David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - Marketing

Adieu F-bleau, hello Hollywood?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:37:00 -0700

Look what just fell into the S&G mailbag:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ohio slots slip sliding away?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:21:00 -0700

A sample conducted by the tag team of TruthPac and Strategic Polling finds support for the Ohio casino initiative backed by Penn National Gaming polling below 50%. Casinos still have a slight edge (48%/43%, with 8% undecided) ... so in theory the ballot measure should squeak through, so long as the undecideds split down the middle.

If, however, "likely voters" means so-called "values voters," then Issue 3 could be in serious trouble. Only 30% of Democrats polled were against putting casinos in Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland -- but 58% of Republicans gave it the thumbs-down. It should be noted, though, that a Dayton Daily News poll released three weeks ago had Issue 3 winning in a 59%/38% wipeout.

From the mailbag: An East Coast reader writes, "I live in Washington, D.C. Only a tiny 1%-2% of the D.C. television market is in West Virginia, yet I'm surprised to be seeing several TV ads to legalize table games in Charlestown, West Virginia -- home of a racino (I've never been there). I hadn't even known that was on the ballot. Anyway, if they are buying D.C. TV for a Jefferson County, W.V. issue, they sure are spending boatloads of money -- not too surprising, I guess."

Well, this did come as a bit of a surprise to me ... but it makes sense in retrospect. Not in terms of influencing votes: However, with table games an inevitability in Pennsylvania, a push for casinos in Ohio, slot parlors (slowly) ramping up in Maryland, etc., the advertising blitz is probably a means of preparing ground for after the election. Should table games be voted in, D.C.-area gamblers will know Charlestown has them and may think twice about driving to Pennsylvania and points northeast.

A deal @ Vdara

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:32:00 -0700

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

Only in Nevada

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:17:00 -0700

To end the week on a note of levity: For the second time this year, both Gov. Jim Gibbons and Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki got it into their heads to be out of state simultaneously. (One senses that they don't consult each other about scheduling or much of anything else.) Which means that -- also for the second time this year -- the Silver State was briefly helmed by state Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Schneider. Let's just say that, given this opportunity, Acting Gov. Schneider didn't let it go to waste.

Elsewhere in the Silly File, we find New York-New York holding auditions for a spokesman. They're being politically correct and saying "spokesperson," but considering that aforesaid person is going to be dubbed Vinny "The Man," I have a faint suspicion that members of the gentler sex aren't going to be in the running. The winning candidate must "have the most New York swagger" and be adept at gluttony: Winning a hot dog-eating contest is a prerequisite for would-be Vinnys.

I love New York. Seriously, Manhattan is my favorite place on Earth. (However, it is a poor vantage point from which to write about the casino biz.) Which is why I think promoting its Vegas knockoff through the persona of a dese-dem-dose palooka is a notion so creaky and archaic it needs a walker. Not for nothing has a colleague already dubbed this "the dumbest promotion of the year." I concur.

Jim Murren to the rescue. The CEO of MGM Mirage is going to bat for Sen. Harry Reid. The latter's got the casino moguls (Sheldon Adelson, excepted) in his corner, if nothing else.

Aria drives prices ... down

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:23:00 -0700

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

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

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

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

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

<crickets>

Hope for Boardwalk?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:08:00 -0700

As you know, S&G puts more stock in year/year comparisons than sequential ones, but the most recent set from Atlantic City affords a slender reed of hope. With the help of tighter slots, A.C. held its September decline to 6%, the lowest of 2009 and the smallest drop in over a year. Even perpetual dog Resorts International had a good month, up 4% y/y.

Both in dollar volume ($63 million) and growth (6%), the leader was -- no surprise -- Borgata. In fact, the Boyd Gaming property made more than the four lowest-grossing properties (Resorts, Atlantic City Hilton, Trump Plaza, Trump Marina) combined. The two lesser Trump properties slipped below the Colony Capital ones, so one doesn't know whether to feel good for Colony or sorry for Trump Entertainment Resorts. The handover of Resorts Int'l continues to proceed slowly, as regulators enter uncharted waters with understandable caution.

Percentage-wise, Showboat, the Hilton and the Plaza had the worst of it, while gainers included Harrah's Atlantic City (3%) and even the Tropicana (1%). But the bloom is off the Trump Taj Mahal rose; it fell back to the middle of the pack, grossing $36 million.

