships generally and from trade-show attendance, so we'll all be grateful when this Rosemary's Baby is retroactively aborted.

Where Harrahs' really earned its kudos, though, was by permitting an on-site study of the effects of secondhand smoke on employees at three of its Strip properties. Not only did the Bally's, Caesars Palace and Paris-Las Vegas workers manifest health problems related to secondhand smoke, carcinogens turned up in their systems, too.

Smoking in casinos is the industry's devil's bargain. You gamble with the lives of your employees to -- among other reasons -- preserve their jobs. Eliminate smoking in one state's casinos and a mass exodus of players ensues. The example of Illinois could hardly be starker. All the same, cigarette smoke is foul, unhealthful stuff to which no one should be involuntarily subjected. (Two of my grandparents smoked so heavily it would drive you out of the room.)

As Harrah's Gary Thompson points out, the only economically viable solution would be a nationwide smoking ban applying to all casinos. Otherwise, if Harrah's went the clean air route, say, MGM Mirage would be able to use "smoker friendliness" to beat its competitor like a drum. Even a national ban isn't a complete solution, as tribal casinos would be exempt -- giving them a substantial competitive boost.

Whatever route is taken, there's going to "collateral damage," either in the form of lost revenues, lost jobs or, worst of all, lost lives. What's really not going to cut it are intelligence-insulting empty gestures like the "smoke-free corridors" at Palazzo: strips of carpet upon which you cannot light up ... but you sure can catch a lungful of cigar fumes at 20 paces. If that's your idea of a clean air "initiative," why bother?

Quote of the Day

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:39:00 -0700

“Let’s face facts. $10 per hour is $400 a week, before expenses. It’s very hard to live on that. You have to get wages up so people can make a living.” -- Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin, who hasn't done too badly while paying his employees a living wage.

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.

Case Bets: Wynn, Adelson, casino closings & Number One

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:45:00 -0700

Last winter, I got a break on my rent -- but not nearly as good as the one Steve Wynn did. That's a nice deal, if you can get it.

Las Vegas Death Watch: In the latest "Stripper Poll" posted by Steve Friess, he asks which Strip casino should close first "if economic conditions warrant it." Through some glitch, the Tropicana was listed twice, so voters may be using two of their three votes on it. Either way, it's out in front with 40 votes, with hanging-by-a-thread Hooters second (31 votes) and Circus Circus, the casino people to hate -- and patronize -- third with 29, as of this writing.

The fourth-place showing by the customarily derided Imperial Palace counts, in this context, as good news for the IP. As for the Tropicana's prospects, I'd still count them better than Riviera's ... assuming Trop management gets its act together, which it shows few signs of doing.

Good news for Adelson: An analysis of the East Coast casino market finds Sands Bethlehem relatively sheltered from strong competition and likely to swipe business from two rival Pennsylvania slot parlors.

Whatever service workers get paid, it's not enough, as this story demonstrates. The indignity alone is impossible to quantify.

Quote of the Day

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:58:00 -0700

"Candidly, it took me a while to wrestle with [the loss of friends in the 9/11 attacks]. It was the diversity program that ultimately got me through. I realized that there is hate in the world, but there is more love. There is anger in the world, but there is more compassion." -- former Wall Street stock analyst and current MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren, on his company's industry-leading initiative.

Interesting facts: MGM's workforce is 57% Latino, Asian-American or African-American ... and who ever thought we'd see the day a high-ranking Strip executive (director of supplier diversity) was named after Jomo Kenyatta, the founding father of Kenya?

Case Bets: MGM Mirage, Harrah's, Wynn, Shuffle Master, Taxes

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:05:00 -0700

As we wait for the MGM Mirage earnings report, signs of desperation mount. If the company is willing to cast away a pearl like new, costly and high-yielding MGM Grand Detroit, what isn't sacred? Not even the corporate jet, provided the buyer doesn't welsh on the deal. (Guess those high rollers won't have to fly commercial for a while yet.) Whoever made that offer for MGM Detroit, though ... (s)he's one smart cookie, methinks.

Dumping regional properties at a time when that's where the strength of the casino industry is just doesn't make sense -- although you could probably make a case for ditching the already written-down Gold Strike in Tunica or the Grand Victoria riverboat in casino-killing Illinois. Actually, getting the hell out of the hellacious Illinois market seems like the best idea since forever.

Congratulations, Gary Loveman! You took home $39.6 million last year, while your company was crashing and burning -- not to mention pink-slipping 8% of your workforce. Don't say Loveman isn't feeling Harrah's pain: He's forfeiting a whole $100K in salary for 2009. There goes the college fund!

The casino giant is one step from the bottom of the Moody's bond-rating ladder. In a memo to the SEC, Harrah's Entertainment announced that managers were taking a 5% pay cut and that "it might have to delay expansion, sell assets or restructure debt." Delay expansion? No! Really? That was off the table the minute the ink was dry on the LBO. Refurbishment is also a low priority, as capex costs will be trimmed by as much as 59%.

Meantime, the guessing game begins over which assets might be on the block. In one of the busier threads over at Hunter Hillegas' Two Way Hard Three, fellow blogger Chuck Monster synopsizes the reshuffling of Harrah's properties between various holding companies, which includes a possible abandonment of the volatile (read: shaky) Lake Tahoe market. Sometimes I think Harrah's does this jiggery-pokery just to amuse itself watching the blogosphere try to determine What It Really Means.

In a regional update, most Lousiana markets were slightly down last month -- except Lake Charles, which Harrah's pulled out of, leaving Pinnacle Entertainment in possession of the field. Oops.

Pssst! Don't tell anyone! It's stashed as the second item of "In Brief" but Wynn Resorts is floating a stock offering to the tune of over nine million shares. (Other sources say seven million.) Wall Street had an understandably adverse reaction -- at first blush -- to this 7% dilution of Wynn stock, which closed up $1.07 today. Given that it's a proactive move to retire debt, it's tough to quarrel with Wynn.

Update: Clarification of the Wynn stock float comes by way of Forbes.

As for the undying speculation that Steve Wynn might want to buy back Bellagio or golden oldie The Mirage, one analyst -- Goldman Sachs' Steven Kent -- says he "would be surprised to see Wynn pursue this," given that Wynn is a builder, not a buyer.

Parenthetically, in the above-mentioned blog thread, Brian Fey makes the following, extremely trenchant observation: "Its pretty bad, that here we are almost 10 years later [following Wynn's ouster from Mirage Resorts], and Steve's biggest competition is still Steve's old properties. Just shows you how far behind everyone else is when it comes to the game."

Shuffle Master wins? Rival company Elixir Gaming settled litigation by selling its Asian shuffler business. The Las Vegas Review-Journal sees it as a win for Shuffle Master, while the Las Vegas Sun takes the opposite take, implying that Shuffle Master got its pockets picked -- which could mean an ignominous curtain for just-departed CEO Mark Yoseloff, if that's indeed the case. They report, you decide.

More of the Same Dept.: Democratic leadership in the Nevada Lege is going to do exactly what (little) is expected of them -- jack up existing taxes to onerous levels as a cop-out solution to our budgetary crisis. Booze and cigarettes are the low-hanging fruit of taxation but Nevada casinos better get ready to bend over and grab their ankles, as they're probably the next target of opportunity. Oh, and brace yourself for a much bigger beer-and-wine tab at the casinos if this goes through ... as though casino booze wasn't costly enough already!

Never let it be said that S&G didn't at least once have a kind word for Columbia Sussex. The former Tropicana owner is reducing its carbon footprint. Amen to that.

Quote of the Day

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:54:00 -0700

"This is how Caesars is treating its employees, while our CEO made $15 million in compensation. I'm quite sure no one in [Gary Loveman's] household is cutting their pills in half to get by." -- Caesars Atlantic City dealer Sharon Masino, complaining about Harrah's Entertainment's foot-dragging approach to contract negotiations (a problem shared by employees of Tropicana Entertainment and Trump Entertainment Resorts -- but not MGM Grand Detroit). Harrah's inaction led to the cancellation of an AFL-CIO convention at Paris-Las Vegas.

Harrah's: Wait 'til 2018

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:10:00 -0700

Details of Harrah's Entertainment's newest distressed-debt buyout are beginning to emerge. According to CNBC, the company intends to issue $2.8 billion worth of lower value/higher interest notes that will mature in nine years' time. And, if you get in on the ground floor (i.e., by March 18), you can convert your Harrah's debt at three cents on the dollar.

What's not to love?

Hail Mary pass in Illinois: Casinos in the Land of Lincoln are in such a world of hurt that comped drinks seems like a no-brainer and long overdue. We'll see if legislators give a fig or are content to let the riverboats keep sinking.

Raises at Falls: After gritting out a lean 2008, employees at Neil Bluhm-run Casino Niagara and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort will receive raises and bonuses. While it's being speculated that this is management's "thank you" to workers for not unionizing, it would be a move worth emulating at the likes of Wynn Resorts, Harrah's, Station Casinos, ACEP, etc., when they emerge on the other side of the recession.

Skank Barbie: She'd fit right in with the Las Vegas nightclub scene. All that's missing is a Ken doll outfitted in Christian Audigier duds.

Strike at the Trop

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:50:00 -0700

No date certain has been set for Tropicana Atlantic City dealers to hit the bricks but their patience has run out. This sorry state of affairs has been brought to pass by New Jersey Casino Control Commission-appointed trustee Gary Stein. Under the once-admirable principle of not wanting to lock new ownership into a union contract negotiated by receivers, Stein has justified punting this football further and further down the field.

Stein's position has been rendered untenable by his own feckless tenure, as he frittered away several pricey bids for the Trop last spring and now looks like he's let a downsized Cordish Co. offer slip through his butterfingers, too. This guy couldn't sell lemonade in Death Valley on the hottest day in August ... and to think that, if he got his way, the 15-month sale process would be further extended into May!

Blame also accrues to ~~Stein's handpicked interim~~ Trop administration, ~~headed by Pam Popielarski,~~ which has decided to charge dealers more money for fewer benefits. Belt-tightening may be the order of the day on the Boardwalk but to do this in the teeth of a contract negotiation is tantamount to an outright provocation.

This latest incident removes any doubt that the NJCCC should either put Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera behind the wheel (with the NJCCC acting as faculty monitor, if need be) or broker a deal with lead creditor Carl Icahn to appoint TropEnt as casino manager if Icahn prevails at the bankruptcy auction. When a strike looked inevitable at the Tropicana Las Vegas, Butera was quick to make peace. Let's hope he can do the same in Atlantic City.

Lobster heist. Down the street at Bally's Atlantic City, security nabbed a crustaceon thief, in an incident straight out of Paul Blart, Mall Cop.

Wynn: now we know

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:53:00 -0700

When Steve Wynn laid out a draconian set of wage, benefit and schedule cutbacks at Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, his rationale could only be conjectured ... until now. What was clear was that Wynn was staring into some manner of abyss, not merely flipping out because of the now-infamous Wells Fargo cancellation.

An occupancy rate a hair under 80% is a good way to motivate stringency measures, as is a 20% drop in revenue per room. And if a -43% tailspin in casino revenue doesn't make you want to man the lifeboats, nothing will. No wonder Wynn's moves were so severe -- the starkest in Vegas. Besides, those occupancy numbers don't look to strengthen appreciably now that Wynn had done an abrupt about-face, dropping "fill the rooms" in favor of chasing $399/night ADRs. So REVPAR ≥ occupany, it would seem. Of course, when you have a two-hotel megaresort to keep bustling, a sniper-rifle approach to marketing is going to have its limitations.

Pulling its weight is Wynn Macao (the sole bulwark between a bad quarter and outright calamity). Ergo, it was spared from the thrift regimen. Rival executives who swing the scythe indiscriminately when overall business is down might learn from Wynn's case-by-case example.

Irony is Dead Dept. II

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:38:00 -0700

Our local newspaper has dispatched its resident anti-union correspondent to gnash out more propaganda about "forced union membership." Had this person any sense, they might realize that, were the Las Vegas Review-Journal a union shop, its employees wouldn't have been summarily subjected to a 401(k) suspension ...

... just like non-union employees at Harrah's Entertainment. As with their opposite numbers at Station Casinos, leaders of Harrah's probably wouldn't have gotten into this pickle were it not for a near-insane LBO. At the time of both management-led buyouts, the question of how these companies were to exponentially increase their indebtedness, pay it down, build all the new projects they were touting and generate positive ROI was simply begged. We were loftily assured that it could be done, although in my head I could always hear my Mom's voice, asking her favorite rhetorical question: "Using what for money?"

At least some of that "what" is now going to come from the 401(k) kitty. Oh, there'll be some give-backs at the managerial level, too. (Update: Said to be numbering in the "thousands." At least Harrah's did the right thing and told workers first, then the media -- unlike Wynn Resorts, which did it the other way around.)

CEO Gary Loveman made out like a bandit on the LBO, to the tune of nearly $100 million. So perhaps he could emulate Chuck Mathewson's old example at IGT and work for a dollar a year, plus performance-based bonuses. I'll even donate the dollar. Just tell me where to send the check.

At least I'm not enough of a cynic to think that Harrah's and Station screwed the pooch deliberately. Not yet, anyway.

Black Tuesday: Wynn

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:42:00 -0700

With the aforementioned exception of Penn National and that of Bally Technologies, Feb. 3 was a wretched day to be in the casino industry, with most attention going to Wynn Resorts.

The company had to good grace to hold a conference call to announce what it was doing, in detail, resisting the obvious temptation to put out a press release and then just clam up. Steve Wynn lavished considerable praise on his employees and came across as sincerely concerned with keeping people employed, albeit in reduced circumstances. Contrast this with certain casino operators (coughColumbia Sussexcough) who have seemed to positively enjoy putting people out on the street, the more the better.

Encore: caught napping?

Wynn (the company or the person, take your pick) is also to be commended for graduating the pay reduction on salaried employees so that the lower-tiered ones face "only" a 10% cutback, as opposed to the -15% that will be suffered in the higher ranks. However, losing as much as $15K in annual income isn't chump change and life will be even rougher for the hourly employees, who are looking at 20% less pay. (Social Darwinians will doubtless adopt the Pollyanna-ish view that the hourly employees now have the "opportunity" to take on additional, part-time jobs ... in a state where unemployment exceeds 9%.) However, unless you're making peanuts to begin with or are independently wealthy, a 10%-20% pay cut isn't "a little less," as Wynn defensively phrased it, it's a lot less. Let's just be clear on that.

During the conference call, Wynn said that the cutbacks had been in the works for five-six weeks, which would place their inception somewhere between Dec. 23-30 ... the first week that Encore was open. That's interesting timing. Perhaps management was too preoccupied with opening the property to see this crisis coming, but whatever the reason, both bosses and employees have been sandbagged.

Given the severity of the economy measures and the fact that, according to Wynn himself, the company is sitting on $900 million in "free cash," as they put it, why were such drastic actions necessary? Especially when the maximum saving is pegged at $100 million? Better too much prudence than too little, of course, but it seems like we're not getting the full picture here. If I had to surmise, I'd say Wynn must be looking at some very dire -- but undisclosed -- 2009 business models and bracing for impact.

Pilar Weiss of the Culinary Union told S&G she wasn't sure where the Review-Journal got its 9,500-affected-employees figure, as roughly half (5,000-plus people) of Wynn Las Vegas/Encore's workforce is Culinary-repped and therefore immune to the unilateral pay and benefit reductions (partly because they don't participate in Wynn's 401[k] plan). "He can do unilateral whatever he wants" to non-Culinary employees, Weiss said, adding that the union hasn't had and doesn't intend to have meetings with Wynn to discuss concessions.

"I don't see any defections," Wynn predicted of his workforce and one can't argue with the implicit logic, even if a Wynn LV/Encore job might not be the highest-paying gig on the Strip now. Most of his competitors are in even worse straits and any Strip job opening draws a hefty surfeit of applicants. Wynn knows his people will stay put because the chances of landing a better job elsewhere are closer to "none" than "slim."

On other topics, Wynn was pretty sanguine, saying that Encore Macau is being financed out of free cash flow and belt-tightening isn't needed over there: "Our business in Macao is at levels that don't dictate that sort of measure." Having almost a fifth of the Macanese market with just one casino is nice, isn't it?

"I don't really feel like sweating the stock price" was another Wynn-delivered bon mot, as he implied he might be in the mood to take advantage of the swooning market and accrue more WYNN shares.

The assembled stock analysts were respectul but not fawning, with the exception of Larry Klatzkin, who coyly wafted softballs for Wynn execs to swat out of the park. Joseph Greff asked the once-unthinkable: Could Strip resorts become irrelevant and go dark? Wynn didn't answer directly but noted that the pressure was greatest on the bargain-tier properties: "Where do you go from 29 [dollars a night]?" Added one of his lieutenants, any darkness "will come from the bottom up."

Atlantic City: Two strikes, no balls

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:05:00 -0700

This was originally going to be "Death Watch VI" but three of those in a week is positively ghoulish. So, on to the latest disheartening developments from Atlantic City, the casino market that just can't catch a break.

Cease the revels! Taking a page from the Harrah's Entertainment playbook, Revel is calling a halt to interior work and will concentrate on finishing the exterior of the $2 billion resort. It had weathered the loss of several key executives in a plane crash and an attempted shakedown by Unite-HERE, but now it's basically running out of money. The possibility of a joint venture has now been floated. (Hey, Penn National, here's your chance to get onto the Boardwalk without having to buy the land or even put up most of the construction cost.) Starting a multi-billion-dollar resort project without all of one's financing in place may be standard practice, but it's caused project after project to go begging as Wall Street's purses snap shut.

It seems disingenuous, though, for Pinnacle Entertainment to cite Pennsylvania casinos as a potential reason not to move forward in Atlantic City. True, Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III completely "misunderestimated" the Pennsylvania threat, but he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to running casinos and evidently never familiarized himself with the A.C. market. Pinnacle, they're supposed to be the smart guys, so they had to know full well what they'd be up against when they took a wrecking ball to the Sands back in '07. One would expect no less of them.

The cruel irony to all of this is that, during a time when casino development in Philadelphia has been deadlocked and ineffectual, buying precious time for Atlantic City, the economic crunch has sent project after project either into paralysis or onto the slag heap.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission in executive session.

Trop the madness! If such a thing were possible, the Tropicana Atlantic City has even fewer slot technicians now than during the slash-and-burn ColSux days. And the techs have voted to strike, which may trip a rolling series of walkouts. Table game dealers would be the next ones out the door.

There's a mixed message coming from Trop HQ. President Mark Giannantonio insists he's been bargaining in good faith. But his hands may be tied by slowpoke trustee Justice Gary Stein, whose public posture has been that it would be unfair to the next owner of the Trop to be saddled with a labor contract negotiated by state-appointed interim management.

I agree, in principle. But in practice that admirable restraint has resulted in Trop employees being strung along while Stein takes his own sweet time getting a sale into place. A picket line would be yet another unfunny act in the farce caused by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission's lack of testicular fortitude when dealing with its dawdling surrogate. It should have told Stein to get the most viable deal and get the hell on with it 10 months ago.

Which is one more argument for taking a chance on Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera (a dice-throw that seems like less and less of a gamble by the day). When ColSux brinksmanship seemed to have the Tropicana Las Vegas headed for a strike, Butera brought the crisis to a swift and statesmanlike conclusion. He'd probably do the same thing in Atlantic City. It's a situation that calls for decisiveness, a quality not greatly in evidence right now.

Bargain$ tonight in Vega$

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:37:00 -0700

Suppose that you got a sudden urge to visit Vegas on a Tuesday night ... tonight, to be specific. You'd find that the customer is king, at least as far as pricing goes. A few minutes spent browsing Travel.Ian.com yielded the following revelations.

The exception that proves the rule is Red Rock Resort, which is advertising rooms at $160/night. Better you should drive the extra couple of miles to Suncoast, where they're charging half as much.

• Downtown, believe it or not, is commanding a slightly higher price point that some well-regarded off-Strip and near-Strip locals casinos. Rooms at Boyd Gaming's California Hotel and Fremont are going for $40 while The Orleans is fetching but $34.67. The "Off-Strip Bargain" award has to go to Boyd, which can put you up at Sam's Town for $21. True, you can stay at Fitzgeralds for $22 ... but it's Fitzgeralds. 'Nuff said.

• Honorable mention goes to Palace Station, where $29.99 gets you a room, just a walk (admittedly a rather hazardous walk) from Rat Pack hangout The Golden Steer.

• Conversely, the "Don't They Know There's a Recession?" award goes to our old friends, Columbia Sussex, who obliviously charge $159* at the Westin Casuarina at a time when you might stay at adjacent Platinum or nearby Paris-Las Vegas for $129, Bill's Gamblin' Hall or Bally's for $69, or even the Flamingo for $50. Then there's the "On-Strip Bargain" winner ...

• Caesars Palace at $90. The Caesars price was hardly the lowest one found on the Strip, but if you were graphing room rate vs. quality of property, the two lines would intersect fortuitously at Caesars. It sure beats ...

• Staying at Circus Circus for $24.95 (assuming you're not going the Airstream trailer-in-the-RV park route; $45 a night in the depths of winter -- such a deal!). Though Harrah's Entertainment is, in our one-night snapshot, getting clobbered by MGM Mirage in terms of price points, it can at least take bragging rights in the "For the Truly Desperate" award category, offering Imperial Palace for $32.53/night. Clowns or bad karma: The choice is yours.

Without belaboring the exercise any further, there is one lesson to be drawn ...

Where Steve Wynn goes, the money follows. The rising tide that lifts all nearby boats is called "Encore." While Encore itself is a relative bargain at $169 tonight, Wynn Las Vegas is listing rooms at $299 (surpassed only by the Four Seasons, $319 at the other end of the Strip), Palazzo/Venetian is up to $199, as is Treasure Island, while even Trump International is able to eke out $109.33/night. And despite being the oldest of the Wynn-authored properties, The Mirage is kicking butt at $229 tonight. If it's true that MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren is driving a hard bargain for that place, can you blame him?

* -- The local papers are constantly filled with rants about how much more affordable Vegas would be if got those damn unions out of here. Odd then that the Westin, a non-union shop, has some of the highest rates on or near the Strip, huh?

Adelson ambushed?

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:46:00 -0700

That ostensibly grassroots movement to run Las Vegas Sands out of Macao looks suspicious-er and suspicious-er. So far Macau Residents has been fortunate to find journalists who are either downright gullible or at least credulous.

Any claim to be shocked -- shocked! -- by Sheldon Adelson's Singapore project, Marina Bay Sands, indicates either disingenuousness or remarkable incuriosity, seeing as how Marina Bay has been in train for nearly three years (longer, if you count the courtship process). Nor has Sands proposed to "abandon" its Cotai Strip™ projects but rather to indefinitely suspend them ... although if you're an unemployed Macanese or a expat construction worker, that's probably a distinction without a difference.

Saying that LVS "recovered its capital investment within the first year of operation of the Sands Casino in Macau" is true only insofar as it applies to Sands Macao. When it comes to Venetian Macao and everything else, Sands is nowhere near being out of the woods. (I've seen much worse business plans than rolling the proceeds from Casino A into the construction of Casino B, which in turn bankrolls Casino C, but I doubt this one will be emulated anytime soon.)

As for the contention, "there was no significant incremental foreign tourism as originally represented and no substantial increase in convention business," what's Chinese for "bullshit"? To cite but one of innumerable tourism metrics, Macanese officialdom recently announced that it was seeing double-digit increases in visitation from Great Britain. It may not be a stampede yet, but you've got to start somewhere. Nor are Venetian Macao's convention and meeting statistics anything at which to sneeze -- not even remotely.