One unexpected factor in the city's bump was a late-September, gay-themed promotion at the four Harrah's Entertainment properties. For all the lip service paid, year after year, to diversifying Atlantic City's appeal, Don Marrandino and his Harrah's colleagues backed up the talk with meaningful action.

Dead casino walking: Trump Marina

Back at Trump, its CEO, Mark Juliano declares "The real question is how long until we get back to the results we saw in past years, which is the question everyone in every business has." No, the real question is: On what planet is Mr. Juliano living? And: Do they have oxygen up there?

The math is inexorable. Excluding three months of sub-2% growth, Atlantic City's revenues have going one way -- down -- for the last seven quarters, often by double-digit margins. Casinos in Pennsylvania continue to ramp up, Delaware is talking very seriously about casino expansion, slot parlors in Maryland are in train and then there's prospect of additional competition from the greater New York City area.

Instead of asking "Where are the snows of yesteryear," S&G modestly suggests the Boardwalk's casino braintrust ought to be thinking about how to move forward into a future of diminished (i.e., more realistic) expectations.

Up the road, now that the novelty factor has worn off of Sands Bethlehem (above), the $724 million casino remains mired in fifth place. The solution? More and bigger promotions, it would appear. Judging by the lukewarm response to Sands and to Rivers Casino, the Pennsylvania market isn't big enough to support casinos built with Vegas-sized budgets.

Case Bets: Net bets, Mohegan Sun & What's F'bleau worth?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:46:00 -0700

You can't play poker for money on the Internet but you can now play the ponies in Illinois via the Web. This is yet another example of legally enshrined hypocrisy under UIGEA, the parting gift of "Slick Billy" Frist and Jim Leach to the American people. (Speaking of Dr. Frist, M.D., if we must, he just sat like a bump on a log when Bill Maher stupidly railed against the swine-flu vaccine last week. Thanks, doc.)

Setting Sun? The incoming chief of the Mohegan tribe is saying the right things about the imminent need for diversification. Specifics, however, are few on the ground. Mohegan Sun, meanwhile, finds itself between several rocks and hard places: potential competition from Massachusetts and Long Island, $1 billion in debt, falling revenues and the economic inability to finish planned improvements. Depending on how quickly Massachusetts gets its act together, Mohegan's moment in the sun could soon pass.

You've heard of "pocket pool," now the Review-Journal's intrepid Howard Stutz reaches deep into the demimonde of PocketCasino, the new, portable sports-betting technology in play at Venetian/Palazzo. No word yet on whether excessive play causes blindness or hair growth on one's palms.

(Seriously, as a longtime skeptic of Cantor Gaming's portable-gambling applications, I have to say it looks like the Cantor boys have come up aces this time. As for handheld substitutes for table games, the jury is still out on that, four years after their legalization.)

Fontainebleau Las Vegas from Running Bull Productions on Vimeo.

Pennies for F'bleau. What's Fontainebleau worth? Jack shit, according to Penn National Gaming (aka, 15 cents on the dollar). In return, Penn is willing to accept a 10% return on investment ... provided it can bring the project in a no more than $1.5 billion (not counting the billions already spent and written off).

This remains an iffy proposition, in part because it's predicated on increased profitability at Penn's patchwork assemblage of casino properties. Those have to be welded into a Harrah's Entertainment-like loyalty program that drives visitors to Las Vegas. This is a huge "if," as Penn currently has no casinos in major destination markets, unless you stretch that to include recently singed Empress Joliet. Bringing customers to Vegas or even Atlantic City is terra icongnita for Penn.

To put it bluntly, Penn was a third-tier operator -- mainly of racinos -- that "married up" by taking over Argosy Gaming, the classiest of the riverboat operators. However, the Vegas market is notoriously unforgiving of new-to-town operators and Penn will have a very steep learning curve. Also, Penn is not associated with upscale properties, so F'bleau will either have to be repriced downward to reflect the Penn customer base or may need to offer promotional allowances up the ying-yang (more likely both).

If that weren't sufficient cause for concern, Penn's oft-brandished $1.5 billion (the breakup fee from an ill-advised and abortive LBO) is covering multiple bets. Penn is the primary mover behind a pro-casino ballot initiative in Ohio -- partly to protect its Hollywood Lawrenceburg investment just across the border in Indiana. It also recently bought out Cordish Gaming in hopes of getting piggybacked onto the Kansas Speedway casino license, should the Sunflower State's lottery board approve.

At least Penn is working on ways to trim the completion price of F'bleau. Costs to date -- and projected ROI -- being what they are, it behooves Penn CEO Peter Carlino to get this rampaging beast under some semblance of control.