Sheldon Adelson may have a remarkable facility for making enemies but that doesn't mean this isn't a put-up job. Irate guest workers might want to redirect some of their wrath toward Peking, which is conducting a purge of non-Macanese labor (and if there's one thing Communist China is exceptionally good at, by golly, it's purging).

Oh, where did Macau Residents stage its press conference? At the Grand Emperor Hotel. And who holds the Grand Emperor's casino concession?

Why, it's good old Stanley Ho, of course.

The plot thickens ...

Quote of the Day

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:29:00 -0700

"For a casino worker, every day breathing second-hand smoke in the workplace is one too many. Everyone has the right to breathe smoke-free air -- regardless of the color of their collar." -- Americans for Nonsmokers Rights Executive Director Cynthia Hallett, reacting to a resolution passed by the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States. The NCLGS resolution urges constitutent states to make all gambling venues smoke-free workplaces and that smokeless gambling be a mandatory part of future tribal-state compacts. States that require smoke-free casinos are, at present, Illinois, Colorado and Delaware.

The red badge of comping

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:48:00 -0700

Once again, the Post-Eating Server (our technologically evolved version of Charlie Brown's nemesis, the Kite-Eating Tree) has devoured something intended for the "Comments" section, so I hope you'll indulge me while I respond to reader mike_ch lthusly ...

I used to slag you when you were on That Other Site [Las Vegas Business Press -- Ed.] and were calling Wynn childish names over his labour dispute, but now it's starting to float in the other direction. And you're not even the first person I've heard say that the best channel is the one where Steve talks all day long.

When you see the rest of the channel lineup, you'll realize that's not quite the compliment it seems (since I didn't notice any free HBO, Showtime or Cinemax in the repertory). However, the dance-competition show on Italian network RAI did give "Steve TV" (or maybe "sTeVe") a run for its money.

Also, I forgot to mention that the TV is set (deliberately?) to the incorrect scaling mode, so that non-HD channels display in that "stretched" setting that makes everybody look 50 pounds heavier. (Gotta use the whole screen, y'know.) Re-set "aspect ratio" to "native" and everything will be fine. However, since my apartment complex -- among its many other crimes against humanity -- balks at replacing a corroded cable-TV line, staying at Encore is as close to HD cable as I'm going to get for a while.

Those of you who weren't around for the "childish names" not only didn't miss anything but need only know that they were pejorative references to some plastic surgery (or Botox-ing maybe) that had very unfortunate -- but temporary -- side effects on Steve Wynn's face. It was a lapse on my part that I'd like to think I've outgrown or am at least trying to (ditto Sheldon Adelson's coiffure).

Per the ongoing dispute over Wynn's tip-confiscation regime and his generally shameful treatment of his dealers (covered in detail at LVCityLife.com), I'd like to paraphrase something once uttered about composer Richard Strauss: To Steve Wynn the casino impresario, I take off my hat; to Steve Wynn the person, I put it back on. His tip grab was not only a giant blotch upon an otherwise industry-leading record in labor relations, it was petty, stubborn and -- unless he relents -- it will follow him to the grave.

Seriously? And I've been hearing about this "media day," but did they really shack said journos and bloggers up in complimentary rooms?

More like a week, actually. Four days of events. As for who was comped: Journos, yes. Bloggers, I dunno. Not me, though. My (red) badge relegates me to the anonymous status of "Media Guest." Which serves as a useful restraint upon one's ego.

And nobody wondered whether that would affect credibility? (Note I'm not singling out you here, I've heard about this event from others on Twitter and I figure if they're bringing bloggers along then the Medium-Large Media must be getting this, too.)

Some of Wynn's most favorable coverage comes from Greenspun-owned media outlets and those folks aren't allowed to accept anything worth more than a buck, so I question the efficacy of comping. It certainly doesn't make a substandard experience (names withheld to protect the guilty ... for now) any less irksome, especially since you're receiving something of dubious financial value in return for the surrender of that which is priceless and irreplaceable -- your time.

Also, if I've been comped to something, I try to include that caveat in my postings, so that readers can weigh my coverage accordingly. (Constantly mentioning that yours truly was the proverbial "plus one" does, however, have the bathetic side effect of seeming like a constant proclamation of, "Look! Look! I have a girlfriend!")

As for my opinions of Encore, the Dec. 22 media walk-through set them pretty much in stone, with slight amplifications and alterations during "Media Week." If/when I can afford it, I'll be back as a paying customer, as I've been at the Venetian (very good) and MGM Grand (not so good). Which reminds me that I have to book an anniversary dinner at Sinatra ...

Of course Steve Wynn knows how to run a company, but I'm not so convinced that I'll join his Official Fan Club, even if he does leave members a personal message on their birthdays.

If you're like me and think that, with a few exceptions, most other casino operators on the Strip wouldn't have a clue (or would be stuck 10-20 years in the past) without Wynn's example, it's easy to sound fan-clubby. But I don't harbor any illusions that I'm even a blip on Steve Wynn's mental radar, so I don't expect to receive any birthday greetings from him ... and would be mighty suspicious if I did.

(Actually, if I got a personal message from Steve Wynn, I'm extremely confident that it wouldn't be "happy birthday" but would be of a rather less pleasant nature.)

Anyway, since S&G is meant to be more of a conversation than a sermon, I hope that my impromptu dialogue with Mike has provided something of value (at least reaching the Greenspun-mandated $1 threshold).

Now I must be off to find out what the heck -- if anything -- ever happened to that "For Sale" notice Don Barden hung upon the downtown Vegas Fitzgeralds property.

Quote of the Day

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:09:00 -0700

"Unions don't often enter agreements that are unfavorable for their members." -- the ever-perspicacious Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board ferrets out an abstruse and hitherto-unpublicized detail of American labor relations.

Palace more 'impotent' than ever

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:51:00 -0700

More nails are being pounded into the coffin of the Imperial Palace. The official word is that eateries The Ming and Cockeyed Clam are closed for good. As for the others, operating hours are being truncated "periodically. Nothing is written in stone." Not even the future of "Impotent Palace," it seems.

G2E attendees taking the monorail north to the Las Vegas Convention Center were treated to the daily spectacle of Harrah's Entertainment demolishing the last of the apartment buildings that sat on the acreage it's accumlated between Audrie and Koval lanes. Now it's nothing but magnificent desolation, save for some fugly, little, white apartment shoeboxes owned by holdout Oscar Nuñez, and Columbia Sussex's Westin Casuarina.

ColSux up to old tricks. The Kentucky-based hotel/casino operator is embroiled in a contract fight in Baltimore that bears a striking resemblance to the long-running stalemate that took place at the Las Vegas Tropicana. (A conflict that was resolved in swift and statesmanlike fashion by Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera.)

The Trop's Culinary Union employees had it easy -- ColSux's Sheraton Baltimore City Center workforce has been in a two-year standoff. Bill Yung's minions are dangling a princely $728/year raise -- which they propose to offset with a "moderate" increase in health-benefit costs. So don't go out and spend those 728 clams (before taxes) in one place, guys!

Taking a page from the Obama campaign, Unite-Here has upped the ante by enlisting student activists as foot soldiers in its war with ColSux. Hmmmm. Makes you wonder if the Culinary Union should have tried that tactic at the Trop.

Butera up to old tricks; Dog days for Ruffin; Fowl play

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:07:00 -0700

Grasping at straws in his attempt to wrest control of the Tropicana Casino & Resort back from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, the CEO of Tropicana Entertainment, Scott Butera, has seized upon a letter from state Sen. Richard Codey. In his Nov. 14, 2007 missive, Codey requests that Unite-Here Local 54 be allowed to intervene in NJCCC hearings against TropEnt owner Columbia Sussex (which, back home, was the beneficiary of some rare -- but no doubt welcome -- good news).

Codey's letter, Butera's lawyers contend, smacks of "political interference" and tipped the scales of justice against ColSux.

But Local 54 was only allowed to make a statement toward the proceedings' end, not be an active participant, as Codey wished. ColSux lawyer Paul O'Gara was given the opportunity to object to this at the time -- and didn't. TropEnt also revives the old Bill Yung whine that it doesn't understand what New Jersey law means when it requires every casino to have an independent audit committee.

Let's see ... Independent. Audit. Committee. Not a difficult concept to grasp, save possibly for ColSux, which ultimately formed a committee of one, that one person being a lawyer it already had on retainer (which shoots the "independent" requirement right in the ass). Sounds like the New Jersey Supreme Court isn't buying it, either.

Those must have been some NJCCC hearings, too. According to The Associated Press, they "presented evidence of roach and bedbug infestation in hotel rooms, floors and appliances caked with mud and dust, and long waits for slot jackpot payouts following massive job cuts ..."

Is that what Bill Yung meant about his being "ahead of the curve"?

Phil Ruffin is back in the news. Like other dog track owners -- and the State of Kansas -- he's in a financial bind. He contends it's not a viable economic proposition to run races at this two Kansas tracks. Ergo, he'd like his cut of the dog-running revenues upped to 58% from the current 40%. But a cash-strapped Kansas Lege may not want to dicker -- or, worse yet, Topeka-bound lawmakers may see this as opportunity to repeal Kansas' casino law. That alarming prospect alone should make gambling advocates wary of Ruffin's proposition, even if you don't think dog racing should be abolished.

Poultry in motion. In "I hate G2E," I sang the praises of the tic-tac-toe-playing rooster, late of Atlantic City. Seems he was furloughed a while back from the A.C. Trop (no, Bill Yung didn't fire the chicken). But Harrah's Entertainment was astute enough to snap up our feathered friend and install him at Tunica's Sheraton Casino Hotel. According to Raving Consulting, Harrah's staked $100K and sent out a "Chick Tac Dough" mailer, inviting all comers to try their luck against the mojo-bearing bird in the "Final Chicken Challenge."

No sightings of the rooster at G2E, though. I'll keep you posted.

Winners & Losers

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:52:00 -0700

And now the obligatory post-Election, What's-it-all-about-Alfie roundup ...

Culinary Union 1, Casino CEOs O: True, the Culinary tripped all over its own feet in the early going, leading to Democratic caucuses that weren't so much "Barackular" as "debacular." But D. Taylor & Co. backed the winning horse and did it early, which earns some chits down the road, plus they have a new Capitol Hill friend in Rep.-elect Dina Titus. Messrs. Lanni, Loveman, Wynn, Adelson and Trump made a variety of presidential wagers, losing every one.

Ameristar Casinos/Pinnacle Entertainment: They wanted a protected oligarchy in Missouri and now they've got it -- and at relatively little additional tax burden to them.

Slot manufacturers: OK, so Ohio and Maine didn't come through and the Missouri market is frozen. But 15K new slots in Maryland ain't chicken feed. Plus a West Virginia casino expansion that flew under the radar got voted in. Inexplicably, slot stocks traded downward. Stupid Wall Street.

Colorado casinos: They didn't so much "win" as get a hefty lifeline thrown to them by Rocky Mountain State voters who approved 20X higher betting limits, 'round the clock operations, and roulette and craps. (No Sen. John McCain sightings in Cripple Creek yet, though.)

Freedom's Watch: So far F-Double-U is 6-9-1 (with Sen. Gordon Smith [R] of Oregon momentarily in the "tie" column) in its top-priority races. I'm feeling generous and crediting the Adelson front group with "wins" in the case of self-destructing Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL), who continued the scummy tradition of predecessor Mark Foley, and in that of Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who faces a December do-over, thanks to Georgia law. And veering off at the last minute to spend money attacking not-up-for-reelection Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)? Adelsonian political acumen at its finest. Winner? Loser? Let's call it a draw.

Poker: Just when it looked like the poker phenomenon was about to jump the shark, we've got a poker-playing president-elect. I dunno if Ms. Pelosi and Messrs. Reid, McConnell and Boehner cotton to hashing out legislation over cigars, booze and a deck of cards, but they'd better get ready for a whole new kind of "smoke-filled room."

Online Poker: Chances for a repeal of the UIGEA suddenly look a lot better.

Karma: Bearing false witness and serial adultery remain very uncool. But multiple felony counts and assorted other financial malfeasances remain A-OK with voters of both parties. (Hint: If Ted Stevens has to be forcibly removed from office, start practicing the phrase "Senator Palin." Kinda trips off the tongue, don't it?)

Gays & Lesbians: Voters in California stuck it to one of Vegas' most loyal constituencies big-time, passing the hateful Proposition 8. Were Nevada not so socially conservative (although compassionate enough to have legalized medical marijuana a ways back), I'd say we should vote for gay nuptials here, then sit back and gloat as the bucks roll in.

Tom Tancredo and ilk: Even if you abhor George W. Bush, you've got to give it up for his ability to rally Hispanic voters to the GOP standard. (I can't speak for Biloxi-Gulfport or Atlantic City, but Las Vegas can't function without its Latino labor base and casino CEOs know this; that's why immigration is their "third rail" of politics.) I always thought the immigration issue would be a non-starter in this election -- and it was. But the Tancredos of the GOP, by ginning it up in both '06 and early '08, antagonized Latinos, scored an own-goal and eradicated the gains Bush made with this voting bloc. So, in lieu of a prolonged post-mortem, maybe Republicans should just burn Tancredo in effigy and then turn the page.

Gaming's GOP influence: The annihilation of GOP moderates at the national level is largely complete, leaving an electoral map that looks a lot like the Confederacy, plus a horseshoe-shaped chunk of the West. Subtract Mississippi, Louisiana and tribal casinos and you've got slim pickings there. Gambling-friendly Republicans like Govs. Haley Barbour (MS) and Charlie Crist (FL) have made progress, but not easily and not without much expenditure of political capital. It's difficult to see where American Gaming Association boss Frank Fahrenkopf goes within his own party when he needs its support. The casino industry's investment in the GOP has yielded scant ROI.

Gov. Jim Gibbons: With state Sens. Joe Heck and Bob Beers, and Rep. Jon Porter all packed off to early retirement by their constituents, Gibbons suddenly has much less to fear from within his own party two years hence. (Ditto Porter's designs on Sen. Harry Reid's [D-NV] seat.)

Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV): If he opts to challenge Reid -- or Gibbons -- he's now the presumptive frontrunner. (I still think "Gov. Oscar Goodman" has a nice ring to it.)

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon (R): He's laying the groundwork for an intra-party challenge to Gibbons. Montandon's ably managed growth in NLV and would easily trump Gibbons on the "competence" front. The sudden political demise of Beers, Heck and Porter gives him a clear field of fire.

Tourists: Ever hospitable, Clark County voters gave them the finger, by endorsing a 2%-3% hike in the hotel tax. Thankfully, it's just an advisory vote.

Joe the Player: Winner. Clinton-era tax rates are coming back, which may hurt the "whales" but should be good for the rest of us. The Clinton administration coincided with halcyon years of casino growth, especially in Vegas and on the Gulf Coast. The succeeding eight years were dominated by M&A binges, condomania and a narrowing of the Strip's economic appeal toward the monied elite -- the latter being a very sore point among casino consumers. Vegas-wise, which eight years would you choose?

Jon Ozark: This cardboard dummy was wheeled into Nevada Assembly District 21 by local monied interests, to knock off Asm. Bob Beers -- not be confused with the less-hirsute state Sen. Bob Beers -- for having the audacity to stand up against Steve Wynn, he whose name dare not be pejoratively uttered in Carson City. That much having been accomplished, in the general election Ozark discovered once again that it takes more than a pretty face to win. Good luck in your next district, Mr. Ozark. They say the third one's the charm.

Tip-sharing: Where they stand

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:57:00 -0700

Dealer activists and the Transport Workers Union's Local 721 casino dealers affiliate are circulating a self-described "cheat sheet" to membership, letting them know where various and sundry Nevada candidates stand on Wynn Resorts' controversial tip-redistribution regime.

The TWU polled candidates on the issue and collected the following responses. Candidates' e-mail address have been redacted, out of respect for their privacy. Poor grammar, punctuation and spelling have been left unsullied, however:

Stefany Miley, District Court Judge Dept. 23: "Unfortunately I am unable to give specific positions on issues that may come before me. This is per the code on Judicial Ethics. Each case varies and must be separately considered."

Donn Ianuzi, District Court Judge Dept. 22: "I am against his policy of taking money from the dealers and have serious questions regarding the legality of it"

Michael Villani, District Court Judge Dept. 17: "I would be surprised if any judge or candidate for a judicial position would address their personal views on the Wynn tip policy. A judges personal views are irrelevant. I take my oath of office very seriously and base my decisions only upon the law and facts of a particualr case. For me to do otherwise would, in my opinion be a breach of my ethical duties."

Lindsay Nicole Madsen (R), State Senate District 7: (She works closely with the two lawyers who drafted our new petition.) "I work for Kermitt Waters and work with Don Chairez very closely. I do not support tip sharing in any way, shape or form."

Tim Hagan (L), State Senate District 5: "When I give a tip, I consider it to be a gift to that person. It's up to that person, along any agreement they may have made to share with coworkers, what to do with that tip. The dealers should decide whether floormen are including in tip sharing. Also, as a gift, the tip should not be taxed as income."

Rep. Dean Heller (R), Second Congressional District: "As a Member of Congress, however, I do not speak for this company, or any other, and the federal government does not have jurisdiction over this issue. If you support or disagree with the policy, I strongly recommend you contact the Wynn Las Vegas company to express your thoughts.

Anthony "Tony Bop" Wernecke (D), State Senate District 3: "The rich gets richer and the poor get poorer, have steve wynn share some of his wealth with his employee's, never happen, if you vote 'Wernicke for State Senate' i will tackel that issue, because i am one of the people for all the people! and your tips our yours, thats it, but politics like usally"

Linda Marie Bell, District Court Judge Dept. 7:
"On a purely personal note, I find the issue troubling, because tips are supposed to be a thanks for good service provided by an individual. Thank you for your question."

Allison Copening (D), State Senate District 6: "I am opposed to making dealers share their tips with supervisors at the Wynn and any other gaming establishment."

Jade Zahreddine (D), State Senate District 3: "I understand the situation as it is. The reluctance of the bureaucracy of this state to ehtically enforce their responsibilities is a travesty. I will keep you apprised of our efforts in the north to battle for the seats necessary to reverse the numerous instances of bureacratic corruption as highlighted by the Wynn debacle."

Rep. Mark Manendo (D), Assembly District 18: "As far as your question, you should research the last legislative session as I voted for the bill. (AB 248 which would have made Steve Wynn's Tip policy illegal)"

William Kephart, District Court Judge Dept. 10: "I am opposed to it. I am old school and believe that any tip a person receives he should keep it. I believe that this promotes better and more courteous service, in a service oriented industry."

Ryan Fitzgibbons (IAP), Assembly District 17: "I'm not familiar with this particular casino's policy, but my general principle is that I'm absolutely opposed to the redistribution of wealth. Whether it be the government taking the fruits of your labors to redistribute to others, or your boss doing the same thing, it's inherently unfair and against the spirit of American Capitalism."

Robert P. Spretnak, District Court Judge Dept. 7: "I have specifically talked about the Court decisions regarding the Wynn Las Vegas tip policy at a number of campaign events, including the Channel 10 debate on October 2, 2008, and there is brief statement about my disagreement with these court decisions in the Las Vegas Review-Journal Voter Guide, at the bottom of this article: http://www.lvrj.com/special_sections/voter_guide/31212259.html"

Lisamarie Johnson (R), Assembly District 6: "The tip-sharing policy is unconstitutional. Simple as that."

Rep. Joe Hogan (D), Assembly District 10: "I believe the intent of the tip donor should be honored by not distributing tip revenue beyond those who personally provided the services and earned the goodwill of the patron/donor."

Allison Herr (D), Assembly District 23: "I do not support mandatory tip sharing. I understood why the Supreme Court made the ruling they did in the case based upon current Nevada Law, however I do not think it is a fair outcome for the employees."

Kristie Turley (L), Assembly District 3: "I would also like to add that I am also pro-union. Last but not least, if I were in office and had to make a choice, I would not support forced tip sharing."

Rep. Lynn Stewart (R), Assembly District 22: "I don't like it"

Eric Morelli (R), Assembly District 3: "I believe that if I tip you I tip you. If I did not tip you then you then you don't get tipped. Tips need to go to the people they were directed to. Now If you choose to share then that is your choice. It should not be forced upon."

Don Woolbright (I), Assembly District 5: "The tip sharing should remain with the dealers."

Marilyn Dondero-Loop (D), Assembly District 5: "I think those who earn tips for customer service should keep those tips. TIPS: To Insure Prompt Service"

David IsBell (R), Assembly District 17: "In a nutshell, I'm against it. The tips belong to the dealers, it is their gift from the patrons. The gaming floor supervisors are to be an unbiased third party, and not in it for the money. I believe the decisions made violate state law, and I would encourage an appeal of the Nevada Supreme Court's decision. I know first hand with our current status in the economy, the tips are not what they used to be. Many families depend on tips, and it is unfair for the government, and for a boss to take a cut. You are working hard to give good service, and you should spend your rewards as you see fit."

Mitch Hostmeyer (R), Assembly District 10: "I spent 20 years in food service and personally am not a fan of pooling tips. I understand gaming is different then food service and pooling among dealers is a common and excepted policy. However, from what I understand about the Wynn, I am not in favor of the way it was implemented by management at the Wynn. I don't believe that is the proper way to balance the difference between supervisors and dealers."

Ron "Garrett" Giarratano (R), Assembly District 37: "I am not for it, no tip sharing,"

Leonard M. Foster (I), Assembly District 13: "I was a crap dealer for 13 years from 1990-2003. I worked at Circus Circus table-for-table and my last job was at the Las Vegas Hilton. I believe that the dealers money belongs to the dealers. It should be up to the dealers on how it is, or is not, to be split. Floormen and up are management and receive a salary for that position. If they don't like the fact that the dealers make more money, I would tell them to put on an apron, get their head down, ass up and start dealing."

Nicholas Thomas “Nick” Daka (R), Assembly District 19: "Well since Wynn Las Vegas is a private organization I don't feel that the government should involved in whatever tip policy Wynn engages in. Nonetheless I also feel its the worker's right to organize a trades union, since Labour unions are private organizations in their own right."

Linda West Myers (R), Assembly District 1: "Sounds like a great way for the Dealers Union to prove its mettle. Crafting a collective bargaining agreement is a complex process. Perhaps, if he is 'stuck' on the socialist strategy, he might be willing to double or triple salary."

Rep. John Oceguera (D), Assembly District 16: "I thought the issue had been resolved in the court system?"

Donna Toussaint (R), Assembly District 5: "I am against tip sharing."

Jon Kamerath (IAP), Assembly District 2: "I absolutely do not believe that an employer should be allowed to distribute any part of dealers' tips to management. This part of the tip issue ought to be protected by the State. When I answered your previous email I was referring to policies of sharing tips among only the personnel who get tipped. I also don't blame Steve Wynn's workers for unionizing in response to what he did. Hopefully it taught him a lesson. I believe in the right to, or not to, collectively bargain, but I want the government to be as small and limited as possible while still protecting our rights, which is what I believe the Founding Fathers felt was the proper role of government."

Rep. Harry Mortenson (D), Assembly District 42: "I sincerely believe that when a customer gives a tip to an employee, it is because the customer was impressed by the service received and the tip should remain with the employee."

NB: Stiffs & Georges makes no endorsements in these or any other candidate-specific races -- although we reserve the right to move Rep. Oceguera to the back of the class.