Story of the Year

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:14:00 -0700

I want the movie rights to this. 'Nuff said.

We're #1! For an overdue change, Nevada leads the nation in a good category (first item). And, if you scroll waaaaaaaaaaaay to the bottom, there's an interesting bit about and airfare-and-room deal from Wynn Resorts. (Way to bury it, R-J.)

Update: The Sun has a better report in re Wynn. I shoulda known.

From the mailbag #8

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:08:00 -0700

"Doesn't the IOC realise it will be winter in Brazil in August, 2016?" -- comment Blackberried in by a reader, regarding the award of the '16 games to Rio de Janeiro. Y'know, I'd been wondering about that myself. The average August temperature in Rio hovers between 66 and 78 degrees. Not frigid but not exactly torrid, either. Meanwhile, the IOC promises to keep an eagle eye on the betting lines for the Vancouver games in 2010.

From Jeff in OKC, regarding the recent National Coming-Out Day promotions on the Strip: "Casino ads need a gambling reference in their marketing, I found it cute. If I want to offend easily, I would say that 'Two queens are more fun than a straight' suggests that straight people are inherently less enjoyable than gay people, and NY-NY doesn't want my money. I think we can always be offended, if we look hard enough."

From kerr_mudgeon, on the growing possibility that Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman will tilt at the 2010 gubernatorial race: "I don't think he'll run because the odds are less than 50% in his favor as a non-partisan + he'd not want to disrupt his family by taking a job in Carson [City] - BUT if he runs and wins, he'll start pushing immediately to move the state capital to Las Vegas (maybe to take over one of the partly-built Strip complexes in/near bankruptcy)."

It's not the worst idea I've heard. Nor is this ...

Singapore is building an expansion of its ocean-liner terminal, enabling it to berth four cruisers at a time. The good news for Las Vegas Sands and Genting Bhd is, obviously, that this means more potential customers for their ultra-megaresorts. The not-so-good news is that the new berths won't be ready until late 2011, by which point both casino-based resort will have been open nearly two years.

Everybody's got a private equity fund these days, like the 21-year-old owner of a Persian resaturant in Maryland. Youthful Artin Afsharjavan claims he's got the scratch to buy Trump Entertainment Resorts, prompting Trump CEO Mark Juliano to reply, "Show me the money."

Hey, if some kid wants to throw as much as $500 million into acquiring five (mostly) bottom-of-the-barrel Atlantic City casinos, including Resorts Atlantic City and the A.C. Hilton, I'd like to see the color of his money, too. If it's for real, TER and the others ought to pluck the guy clean. You don't get a pigeon like this every day.

Macao's blockbuster month

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:23:00 -0700

A flurry of good news to end the week, starting in Macao:

September, the first month affected by a relaxation of severe visa restrictions imposed on the mainland, saw a 53% jump in Macanese gambling revenues. In terms of market share, Stanley Ho opened a big lead on Sheldon Adelson, 30% to 20%, with Melco Crown Entertainment close behind with 16%. The remainder of the market was divvied between Wynn Resorts (14%), MGM Mirage (10%) and Galaxy Entertainment (8%).

Is Melco's City of Dreams (above) eating into nearby Venetian Macao's business? On the surface, it certainly looks plausible. Given the immensity of the facilities he's building on the Cotai Strip™, Adelson ought to be getting more bang for his pataca.

Vegas hearts gays. Earlier today, I was asked to reflect on my nearly 11 years in Las Vegas. It's been full of surprising twists of fate -- who ever thought Steve Wynn would be forced out of the Mirage brand he'd created, just for starters?

But I sure as heck never imagined I'd open my e-mail box at work and find the following casino promotions, all keyed to National Coming Out Day (Oct. 3):

"Two Queens Beat a Straight" (New York-New York)

... or the slightly more innocuous ...

"COME OUT and Celebrate at Luxor"

(Luxor was smart and didn't offer Criss F. Angel tickets as part of the, uh, package)

In the Vegas of even a few years ago, "Boys' Night Out Package at Excalibur" would have had more of a frat-party connotation. MGM Grand plays it safe with a "His or Her Getaway" which sounds like a generic singles-oriented deal. Even so, we're actually seeing progress from the days when Vegas marketed itself as a synonym for a very debauched and jaundiced vision of male heterosexuality.