Just say 'no'

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:35:00 -0700

Fall is in the air here and so is election fever. I'm just back from early voting and a honkin' big Obama rally is gearing up on the other side of town, so the mind is full of matters electoral.

The responsibility that comes with this bully pulpit includes making election recommendations with restraint. So, with exception of a ballot initiative or three, I'm going to attempt to refrain from stumping for individual candidates. Although I would humbly suggest that you might -- might -- want to think carefully before voting for any candidate who enjoys the blessing of that noted casino industry expert, pediatrician James Dobson. (He's not a theologian, but he plays one on the radio.)

Turnout for early voting has been heavy here in Nevada, as elsewhere, but perhaps some of you who are in Clark or Washoe counties are like my better half and enjoy the patriotic sensation that accompanies voting on Election Day. If that's the case, I'd like to share a few thoughts on Question 5.

Buried deep within the ballot, Question 5 asks whether a sliding-scale tax of 2-3% should be tacked onto current hotel-room taxes "to avoid large cuts in the funding of education and other state programs," and later to be employed as a funding stream for K-12 education and teacher salaries.

Opinion within the casino bidness is divided on Question 5, although certain captains of the industry had a hand in its conception (which was far from immaculate, lemme tell ya). Yes, it's for a good cause and, yes, it's purely an advisory question, what opponents call "nothing more than a government-paid opinion poll." (emphasis theirs)

Given the blizzard of varying room-tax rates already in effect, an extra 2% or 3% would be felt most in Glitter Gulch downtown and least out in Laughlin, Boulder City and Pahrump -- if you fancy staying there. The Nevada Secretary of State's office estimates that, should you visit Vegas twice a year, three nights per visit at an ADR of $100/night, the cost of your trips will increase an aggregate of $18.

Would this be a significant economic deterrent? I doubt it -- though perhaps consumers feel otherwise. As with many things in life, it's ultimately a matter of principle. As much as Nevada schools need improvement and as unattractive as our teacher salaries are, if Nevadans want to capitalize them, we need to take that responsibility upon ourselves ... not pass the buck to our customers, our guests, the people who keep the lights burning on the Strip.

This isn't "education funding" -- it's freeloading. And, yes, I would rather pay a (small and progressive) state income tax -- let's say 5% -- than endorse Question 5's exploitive attitude towards the tourists and conventioneers who are the primary and integral bulwark of Nevada's economy. Otherwise, it's like saying, "Thanks for your business and please ignore this kick in your butt."

... and don't even get me started on the subject of Allegiant Managing Partner Ponder Harrison's proposal to start charging passengers for carry-on luggage. (Too bad we can't vote on that!) I guess people are expected to fly to Vegas with nothing but their money and the clothes on their backs -- the few that the TSA lets us wear, that is.

Up in smoke

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:21:00 -0700

Few issues involving the casino industry cause such a conflict between intellect and emotion as that of second-hand smoke. Personally, I think even manure is less offensive to the nostrils than cigarette smoke -- and it has fewer carcinogenic side effects. Exposing one's employees to a steady barrage of tobacco and nicotine means shooting dice with their health. And if your employees aren't aware of the risk they're running, you'd better bring them up to speed.

But ... banning smoking on casino floors is practically a suicide vow for a casino. We don't know just how bad the effect of Illinois' smoking ban has been on the state's casinos, as it's been coupled with the crash dive of the U.S. economy. However, gambling revenues were down 26% in the Land of Lincoln last month, far more than in any neighboring state.

Atlantic City seemed to have arrived at an acceptable compromise: Ban smoking on all but 1/4 of the casino floor and provide enclosed lounges (in which employees would not have to set foot) for those players who absolutely, positively have to light up. Unfortunately, with the notable -- and laudable -- exception of Harrah's Entertainment -- compliance was virtually nil, with Colony "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" Capital being the worst offender. The city council became so miffed it decided to escalate to a 100% ban.

Then the bottom fell out. Caught in the pincers of a recession and swooning casino revenues (plus the threat of mass layoffs), the city fathers decided to lift their ban. However, they waited so long to come to a decision that it can't be ratified until Oct. 22. The real-world consequence is that, starting Oct. 15, there will be an odd, one-week interregnum [Correction: 12-day] in which Atlantic City casinos will be smoke-free. It will also provide a seven-day laboratory in which to find out what happens to traffic when a destination casino nixes smoking. Too bad the New Jersey Casino Control Commission doesn't measure gambling win in one-week increments or else we might have some mighty interesting concrete data. Will the smokers really stay home or is it all a lot of huffing and puffing (more huff than puff, perhaps)?

All of which is a rather windy way of saying that these events make an inauspicious backdrop for an Oct. 15 media event announcing the formation of Gamblers Against Secondhand Smoke (that's right, GASS). Player and second-hand-smoke victim Tom McEvoy is co-chair of the campaign, which kicks off at the American Lung Association's North Las Vegas HQ (3553 W. Cheyenne Ave., Suite 140, at 1 p.m., if you're interested).

The other speaker, Stephanie Steinberg, is an activist who helped push the Illinois and Colorado smoking bans across the finish line. So I doubt she'll find herself mobbed by thankful casino execs. Local 721 of the Transport Workers Union appears to be the moving force behind this.

However, if there's one issue where the Vegas casinos are likely to fight until the last dog is hung, it's smoking. After all, a smoking ban in Nevada translates into a steady stream of cars heading for the nearest tribal casino. (It's already decimated the revenues of some slot routes.)

At least some of the casinos here are trying to minimize the noxious effects of smoke. But others' gestures are so ludicrous -- like the "smoke-free" aisles criss-crossing the Palazzo's casino floor -- that there's no question that room for improvement remains.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:29:00 -0700

“It really wasn’t about a quarter. It was really a matter of understanding the slot payout tables.” -- Boyd Gaming spokesman Rob Stillwell, on the subject of a 25-cent dispute that began at The Orleans and ended in front of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Bonus Quote (since we didn't have one yesterday): "The Vegas economy is built on human stupidity and irrational thinking: it'll always be safe." -- Las Vegas Review-Journal reader Michael Wertman, sounding a perversely sanguine note on local economic troubles.

Old school. If you relish old-fashioned, fire-breathing populist rhetoric (I certainly do), then check out the stemwinder below by AFL-CIO Sec'y-Treasurer Richard Trumka. And if that's not your thing, maybe you'll enjoy David Schwartz's latest takedown of public-policy absurdities or, as he calls it, "good old-fashioned municipal ineptitude."

Mr. Big

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:35:00 -0700

I've not made up my mind about the Employee Free Choice Act, which would essentially allow workplaces to unionize by means of a card check rather than a secret-ballot election. As much as management tends to put a heavy thumb on the scales of the union-election process, the secret-ballot democratic process has served us pretty well here in the U.S., so ... I dunno.

But proponents of the EFCA have a sense of humor on their side, as demonstrated by this short film. The workplace scenes are almost too accurate to be funny, as they are uncannily reminiscent of my two years' toil for Stephens Media. It practically took an act of Congress to get the first-aid cabinet restocked and management eventually imposed crappy little Sony VAIO laptop computers (which were prone to whirr ominously and overheat) in hopes that we would take our work home with us at night. I threatened to hot-glue my VAIO to my desktop. Ah, the good old days!

Quote of the Day

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:13:00 -0700

“We look for affordable housing for teachers, for firefighters and police, but what about the ones who built this city – the hospitality industry? We’re being priced out this valley, but we’re the backbone of its economy.” -- Fiesta Henderson employee, quoted in today's Las Vegas Sun.

More Trop tomfoolery

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:12:00 -0700

Justice Gary Stein's trusteeship of the Atlantic City Tropicana continues its slide toward disaster. The UAW has filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Stein of a lack of good-faith bargaining. Stein has said in the past that he's reluctant to bind a new buyer to the terms of a contract negotiated by a third party.

That was a viable argument back when it looked as though Stein could get the Trop sold by Spring or early Summer. Then he sniffily deemed the offers on the table not good enough (talk about failing to bargain in good faith!) and reset the whole process to "zero."

Given Stein's miserable, foot-dragging performance, it could be months more before long-suffering Trop employees have a new owner, in which case it's unconscionable to continue to allow this situation to fester. Heck, considering the speed with which Scott Butera was able to bring peace to the Las Vegas Tropicana, maybe letting him have the A.C. Trop back wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all. (Not that it's going to happen as long as sole shareholder William J. Yung III has so much as one thin dime of equity in Tropicana Entertainment.)

While restored Trop President Pam Popielarski has shored up the A.C. Trop's financial performance, some of the UAW's charges, if true, suggest she's working off the Columbia Sussex playbook: "denial of Family and Medical Leave Act benefits for dealers, changes to the casino floor, and unilaterally changing the attendance point system and start times for workers."

President Closed ... Again. For the third time this year, Pinnacle Entertainment's President riverboat has pulled up its gangway on account of flooding. Which means that the President will have lost at least 47 business days (and counting), depleting what is already a pretty attenuated revenue base. Given the President's fairly negligible contribution to the St. Louis casino market, perhaps Pinnacle should mothball the old gal. Having grown up near St. Louis, I can well remember the President in her glory days, resplendent upon the St. Louis riverfront. It's sad to see her come down in the world like this.

Note: In honor of Scott Butera's fresh start at the LV Trop and his efforts to put the 'ColSux' era behind him, I've started a new "Tropicana Entertainment" category, as a gesture of faith.

From the source

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:17:00 -0700

An astute reader pointed out that, having been "spotlit" by LVA for this weekend, it wasn't the smartest move on my part to go on semi-hiatus. I plead extenuating circumstances, having spent part of Sunday and all of Monday at the Cutting-Edge Table Games Conference, presented by Raving Consulting at Mandalay Bay.

Not only did the Significant Other and I get to suss out some new table games (including attempts to wed baccarat and poker or poker and blackjack), I was also invited to speak as part of a panel on the unionization of table games dealers, along with former Harrah's Cherokee GM Jerry Egelus. Both Jerry and I were, however, in the considerable and eloquent shadow cast by Wynn Las Vegas roulette dealer Jesse Guest. He spoke from the heart about the demoralizing effect Steve Wynn's tip-confiscation policy had, not only on him but on the entire dealing force.

Yet, being exceptionally well-read and wise for someone so young, he was able to appreciate both sides of the issue and offer a balanced analysis of the controversy. Jesse had hoped to make a career in the casino industry but now he just wants to get out as soon as he can afford it. He's the sort of highly motivated individual that a casino like Wynn Las Vegas ought to be fighting to retain; apparently it feels otherwise. That's a loss for it and the industry as a whole.

Guest's also up on his labor-movement history, which enabled him to rout some rote union-bashing that reared its head. Jesse says he doesn't watch TV and it's obviously done him a world of good.

Jerry, too, was also a breath of fresh air, having experienced the issue both as a pro-union dealer in the wayback, and as a veteran of the Harrah's executive ladder. In particular, he questioned whether table games departments weren't operating from an archaic business model, one that's been handed down from Prohibition-era speakeasies pretty much without question.

Newshounds, rejoice! Another source for out-of-town newspapers has been uncovered. If you're on the Strip, you owe it to yourself to check out The Reading Room at Mandalay Place. It features a catholic selection of non-Vegas newspapers. It's also one of the Strip's few nods to the life of the mind and deserves one's patronage for several reasons, not least to help stave off M'Bay's occasional efforts to run it out in favor of yet another shiny-bauble emporium targeted toward empty-noggined trust-fund babies and those who aspire to emulate them.

(Similar things might be said of M'Bay's indecent haste to run Mamma Mia! off the premises ... but I'll let that sleeping dog lie.)

Quote of the Day

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:30:00 -0700

“The real story here is the workers, who put up with the worst working conditions, having the fortitude and tenacity to say we’re not going to be run out of here by someone who has come in from Kentucky to destroy our standard of living,” -- Culinary Union Secretary D. Taylor, on Tropicana workers' long-in-the-making victory over Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III. New Trop management capitulated to the Culinary's demands last week.

MTR in retreat

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:48:00 -0700

If MTR Gaming is still afloat today, it's almost certainly thanks to the fact that its two remaining casinos -- racinos in Chester, W.V., and Erie, Penn., enjoy oligopolistic market conditions where competitors are few and far between. A long piece outlines the dilemma faced by MTR. Hunker down and pay off debt, as outgoing CEO Edson "Ted" Arneault puts it, or try to aggressively fight back against a pincer movement from Pennsylvania.

Not only is nearby The Meadows racino (soon to be owned by James Packer) looming as an ever-greater threat, so too might Pittsburgh's slot parlor ... if Don Barden can ever get it finished, which looks doubtful. And MTR's flagship racino in Chester is little more than a slot barn -- if you don't believe me, check out the pictures. Even second-tier Las Vegas locals casinos have evolved beyond that point, which may explain why MTR was a dud in the Vegas market (well, that and the fact that competition isn't limited by statute), especially its failed tenure at Binion's. These guys just don't seem geared for intense, Vegas-style competition nor for casino-centric products.

Beyond the racinos, MTR's holdings have dwindled to a few small-staffed harness-racing tracks, which might be hard to unload. Since they're unprofitable, says a Moody's analyst, how much gain lies in selling them? A source tells me that promised infrastructure upgrades in Chester never materialized (even as revenue grew 33%) and that access to Mountaineer wasn't much more than a two-lane blacktop. Hard to compete with Pennsylvania, given those conditions. No wonder cash flow is off 34% in Chester.

Like Atlantic City, Mountaineer has an ace up its sleeve in the form of poker and other table games. Blackjack, craps and roulette are all played there (unlike Pennsylvania) and, without them, Mountaineer would probably very soon be toast. If MTR can hang onto that West Virginia table game oligopoly -- and maybe scrap the harness tracks -- it looks like it's got a good chance to survive, though not thrive.

Trop still taking. The Culinary Union informs me it chatted up Las Vegas Tropicana management back in May and "certainly haven't thrown in the towel ... As you know, there are major ownership/management changes going on there which is a transition that makes scheduling negotiations challenging." Management changes we knew about, but ownership ... now this is intriguing.

Jerry's Nugget, up in North Las Vegas, is still hanging tough with the Culinary, too, over a year after its contract elapsed. Small wonder the Culinary doesn't want to take on the case of the overworked Imperial Palace maids: It's having trouble closing all the deals already on its plate.

Short but sweet

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:32:00 -0700

After a labor action so brief it barely merits the word "strike," Perini Building Co. came to terms with the Southern Nevada Building & Construction Trades Council. The former showed responsiveness to the union's concerns, while the latter demonstrated to its members that it has sufficient clout to get The Man's attention -- and fast.

Everybody came out smelling like roses ... except MGM Mirage, that is. In a series of public statements, the company didn't hesitate to push construction workers under the bus, telling the Las Vegas Sun's Alexandra Berzon "that safety problems are attributable to workers not following procedure," in her words. It also issued a blanket endorsement of its contractor, saying to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "We're supportive of whatever Perini chooses to do." (Press release-wise, the company is pretending the whole unpleasantness never happened.)

Do this mean that if Perini had chosen to stonewall the Trades Council and wait it out, MGM would have been down with that (cost and delay be damned)? You'd think, as Perini's nominal boss, MGM might evince a modicum of concern with the situation, instead of simply bestowing a papal benediction and otherwise acting as though the CityCenter confrontation was somebody else's problem.

Even after a settlement was reached, MGM opted for the Nixonian, "modified limited hangout" line of response, issuing a statement that -- in part -- said the company insisted "individual responsibility [should be] foremost in the minds of every worker every day on the job site." Well, if nothing else, they're consistent.

To make amends, the company should employ its investment clout in Dubai, where it soon hopes to be building, to push for improved conditions for the country's imported construction workforce. The government there has taken some modest steps to relieve the exploitation of guest workers (who constitute 99% of the labor pool*). Still, they are relegated to crowded dormitories, out in the middle of nowhere, and toil under circumstances that resemble indentured servitude.

(*--try to imagine how that scenario would play in Vegas!)

If MGM Mirage were to export its normally (present circumstance excluded) enlightened labor policies to Dubai, and to make that a precondition of building any luxury hotels there, it would go a long way toward effacing the black eye it's received for the CityCenter safety fiasco.

One casino heir just doesn't get that, as Hugh Jackson puts it, organized labor, "more than any other entity is responsible for the existence of a middle class in Las Vegas, a phenomenon which in turn forms the backbone of a consumer core for every other business enterprise in Southern Nevada and thus accounts for most that is good in terms of quality of life 'round here."

As the Perini/Trades Council agreement proves.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:20:00 -0700

"Tropicana [Entertainment] did not view workers as a valuable commodity and I think they regret it now." -- Culinary Union supremo D. Taylor, on the collapse of Columbia Sussex's heavily leveraged casino portfolio.

'Luxoricana'?; When unions attack (each other)

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:47:00 -0700

Labor unions aren't very popular these days but sometimes even the mere threat of one is enough to effect improvements. Such seems to be the case at Luxor, where the International Union of Security, Police & Fire Professionals of America (uff da!) seeks to expand its MGM Mirage presence beyond MGM Grand Detroit. After Luxor comes Mandalay Bay.

Prior to the union showing up at the pyramid, "officers say, hiring and overtime freezes left properties understaffed and on-duty guards vulnerable," reports the Las Vegas Sun. "Cuts were so deep, they say, that a lone guard was sometimes posted on the Luxor casino floor." What is this, the Tropicana?!?

If true, that's the kind of false economy we expect from bottom-feeders like Columbia Sussex, not top-echelon operators like MGM Mirage. For the love of all that's holy, next to fire safety, the last area where one should scrimp is security. I mean, that's not Monopoly money out there on the casino floor.

"MGM Mirage has reinstated overtime and boosted staffing levels, and is now offering officer-training classes," according to a union rep, as well as replacing "battered patrol vehicles." It shouldn't have to take a union-organizing drive to effect that kind of positive change, but in this case it's good it did. I sincerely hope this is the last we'll hear about security getting short-sheeted on the Strip.

When unions attack (each other). Well, I never thought I'd live to see the day when one union pickets another. But that's what's happening in the ongoing scrumdown between the Culinary Union and a Vegas newbie, the Transport Workers Union. The latter is representing casino dealers at Wynn Las Vegas and Caesars Palace.

At issue is an initiative petition through which the TWU seeks to outlaw the sort of tip-confiscation practices currently in place at Wynn (and creeping into other businesses in the Vegas and Laughlin markets, I'm told). But, responds the Culinary, the initiative is "half-baked," simplistic and would void existing contracts.

The Culinary's opening salvo in this escalating war practically oozes faux solicitude for casino dealers. But if getting what's fair for dealers were a Culinary concern, it wouldn't have been MIA during the Wynn dustup or the uprising at Caesars. It's the biggest open secret in Las Vegas that detente between the casino giants and the Culinary is maintained largely by dint of the Culinary taking a hands-off attitude toward dealers.

Still bloodied from its botched endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, the Culinary is also having to tiptoe carefully in sending the message out that money from Sheldon Adelson is bad, bad, baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

Drawing to a weak hand? Elections won by dealers' unions in Atlantic City and Las Vegas: Six. Contracts negotiated: Zero to date. Even if we subtract Caesars Palace, given the recency of the vote there, and the Atlantic City Tropicana, which is in trusteeship and in no position to negotiate with anybody, that still leaves an 0-4 record. Besides, with both markets experiencing revenue declines -- and the potential for job cuts -- casino management can probably afford to run out the clock.

This week in Columbia Sussex. The pep-talk tour by Tropicana Entertainment President Scott Butera played Cincinnati this week. "Clearly, the company is undergoing a full recapitalization," he understated. The story's reference to the LV Trop as the company's "crown jewel" will draw an ironic laugh from anyone who has witnessed the place's wilted condition of late.

Meanwhile, the company hasn't backed off its plan to erect a ginormous eyesore in place of the existing Trop: "a gambling facility twice the size of the Pentagon." Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III "acknowledged the project may cost more than $1 billion." (More than a billion? Really? Ya think? A shrew customer, this Yung.) But, having arguably overpaid for Aztar Corp. (now reduced to one casino each in Las Vegas and Laughlin), the Wal-Mart approach seems inevitable. "It has to be done to maximize the value" of the site, according to Butera. Sadly, he's probably right.

Nor is it surprising that Yung is being blamed/scapegoated for the collapse of Gov. Steve Beshear's pro-casino push in the Kentucky Legislature. Yung's galumphing attempts to cash in on Beshear's candidacy were certain to raise a ruckus -- and, boy, did they ever.

Also, buying a would-be casino facility in Covington, before any enabling legislation had been passed, any popular vote had been taken, any applications made, any jurisdictions established or any licenses awarded is the sort of thing that looks at best presumptuous and, at worst, like the fix is in. And, following the catastrophic tenure of Beshear's predecessor, Kentuckians seem doubly shy of anything that smacks -- however remotely -- of cronyism.

Whitewash? There's a difference between not speaking ill of the dead and telling a very incomplete version of the truth. Such is the case with the sentimental obituary of a casino executive whose conduct at the helm of the Las Vegas Hilton was considered sufficiently deplorable that the Nevada Gaming Control Board voted unanimously to deny him a gaming license at the old Sands, in 1989. Sheldon Adelson was able to have that recommendation overturned by the Gaming Commission -- an instance of "juice" (as demonstrated here) so significant that it gets an entire chapter in the history of Nevada casino regulation (pp. 128-55).

(An interesting saga involving Max Schmelling also didn't make it into the obit even though it's a now-famous incident.)

Full disclosure: I was delegated to edit Henri Lewin's copy during the period he had his Casino Journal column. To put it in positive terms, it was an experience that was indescribably unique and unforgettable.

Stealthy Steve

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:03:00 -0700

In his coverage of Monday's Nevada Supreme Court hearing over the tip-confiscation policies at Wynn Las Vegas, reporter Arnold Knightly made a couple of pointed observations. He noted that "Steve Wynn attended the hearing, entering and exiting the 17th-floor courtroom at the Regional Justice Center through a side emergency exit door.

"As soon as the hearing concluded, Wynn shook hands with his legal counsel, then took a private elevator primarily used by judges and their staff to exit the building, which allowed him to avoid a handful of protesters outside the courthouse."

Is this what the self-proclaimed "most powerful man in Nevada" has come to: sneaking in and out of courtrooms for fear he might come face-to-face with a few citizens exercising their First Amendment rights? Sheesh!

Mind you, Wynn was able to exercise prerogatives of ingress and egress not normally available to you or I -- unless you happen to be an officer of the court. Good going, Nevada Supreme Court! If your ruling comes down in favor of Wynn Resorts and not dealers Joseph Cesarz and Daniel Baldonado, such blatant favoritism toward El Steve will create the appearance the fix was in, even if your ruling is made strictly on the merits of the case. What were you thinking (if anything)?

Whether carving out one-time-only exceptions to constitutionally mandated budgeting procedures or unilaterally rewriting ballot initiatives, the propensity of the Nevada Supremes to screw up a case can never, ever be underestimated.

Golden Gate update

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:34:00 -0700

Per a previous item about the Golden Gate's plan to remake itself as a boutique hotel, I wondered about the status of its Culinary Union contract. Not to worry: According to the union's political director, Pilar Weiss, the two parties inked a new labor pact in February (boy, do I feel like Rip van Winkle), so Golden Gate co-owner Mark Brandenburg can presumably set sail beneath a cloudless sky, as far as his remake plans are concerned.