There's nothing like a depression to make this a party town of equal-opportunity decadence. After all, LGBT dollars spend just as fast as straight ones.

$545 a night. That's what Mandarin Oriental is asking. If you read the fine print, you'll note that (through March 31), if you buy a room night at that rate, you'll get a comped night, too. Which makes the effective rate $272 and change. By current standards, that's still steep ... but maybe staying in a 392-room hotel instead of a 4,000-room behemoth is an intangible added value. What do you think?

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.

From the mailbag #6

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:41:00 -0700

Reader kerr_mudgeon writes, a propos the return of "What Happens Here, Stays Here":

But it's still way better than the one they ran on TV in Los Angeles years ago featuring a bunch of well-dressed women walking into a casino, called "the wrecking crew"... as if their feminine power would beat the odds.

Oh my god, I'd forgotten that one! That takes me back a ways -- 10, maybe 12 years.

Larry, I got your message about being involuntarily unsubscribed. Would the other person who contacted me about this problem please drop me a reminder? My brain is like a spaghetti colander even on the best of days.

Unlucky dog. The depression has forced the (ostensibly temporary) closure of yet another tribal casino -- the inaptly named Lucky Dog, in Washington State. Memo to Strip casino owners: When players can't afford to patronize tribal gambling halls, how can they be expected to find the money for a trip to Vegas?

William Safire's greatest speech? It may have been one that President Nixon never had to deliver, thank God. Thanks to reader J.C. Carcamo for the tip.

Quote of the Day

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

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

'Phantom' fans hit Vegas

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:36:00 -0700

Heaven knows, there are conventions for soap operas, sitcoms and every iteration of science fiction (I've been to more than a few of the latter). But a fan convention for a Broadway show? That's unheard of.

Yesterday, fans of Phantom of the Opera hit town for the first-ever Phantom con, at the Venetian, where they'll score some face time with director Harold Prince and the Venetian's resident Phantom, Anthony Crivello. (You have to give Sheldon Adelson props: If Glenn Schaeffer had been running the Venetian, he'd have turned down Phantom on the grounds it was free publicity for Paris-Las Vegas. But Adelson knew a good thing when he saw it.) The Venetian has even rolled out a package of goodies to keep Phantom fans on-property. Smooth move there, Rob Goldstein.

Having recently passed its third anniversary, the Vegas-ized Phantom looks well on its way to blowing past Mamma Mia!'s six-year milestone. We could easily be celebrating its 10th anniversary come 2016. Yours truly gets name-checked in Steve Friess' interview with Prince. My only quibble with the story -- and it's a very minor one -- is that it doesn't mention Prince's original stagings of Stephen Sondheim's Company and Follies, two of the high-water marks in Broadway history. And if you think Phantom is a "downer," take Follies out for a spin sometime:

As for fan conventions, except for the annual Star Trek hootenanny at the Las Vegas Hilton, Vegas doesn't do such a great job of attracting them. We've got to work on that. And when Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis/Sanctuary star Amanda Tapping graces a Vegas stage, we can say, "Job well done."

Deathtrap. Sometimes there are shows that warrant venturing away from the comfort zone of the Strip. Las Vegas Little Theatre's production of Ira Levin's Broadway hit is not one of them.

Blimps on the radar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the mailbag #4: California, tech troubles & 'resort fees'

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:02:00 -0700

Reader Kerr Mudgeon is less than amused by a recent dig at the cuisine offered by Commerce Casino to California firefighters. He writes: "The firefighters can go to numerous other nearby eateries if they don't like the FREE meals offered by the Commerce Casino -- same as paying casino customers can eat at other places if they choose. Sound like 'looking the gift horse in the mouth.'"

Good news from IT: Our "austerity regime" of no photos and no links will, it is promised, be ended today. I can think of several potential blog entries yesterday that went unwritten because no linking capability was available, so this should put some wind back in S&G's sails ... although some might say a lack of wind is the least of this blog's problems.

It's absolutely imperative that you read our 9/10/09 Question of the Day. No, I didn't write it. Our hard-working research duo of Jessica & Tanya did. (Also, Steve Friess recently mis-credited me with the Today's News column; that's a J&T Production, too, along with the occasional assist from Anthony Curtis himself.)

Aaaaaaaaannnnyyyyy-way, today's topic (and it's only online for one day) is the pernicious Vegas phenomenon known as the "resort fee." The winner of the Sustained Greed Award goes to longtime gouger Station Casinos. Station's Green Valley Ranch is also the premier resort-fee offender ($25).

Others who provide optional amenities -- of varying desirability -- in return for the fee include Bellagio ($25), The Mirage ($15), Planet Hollywood ($5) and Gold Coast ($3, which actually buys you quite a lot). The geniuses at Morgans Hotel Group get the Steal the Stripes out of Your Socks Award for charging you $7 for "in-room safe, parking, minibar (but not its contents), bath products, and a plasma TV."

There's a word for that Hard Rock Hotel & Casino practice and the word is "chintzy." As our researchers note, "For hotels to presume to charge guests for amenities that they have no intention of availing themselves of, but cannot avoid, seems a very counter-productive measure that can only generate ill-will."

Kudos to the following fee-eschewing properties: Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn Las Vegas, Encore and anyplace owned by Harrah's Entertainment. Yes, Harrah's. I tip my fedora to you, Gary Loveman.

'Peepshow''s little Hitler problem

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:20:00 -0700

Congratulations (not!) to the producers of Peepshow, whose rent-a-headliner stratagem has finally blown up in their faces. They're replacing a Jew (Shoshana Bean) with a fan of the leadership abilities of -- I kid you not -- Adolf Hitler. Oh, and she's a googly-eyed admirer of Fidel Castro, who -- among other offenses against humanity -- ran the casino industry out of Cuba.

Of course, this town has a tycoon or two known for cozying up to the authoritarian regime of Singapore and the downright despotic one in Peking. So perhaps Ms. O'Day's pathetic excuse for a brain will just be a 48-hour story ... but that's what we thought about Sen. John Ensign's escapades, at least until Mike Ensign's role as payola daddy came into play.

(Thanks to Richard Abowitz for the heads-up on this one.)

A reader informs me that the site LasVegasDowntownNews.com appears to be defunct. I couldn't get it to load either and blogger Jeff Burbank's output was sporadic at the best of times. Has this site gone the way of all flesh? If anybody has the skinny on this, please let S&G know.

"Oh shit!" headline of the day: Seen at Huffington Post, "Harry Reid to take the wheel on health care." That's like finding out the one family member who's certifiably incapable of navigating the driveway is going to pilot the family car up Mount Charleston.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:31:00 -0700

"As I was driving down the Strip, I saw a billboard at Sahara Ave. that said something to the effect of: Give them the gift of Luxor! Who, your enemy?" -- e-mail from S&G reader.

"Viva Elvis"

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:38:00 -0700

Obssessed? Moi?

Yes, Viva Elvis will be the long-awaited, enshrouded-in-secrecy title of the Cirque du Soleil show scheduled to debut this December at CityCenter.* Wow, they must have had to really burn the midnight oil in Montreal to come up with that one ... Speaking of name changes, Scarlett and her Seductive Ladies of Magic (at the Riviera) is now Abra-Ca-Sexy. Well, it's catchier ... The wheels continue to fall off the Riviera train: An Evening with Dean and Friends has closed, as has the dinner buffet (again) ... Lost in the bankruptcy tumult at the Greek Isles was the opening of a new show. Its cumbersome title is Chinaman: A Rock & Roll Comedy Experience. Moving right along ... By the time you read this, Rockstar: The Tribute should have reopened at the Harmon Theater after a disastrously short stint at the Wyrick Entertainment Complex (aka, "the Venue of Death") in Planet Hollywood. However, the Harmon has given it as much advance publicity as an IRS raid on a Vegas nightclub, so that's not a promising start ... In like manner, Beatles tribute Penny Lane tiptoed into the Tropicana without so much as a 'by your leave' ... Back at Planet Ho, Tony 'n Tina's Wedding evidently isn't performing up to expectations. Ticket prices have been reduced 13%-30%, although they're still steep ($63-$143) ... It looks like Deutsche Bank is going to wait a spell and open the Cosmopolitan in Sept.-Oct. 2010. Which, given that the Strip's been strangling on a glut of high-end rooms, is probably the wisest course of action. Wall Street's former Holy Grail, "another wave of megaresort openings," has become a phrase to be dreaded.

Ready for some good news? The most remarkable dancer of the late, lamented Sin City Kitties, Koree Kurkowski, is now part of the ensemble of Bite. The show is kitsch to the nth degree but it's entertaining in its own so-bad-it's-good fashion. The Stratosphere casino floor was pretty dead for a Friday night last weekend, but Bite was definitely packing them in. It's not as good as Sin City Bad Girls (at the Las Vegas Hilton) but way better than forgettable X Burlesque (at the Flamingo).