Now that the Gate, the Golden Nugget, the Four Queens and (coming soon) Binion's are presenting shiny new faces to downtown, the pressure will be on Boyd Gaming and perennial laggard Tamares Group to provide a spiffier product. Boyd always knows what time it is but I'm not sure Tamares could even find a clock if its life depended on it, at least where casinos are concerned.

The Westin scandal ...

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:47:00 -0700

... is growing legs. No, not these kind of legs. (Well, that too.) It's also unearthed another strange-but-true story of business as usual at Columbia Sussex. That $25/bedbug bounty at the Trop is unwontedly generous by ColSux standards -- a veritable king's ransom -- even if it means the housekeeping staff is going to have do its work during the graveyard shift. (That would be interesting.)

Also, with anywhere from 12 to 22 rooms to clean, per maid per floor, how much time is the hard-worked housekeeping staff going to have to go Bug-Hunting For Dollars? (The "bring 'em in alive" proviso is the best part -- and provides the company with a nifty escape clause.)

Then again ... I wouldn't oppose this bounty program being put into practice at all hotels. Could ColSux have actually had an industry-leading idea? Eureka!!!

Speaking of good ideas, repositioning the Golden Gate as a boutique hotel would qualify (although the rooms are awfully small by contemporary standards). That's assuming the Gate has its Culinary Union contract in order. How's that coming, by the way?

Dead man walking: The Gibber speaks. Few listen. Mismanaging an ongoing health crisis will do that to you.

Just a big coincidence. That's what Harrah's Entertainment is saying about the ongoing retrenchment of its overseas projects, now that it's out of Slovenia just weeks after ditching its Baha Mar resort. Oh, and don't forget the second thoughts Harrah's has been having about that London Clubs acquisition. Nope, no connection to that massive new debt load. Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain.

We're building projects that will provide as many as 100,000 new jobs, Jeremy Aguero forecasts. But he don't have places for them to live. We'd better get working on that hadn't we? Or what will happen?

As the affordable-housing market has shriveled over the last several, condo-addled years, I've long thought we'd reach this point -- where the service workers who will form the backbone of this expansive, sometimes dazzling future can't afford to live here or are simply crowded out of the housing market. It's ultimately self-defeating.

Every time a developer bulldozes some low-cost housing to build mansions in the sky, who's replacing those homes and apartments? And just where are Mr. Big's maids, maintenance people, security staff expected to live? Down with the other homeless people who were found squatting at the Klondike? Guess so.

Big Bang. If you can't get enough of implosion videos, the Press of Atlantic City has added its own to its coverage of the demolition of the old Sands garage. Warning: The ultimate collapse is obscured when some gawker steps right in front of the news camera ... although karmic punishment is quickly dispensed, as his bald spot is now showcased for the entire Internet-linked world.

TV's best show returns tonight. Be there or be square.

Semantic Pretzel of the Week

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:26:00 -0700

A tip of the cap to City Life's Steve Sebelius for alerting us to this one. Starbucks CEO Howard Schwartz, whose company just lost a $100 million lawsuit in California over its practice of tip confiscation, issued the following voice-mail bloviation to his serfs, er, highly prized work force:

"I want to personally let you know that we would never condone any type of behavior that would lead anyone to conclude that we would take money from our people."

Got that? Howie wouldn't condone leading people to believe that he takes money from his workforce (because he's too cheap-@$$ to pay supervisors the going wage). But he will continue to actually condone taking "money from our people," as a follow-up corporate statement made clear. Starbucks informed the public that its corporate-socialism program will continue unabated while the company seeks an injunction on San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett's ruling. 'Cause, y'know, those simple working people wouldn't know what do with that $86.7 million (plus interest), so it's better they should let Good King Howie spend it for them.

Hey, Howie: There are two more swift kicks headed for your posterior, in the form of Minnesota and Massachusetts lawsuits. So why not quit while you're behind by just getting rid of the tip jars altogether? It's chintzy, it's emotional blackmail of your customers and it just makes your company look like a rinky-dink cheapskate. A cheapskate that charges a fin for a cuppa joe.

Stalemate at The Orleans; Big Easy has big month

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:51:00 -0700

It's been almost nine months since the majority of Boyd Gaming's stagehands voted to unionize. Since then, they've been subjected to a managerial smackdown and their elected representative, IATSE, is virtually powerless to alleviate the situation -- or even to get a contract out of Boyd. IATSE has been similarly impotent with regard to Blue Man Group's stagehands.

Let's face it, for all the anti-labor huffing and puffing in the pages of the Hooterville Times, er, Las Vegas Review-Journal, unions don't have that much clout in this town, with the notable exception of the Culinary ... and even it couldn't do beans for Sen. Barack Obama. Union negotiations on behalf of Wynn Las Vegas dealers have slowed to a crawl and the Culinary's talks with the Las Vegas Tropicana are completely stagnant, as of last report. In at least one of those instances, management gives every appearance of being intent on forcing a strike.

What is most troubling about l'affaire Orleans is the Mark Garrity-led reprisals that are alleged (and Michael Mishak of the Sun is one of the best-sourced lawyers in town). If true, they're a blotch on the reputation of what's generally one of the most dignified of the major casino companies and -- at worst -- could easily run Boyd afoul of the National Labor Relations Board.

We've progressed beyond the era when casino management sicced the goon squad on union meetings -- but not as much as we'd like to think, it would seem.

According to the Daily Comet (love that name!), Lead Day meant a revenue leap for Lousiana casinos, who posted a $24 million increase over February '07. Unlike Las Vegas, New Orleans actually saw some casino benefit from the NBA All-Star game and Harrah's New Orleans (above) notched its second-best month in its entire history. (Does this mean Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman will finally stop pouting about not enough tourists gambling at his Big Easy property?)

Columbia Sussex's Amelie Belle, soon to depart after nine months in Morgan, pulled in almost $5 million, while Baton Rouge riverboat revenues crept up only slightly. The #1 riverboat in Louisiana, revenue-wise, was Pinnacle Entertainment's vessel at L'Auberge du Lac, on Lake Charles, raking in $26.5 million.

That Houston-fed market is also home to Boyd's Delta Downs, another strong performer ($15 million). Even the competition-besieged Bossier City market was up, posting a $2.5 increase. In descending order, the top three markets were Bossier City (six casinos, $75.7 million), New Orleans (four casinos, $66.5 million) and Lake Charles (four casinos, $55.8 million), for Y/Y increases of 3%, 18% and 3%, respectively.

Adelson hits snag in Macao; China betting on 'Net?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:43:00 -0700

According to the Macau Daily Times, Las Vegas Sands "has yet to receive government approval to develop more than half of the parcels of land it has commenced developing in Cotai." According to the company, part of the problem is that it hasn't processed its own paperwork yet.

If (and it's probably a really big "if") the concessions aren't granted, Sands can wave bye-bye to its Shangri-La-, St. Regis-, Sheraton-, Raffles-, Fairmont-, Hilton- and Conrad-flagged hotel projects -- not to mention all the money invested in them thereto, to the tune of as much as $623 million. Sands is probably erring on the side of alarmism here, seeing as the Macao government strung PBL Melco along right into February on its City of Dreams project (below). In Macao, it seems, one must build first and hope Peking smiles upon you.

Then again, it would be a mighty cruel joke if -- after predicting there would be fewer casinos in Macao -- it was Adelson's casinos that were the ones to get the kibosh.

Sheldon Adelson's erstwhile business partners, meantime, are positioning themselves for potential legitimization of online gambling in China. If that happens (and, again, it's a stretch), China will eat the Western world's lunch, where 'Net-betting action is concerned.

But not if MGM Mirage, Harrah's Entertainment, GTECH and Station Casinos have anything to say about it. Along with the American Gaming Association, they dropped well over $800K into the lobbying kitty during the last six months of 2007 alone. Much or (in some cases) all of that went into the Internet Gambling Regulation & Enforcement Act, along with the Internet Gaming Study Bill. I'm in favor of the first bill but, as for the second, I'd just as soon the companies and associations in question paid for it out of their own pockets instead of John Q. Public's.

30,000 jobs? That's how many Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says will be created by casino construction in the Bay State. However, he may be getting there via some fuzzy math. Las Vegas Sands, hardly known as a member of the Glass Half-Empty Club, projects roughly 21,000 new construction jobs.

Isle of Capri may start looking like an attractive takeover target, now that its stock is at its lowest ebb in seven years. Isle's Florida racino has been a disappointment and a brand that was considered something of a trendsetter in the early years of non-Vegas casinos is now derided as "Pile of Debris." (The Motley Fool finds cause for optimism, though.)

The question is, are there any potential buyers other than James Packer who'd have the scratch to start scarfing up 18 mid-market casinos, mostly in the Mississippi River basin, and who'd want them -- as a strategic play, that is?

Case Bets: Gibbons, dealer tips, Buckley, Wynn Encore

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:32:00 -0700

Profiles in Cowardice: Our fearless governor, even though the Republican presidential race is all but over, doesn't want to take any chances. Quoth the Gibber:

"There are still people out there who are very passionate about Mike Huckabee, and I don't want to tell them that their vote, their ideas and their enthusiasm for the electoral process is [sic] not important."

Yeah, 'cause there's always a chance of a giant Huckabee upsurge in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, leading to a deadlocked GOP convention in which a lonely nation turns its eyes to Jim Gibbons to cut the Gordian knot.

Actually, it turns out that sometime-Mormon Gibbons is still pouting over the way the big, bad MSM treated Mitt Romney and the LDS Church. Still, this is perfectly in keeping with Gibbons' pass-the-buck style of leadership, in which hard decisions (like where to cut the state budget) are ducked in favor of across-the-board solutions or by palming the hard work off on school districts, county commissions and the like.

"Did so!" "Did not!" The Transport Workers Union and MGM Mirage continue to tussle over who should get credit for the latter putting all of its dealers on a level wage base. The company says the move is a response to its absorption of Mirage Resorts and Mandalay Resort Group, but those deals closed years ago. So I acclaim MGM's decision but am more inclined to credit the TWU's version of events.

Whichever side you believe, MGM showed positive leadership here, as opposed to the Harrah's approach of calling dealers into meetings and threatening to confiscate tips [link unavailable]. That's a surefire way to get the TWU into your casinos and you'd think guys as smart as the Harrah's braintrust could figure that out. Of course, the ultimate body block was thrown by, of all places, the Hooters hotel-casino. By allowing dealers to keep 100% of their own tips, Hooters management has forestalled unionization indefinitely.

In related news, instead of appealing an NLRB ruling, Wynn Las Vegas has meekly complied with a judge's order. Thank heaven. It'll help close an acrimonious chapter in Strip history. It also means that ex-dealer Mark Baldino's name is cleared, after management besmirched his employment record. Godspeed, Mr. Baldino, wherever you are.

R.I.P., William F. Buckley: The Bach-loving, elegant debater, novelist, interviewer and seminal conservative thinker is gone. His Firing Line program introduced me to J.S. Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto and he will be fondly remembered by some for his quixotic 1965 run for the mayoralty of New York City. A giant has left us and we must be content, for the most part, with intellectual pygmies (Andrew Sullivan and a few others excepted) and ill-mannered ones, at that.

Wynn Encore's floor plans have leaked, by way of the Rate Vegas blog. Good work, guys.

Getting nasty in Atlantic City

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:35:00 -0700

Tempers are flaring out east, where Atlantic City's assemblyman (and former mayor) James Whelan has proposed a bill that would overrule A.C.'s ability to sell Bader Field. Whelan and the state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority have two valid concerns: That the city would sell Bader to Penn National Gaming below market value and that Penn would profit by flipping three-fourths of the land to other casino developers.

Current Atlantic City Mayor Scott Evans responds with a couple of valid points of his own. One, that Whelan wasn't averse to sweetheart deals when he occupied Evans' chair and, two, the bill would be a usurpation of civic authority by the state.