* -- the Viva Elvis revelation was let slip during last weekend's Michael Jackson festival at The Palms. I learned of it after being invited -- on 75 minutes' notice -- to co-host an episode of Steve Friess' The Strip Podcast, in which I am teased for being "obsessed" with Carmen Electra. I'll link to the edited version once it's available, so you can hear me date myself with a Barbi Benton shout-out.

This isn't Photoshop but an ad clipped from a Michigan newspaper, I kid you not:

The things you can find at the grocery store these days ...

Fun with math, "Jubilee!" style

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:55:00 -0700

Does anybody know the maximum number of bared female bosoms that can be seen at any one point in Donn Arden's Jubilee!? I'm reviewing the show for a new Web site and have most of the mind-boggling statistics at hand. The mammary-count, however, is not among them. I lost track at 50, myself, though I know it's more. Anybody care to take a shot at this?

Bueller? ... Bueller?

Jackson for kids. No jokes, please. A concert tribute to the music of sometime Vegas resident Michael Jackson will raise money for the cash-strapped music programs of the Clark County School District. Besides, who can resist the prospect of what Terry Fator will do with "Ben"? It could be twisted, in a very good way.

Soulless impotence. A belated afterbirth of When We Were Kings arrives in the form of Soul Power, a title as yesterday as polyester jackets with wide lapels. The move is as underwhelming as its moniker. Or, to quote Cleveland from Family Guy, "The noise was good but I thought they phoned in a lot of the funk."

A reader responds: "David, re your blog on the R/J economics and Mr. [Sherman] Frederick's not-so-full flight from Austin [Tex.]: I live in Austin and continue to fly to Vegas three or four times a year. Although I usually fly on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, I've never seen any flight that had more than a handful or middle seats not occupied. Further, the only airline I know of that flies directly (i.e. not stop or one stop w/o change of planes) is Southwest. They have about 8 flights a day that connect to Vegas from Austin. So, yes, I can see how one flight on a Tuesday might not be full. But Austin is a great market for Vegas. Every year Harrah's gives me a handful of coupons for two free nights that I can hand out to friends and people at work. These coupons disappear by 7:00 a.m. when I send out my email to the folks at 6:30. And this is only one office."

Bounce-back for Macao?

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:17:00 -0700

Remember how gambling revenues in Macao during July were up 3% from last year (the first positive comparison this year)? That was soon followed by the news that numbers for the first half of August are even more encouraging still (+20%). Though Macanese casinos are on track for a $1.5 billion August, analysts urge caution, noting that the first half of August '08 was exceptionally weak.

Still: Wherefore this sudden resurgence?

Perhaps it's the delayed effect of a February loophole that allowed Guangdong Province residents to circumvent a ban on travel to Macao on Hong Kong visas. Whatever the case, business should get better still on Sept. 1 when, the Macau Tourism Council says, restrictions on Guangdong Province will be loosened even further. That's music to the ears of every casino boss in Macao, needless to say.

Sheldon Adelson, in particular, has fallen in clover. This revelation comes just as he's putting the finishing touches on a planned IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange (with Steve Wynn following suit). The stock offering, it is hoped, will generate sufficient liquidity to finish a quartet of stalled hotels on the Cotai Strip™ (with five more to come). Right now, the area looks like an outsize version of Miss Havisham's wedding, "leaving swaths of the nascent Cotai Strip covered by steel and concrete skeletons," in the words of Bloomberg News. Macao doesn't need more rooms right now. However, Adelson sure could use the lucre from the casinos onto which the hotels are piggybacked.

But what of Stanley Ho? While the casino baron ails, Bloomberg has unpacked Dr. Ho's June address to G2E Asia, in which he laid into his U.S.-based rivals. “The success of one market model cannot be migrated to another ... Ignoring Macao’s special characteristics and duplicating a Las Vegas or an Atlantic City would not be a successful strategy.” (The article also minces few words about the elder Ho's triad associations.)

Those of us who scoffed at Ho's antediluvian casinos are finding that the comparably ancient oligarch is having the last laugh, even if it may be from his deathbed. “The Macao audience is less focused on the ancillary things around gambling. Stanley, with his wealth of experience, understood that better," says Thornburg Investment Management analyst Alex Motola.

Meanwhile, various Ho clan members may be at daggers drawn. Favorite wife Angela Leong is the perceived successor, but daughters Pansy, Daisy and Maisy Ho (no, I didn't make that up) aren't going to step aside quietly, from the looks of things ... especially since Leong is only two years Pansy's senior. SJM CEO Ambrose So is also being tipped as a potential dark-horse heir to King Stanley's throne.

Business as usual at Hotel Lisboa.

But how would the Macanese government cotton to the notion of Pansy Ho controlling both the SJM concession and half of the MGM one? A third concession could be up for grabs if City of Dreams fails to perform, thereby becoming what Melco Crown Entertainment CEO Lawrence Ho calls his "endgame."

His father's death could also set off a philosophical war between the tried-and-true Stanley Ho business model, time-worn though it may be (and likely to be championed by Leong and So), and the Vegas Lite approach in which Lawrence and Pansy have dabbled. But with the Ho family having its fingers in three casino pies (MGM, Melco, SJM) simultaneously, they'll come out winners no matter which way the pie is sliced.

Stanley Ho's newest and oldest progeny: Grand Lisboa and Hotel Lisboa.

From Malaysia to Monticello. Do you recall those stock sales by Genting Bhd insiders a while back? At the time, it looked as though the money would go toward an acquisition of MGM Grand Macau. However, it now appears the lucre will purchase a stake in struggling Empire Resorts. That's the company whose executives were luxuriating in the low-tax suburbs of Las Vegas -- even though Empire's sole gaming asset was a racetrack in Monticello, N.Y., a full continent away.

Reality check

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:10:00 -0700

It's sackcloth-and-ashes time at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which ran another "The end is nigh" story about falling gambling revenues. (The Aliante Station Effect appears to have petered out in North Las Vegas.)

Yes, we're all the way down, down, down ... to 2004 levels. If we take the Wayback Machine five years into the past, we find the Nevada Gaming Control Board reporting a 6% increase in revenue from June 2003. And June '04 was an "off" month for a year that was distinguished by double-digit growth in casino revenue.

Aliante Station: played out?

That same August, the cost of the MGM Mirage takeover of Mandalay Resort Group inched past the $8 billion mark. "[B]ut Wall Street analysts ... said the merger still makes sense for investors and the combined company," wrote the R-J's Rod Smith. Weeks earlier, regulators signed off on the $1.3 billion Boyd Gaming/Coast Casinos merger; Station Casinos, Las Vegas Sands and MGM were all recording record-setting financial performances, and Harrah's Entertainment was girding itself for the conquest of Caesars Entertainment. Heck, the industry was feeling sufficiently bullish to absorb a 0.5% hike in the privilege tax. Read one headline, "State gaming revenue on a roll."

Had the industry lived within its means, today's narrative would be quite different. The Las Vegas Sun helpfully charts the inflation and collapse of the casino bubble, which lasted a good three years, peaking in October '07.

Unfortunately, when what went up eventually had to come down, some companies discovered themselves overexposed and with no margin for error. The likeliest victims, though, are the marginal, standalone properties which might find themselves squeezed out of existence as aggressive discounting by MGM and Harrah's brings quality Strip hotel rooms into the "affordable" realm (Or, as Phil Satre puts it, when the A-level product is priced below the B-level product.)

Valuable perspective is to be had by reading (or watching) this roundtable discussion with three men who dominated much of the gaming industry in the Nineties and early into the new century. Ex-Harrah's CEO Satre has earned the right to be a Monday morning QB. After all, he never did anything so stupid as strapping $30 billion in debt onto his company's back.

Former Station CFO Glenn Christenson seems deeply in denial at many points, though even he concedes, "It wasn’t so long ago that we hated conventions as an industry and now it’s critical to our operations. We’re severely damaged by that loss." But ex-Boyd prexy Don Snyder nails it when he describes "a false sense of security" pervading the industry, adding "I think we all got caught up in that."

2004, meet 2009, where "up" is the new "down."

Tamares' animal cruelty

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:45:00 -0700

Man about town Steve Friess has all the gory details, plus video:

Now that new owners have actually made the ex-Tamares Group dump the Gold Spike actually rather spiffy and friendly, the Vegas Club now takes the wilted palm of being Downtown's most depressing casino. It's a no-frills, charmless grind joint, utterly devoid of atmosphere. Casino play, even on a Friday night, was desultory, as though the customers were so despairing they didn't care where they played.

The much-hyped "fetish" pit is a joke. It's tamer than any Britney Spears video and the costumes look like they were bought at a Halloween store. It's cheap -- and not in a good way. The wife-beater-wearing female dealers at the Gold Spike are much, much sexier ... some of the hottest in Vegas, if that's your thing.