The Pure Management Group raid has been all over the papers and TV (which is code for "It's Friday and I'm not going to bother with links"). While we focused on lucrative tipping practices in yesterday's Rate Vegas podcast, an informed source tells me that the investigation may be looking at the lavish fees celebrities are paid to "host" events. Imagine not only having pay the Nicky Hiltons of this world through the nose, fly them here, put them up and cater to their entourages ... but having to help them hide taxable income, too. What's a poor nightclub impresario to do?

REI Neon project gets a reprieve, having pulled a rabbit out of its hat in the form of a potential partnership with Cordish Co. That's the same company that is making a play for the Atlantic City Tropicana. It's not clear what Cordish means by "if and when it is consummated"? When the city gives REI free reign? When REI finishes the project? When an REI/Cordish deal is finally reached? There's still a lot of "ifs" in that downtown arena/casinos/condos deal.

NBC cancels Las Vegas? Aw darn! What am I going to do with my Friday nights now? (Actually, the same thing I've been doing for years.) See, they never should have dropped Nikki Cox.

Trop-ping the light fantastic. Clueless movie reviewer critiques hot new Culinary Union surveillance footage. Hey, I've seen worse stuff at CineVegas.

Labor troubles at Station, Trop

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:20:00 -0700

Ever since the Las Vegas Business Press was made subordinate to the business desk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the latter had 'dibs' on any of the former's stories it coveted -- or so it was explained to me at the time. (I didn't care to stick around to see this in effect and, thankfully, was spared that experience.)

All of which is prologue to wondering why the bigger paper passed on (or missed) the opportunity to snatch up a Valerie Miller story about a class action suit leveled against Station Casinos. Three ex-Station employees are suing the locals giant, accusing it of shortchanging them in various ways and intimidating employees from filing overtime claims in general.

As Miller points out, the suit falls into a gray area of Nevada law, the "rounding" of hours, which has never been upheld nor overturned. It's a rude surprise that Station, which has made Fortune's "100 Best Places to Work" list from 2005 through 2008, would be on the receiving end of such litigation.

That said, Station COO Kevin Kelley surely could have come up with a more substantive rejoinder than to sneer at the plaintiffs' Reno-based law firm as "out-of-town class action lawyers." Just you try to locate an in-town class action lawyer, Mr. Kelley, and more power to you if you succeed. At least as far as challenging the big casino companies is concerned, they're not to be found locally. Remember that Wynn Las Vegas dealers Joseph Cesarz and Daniel Baldonado also had to go to Reno find counsel when taking on their employer over his tip-confiscation policy.

Even why you try to go easy on Columbia Sussex, it goes and steps in yet another cow pie. Now its security force gets a 'mulligan' after an NLRB judge held that management at the Atlantic City Tropicana conducted illegal surveillance and intimidation of workers prior to a union vote, including a promise of favorable treatment to anti-union voters. The election went the Tropicana's way, but only by one vote. (Too bad Columbia Sussex can't keep as close an eye on the doings on the front steps of its Las Vegas Tropicana.)

One of the more bothersome revelations in the Press of Atlantic City story is that the pro-union vote among the A.C. Trop's slot technicians was 19-2. Think about it: If every slot tech was present and voting, that means the Trop was operating with only 21 slot technicians -- 1.4 per eight-hour shift, for a property that boasts in excess of 4,000 slot machines. One and a half technicians. Four thousand-plus slots. That's the Columbia Sussex way.

In another confidence-inspiring development, Columbia Sussex is poor-mouthing the New Jersey Casino Commission. It wants to defer paying its $750K fine (of which the first installment payment is five days overdue) until the Trop is sold -- which not be until June. Yeah, that'll sure make those mutterings about insolvency go far, far away ...

... Not.

C.S. in KY: The other shoe drops

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:59:00 -0700

Yesterday, S&G reported on the role played -- a public service, you might call it -- by Columbia Sussex CEO William Yung III in helping to unseat former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a one-man ethical and moral disaster area. Indirect beneficiary of Yung's largesse was Gov. Steve Beshear, a casino proponent.

Seems that, so grateful was Beshear, Yung was allowed to whisper sweet nothings in the ears of Beshear's casino task force while non-donor Las Vegas Sands was told to peddle its papers elsewhere. Today's headlines bring news that, lo and behold, Columbia Sussex has bought a historic brewery in Covington, Ken., (directly opposite Cincinnati) with a view to converting it into a casino. (The clueless TV report is a hoot.)

Did Yung receive any assurances from a grateful Beshear, perchance? Or is he just placing a bet on possible casino legalization in the Bluegrass State? (Either way, getting casino land for $1 million/acre qualifies as a steal.)

As for Columbia Sussex's "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" campaign against the Culinary Union, it may be backfiring, as the Culinary's D. Taylor claims to have a honkin' big stack of documents detailing fiscal ineptitude at the Las Vegas Tropicana. Judging by what I've heard about the contract talks at the Trop, Yung's people either don't understand the Las Vegas market or are spoiling for a fight. Hard to tell which, right now.

Tax 2.0: The teachers' union has gone back to the drawing board.

Local paper discovers that kids talk differently, fo' shizzle.

Mike Huckabee wins West Virginia GOP convention, dealing humiliation to Mitt Romney.

John Ensign, R-Hypocrisy: They work here, pay taxes, buy locally and fill the growing need for service jobs. If you stayed at a local hotel, they probably made your bed. But Nevada's best-looking senator doesn't want them to get taxes (their taxes) rebated.

Such ingratitude. It makes you wonder where the Ensign family (including proud papa Mike Ensign, former co-chair of Circus Circus) would be without the people the well-coiffed senator wants to kick to the curb, to score political points.

I'm proud to be an American ... except when I read stories like this. (Or when Harry Reid caves cravenly on one front after another, the latest being telecom immunity in the FISA bill. Adios, privacy.)

@#*& hits the Columbia Sussex fan

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:26:00 -0700

Those intimations of insolvency at the Las Vegas Tropicana are now swelling into full-blown accusations [second item] leveled at Columbia Sussex HQ in a $960 million lawsuit. And not just any old insolvent but "deeply insolvent." Whatever detente CEO William Yung III negotiated with lenders to stave off bankruptcy late last year has proven short-lived. What's more additional payroll troubles are being alleged at the Trop.*

The Delaware lawsuit would, among other things, enjoin Yung from selling Casino Aztar, its Belle of Baton Rouge and the Vegas Trop. It also seeks to hold up the already announced sale of Horizon Vicksburg to Nevada Gold.

Being cut off from its prime casino cash show, the Atlantic City Tropicana, appears to have dealt a severe blow to Columbia Sussex. (Some argue that Yung killed the cow for its meat, rather than milking it, but that's another discussion.) It also means that debtholders, who have seen C.S. bonds lose 18% of their value, could lose their shirts -- or at least get a haircut.

If that's not enough, Bays Investment Corp. is backing off its planned purchase of Columbia Sussex's Charleston House Holiday Inn, after discovering that the property was already encumbered. Whoops.

Oh, and a lawsuit between Columbia Sussex and landlord Park Cattle Co., which has tried to evict C.S. from the Lake Tahoe Horizon, is slated to go to trial Feb. 11.

*-- Of course D. Taylor is not exactly a disinterested party in this matter, seeing as he's been trying (without success) to pry a reasonable contract offer from Columbia Sussex. No doubt he fervently wishes the current regime would get booted in favor of newer, more tractable ownership.

In related news ... The Baton Rouge Business Report opines in favor of bringing Pinnacle Entertainment to Red Stick. And annonymous poster "bontemps" needs to do a smidgen of research. Say what you like about Pinnacle, a piker it is not.

Betraying signs of unease about trends in Atlantic City, Colony Capital is putting an expansion of its A.C. Hilton in abeyance and is peddling an interest in the property, much as it previously did with the Las Vegas Hilton.

A Pennsylvania casino owner has been hit with four counts of perjury, indicted for allegedly lying about his closeness to Mob members. If you're a member of the Glass Half-Full Club, it's good news for Atlantic City -- and New York racinos.

In unrelated news, the business world makes progress.

What did we do to deserve this? OTOH, gratitude in politics sure runs shallow. It kinda makes you feel sorry for old Shrub.

Rambo (which premiered at the Aladd ... er, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino) is deemed the worst move ever. I still think that dubous honorific is up for grabs between Bloodrayne and The Pirates of Tortuga. But wait: Bloodrayne has The Lokenator, Pirates does not. Pirates of Tortuga wins/loses! To the plank!

Double standard

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:49:00 -0700

According to yesterday's Wall Street Journal, the Culinary Union has sent Nevada casino regulators a tape and report purportedly documenting prostitution at the Tropicana. Why I'm shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you! The oldest profession being practiced on the Las Vegas Strip? Next thing you know, somebody will be saying the sun doesn't revolve around the earth. Oh, never mind.

A few thoughts. A) The local dailies not only got beat to this story, they continue to snooze; B) This is hardly the first time I've heard assertions that ladies of the evening are being allowed to ply their trade in Strip casinos -- even at ones more upscale than the Trop; C) Would D. Taylor be making an issue of this if the Culinary wasn't at an impasse with Tropicana parent Columbia Sussex? D) Isn't this a case of suspiciously selective outrage? E) If the Culinary knew about criminal activity taking place on the premises of the Trop (or elsewhere), why didn't it come forward sooner?

I'm not saying the Nevada Gaming Control Board should bury its head in the sand. But even IF these allegations should bear out, the Culinary Union doesn't exactly have clean hands. Apparently if it can't get Columbia Sussex to the bargaining table, it's going to reach into its bag of Deep Dark Secrets and either embarrass Columbia Sussex into making a deal or try to run it out of the state.

What else -- if anything -- does the Culinary know about non-kosher activity at Strip and Downtown casinos that it's not telling us? And why are whistleblower hotlines and secret dossiers only being produced when there's a contract at stake? The Culinary is behaving like the worst caricature of a strong-arm union.

$81 million

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:16:00 -0700

That's the magic number that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius foresees from casino licenses and racinos. Note, however, that the enabling legislation is still being vetted by the courts. Nevada officials, besieged by less-than-expected gambling revenues and a gubernatorial demand for at least 4.5% budget cuts, can only gaze in despair at Kansas' $935 million rainy-day fund, the biggest in the U.S.

Sticking with states that begin with 'K,' Las Vegas Sands COO William Weidner is singing a siren song to Kentucky legislators. Although his revenue projections look just a mite rosy, Weidner needs to make a strong case, as he (and Gov. Steve Beshear) will have to win over a supermajority in both houses of the Kentucky Lege, not to mention a majority of Bluegrass State voters. Riverboat owners in the southern Illinois and Indiana markets must be watching this with apprehension.

Oh, that recession: But don't worry; Deutsche Bank reports that casinos -- and the slot business in particular -- are especially recession-resistant. That, and casinos are everybody's favorite quick-fix when the economy goes south.

Go figure. Both Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino had pretty bad months at the slots (neither casino reports table game revenues). In the case of Foxwoods, it's particularly baffling, in light of greatly increased coin-in from players -- $123 million more. The Day implies a cause-and-effect relationship between the revenue plunge at Foxwoods and the abrupt resignation of its president, John O'Brien.

Boy, is my face red. No sooner had I deemed the Culinary Union's belated endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama a quasi-irrelevance than the Nevada teachers' union made it very relevant by getting het up and trying to shutter the "at large" caucuses being held on the Strip. (This story has been all over "the Internets," so I'll spare you any links.)

While this solicitude for the (D)emocratic process is touching, its timing is suspect. And it enabled the Culinary's D. Taylor to claim, in a neat bit of rhetorical jujitsu on MSNBC's Hardball, that his adversaries were trying to hold down minority voting on the eve of Martin Luther King Day. So now the Culinary is looking very relevant indeed.

Mixed results for the second night of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Because, frankly, there's nothing more important. Well, maybe a war or two, the economy, education, terrorism and global warming, etc. But other than that, nothing.