The sports book, once the pride of the Vegas Club, has been turned into a pretty spacious showroom, but that's about the nicest thing you can say for the place. Downtown needs entrepreneurs but Tamares is content to be a slumlord.

Kitty rescue at Caesars; Stingy Station

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:43:00 -0700

As we were driving to LVA HQ this morning, we spotted a disoriented-looking little cat running through the Flamingo Rd./I-15 interchange, across from Caesars Palace. We were in a quandary about what to do until it turned and started ambling down the I-15 "on" ramp, heading straight for certain death. I ran down the ramp after it (the kitty's a fast little bugger), scooped it up in one hand and ...

Well, what to do? I am now the custodian of a small, tuxedo-patterned kitten who may be carrying God knows what infections. It's too docile to be a feral cat but it's definitely going to need a new residence. So if anybody reading this can lend a helping hand to a homeless kitty, contact me at dmckee@huntingtonpress.com. I could just plop the wee bairn out in the LVA parking lot, along with our resident strays, but they're all massive and it would be a very Darwinian situation, I fear.

Cheesparing at Station: The formidable Jean Scott has news of some recent and untoward developments at Station Casinos, as the bankrupt company resorts to new "economy" measures. While the Fertitta clan sinks approximately $90 million into Orange County mansions, they're recouping the cost of their poor business decisions out of their customers' hides.

Random observations: Last night, we celebrated my Better Half's birthday, partly at Cadillac Ranch, which seems to have an identity crisis. Its menu is slightly countrified (in a C&W sense), its walls are covered with photos of Baby Boomer rock stars (think Steven Tyler) and the video feed is heavy on hip-hop. Go figure. The root beer float is very good, though. At 10:30, as though by prearranged signal, an incoming tide of douchebags flooded the joint and we split ...

... the classy southern façade of Mandarin Oriental has now been marred by a building wrap, high up on one corner. It's small by building-wrap standards, managing to both spoil the view and look like a timid half-measure ...

... speaking of building wraps, Criss F. Angel has long since been evicted from the eastern façade of Luxor. A new wrap was placed on the northeast corner of Luxor's ancillary hotel, but it's also smallish and -- due to way the hotel's buttresses jut forward -- hard to see if you're driving into Vegas from the south. Then again, if I were MGM Mirage, I'd probably want to downplay with association with the widely ridiculed Mr. Angel, too.

Quote of the Day

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:37:00 -0700

Q. Will the slot machines be tighter?

A. Absolutely not! As always, our slot machine payouts remain among the highest in town and in the gaming industry. We will continue to have the best and newest gaming products on our casino floors. -- from a post-Chapter 11 FAQ distributed to guests of Station Casinos.

Headline of the Week

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:12:00 -0700

"Get Chlamydia! Win an iPod!" Seriously.

Beyoncé is mad sexy but she doesn't make as much as Gary Loveman (who has 92 million-plus reasons to flash those pearly whites).

Quote of the Day

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:46:00 -0700

"Stop blaming the recession for decreases in casino revenue. Players are pissed off and want more time on device, so we need slot vendors to design one-arm bandits and machines with three coin maximums, we need to do away with TITO and use actual coins and buckets, and there should be bonus screens that take a really, really long time. It's OK to take a patron's entire gaming wallet, but we should do it in four hours, rather than four minutes." -- Raving Consulting Vice President of Marketing & Client Services Toby O'Brien, who also notes that "It may be time to reassess goals and make them more realistic. Flat is the new up."

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.

Strange happenings at Penn Nat'l, Harrah's

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:31:00 -0700

While everybody's been focusing on the implosion of Station Casinos, the analysts at J.P. Morgan snuck out one of the more unusual (and entertaining) reports I've ever come across. They pored over Penn's 2Q09 filing and had some tales to tell.

The lead was that Penn was falling short of its cash-flow targets for the quarter. That musn't have been a complete surprise, given the incapacitation of Empress Joliet and the swapping out of one Lawrenceburg riverboat for another. However, there was trouble in River City, with Morgan analysts noting "an unexpected spike in large employee medical catastrophic claims at that [Lawrenceburg] property (bizarre), and 4) a less than productive new marketing program at Charlestown (marketing at Charlestown?) that did not produce incremental revs, but increased costs." The medical claims alone were a $1 million black eye.

They counseled against heading for the lifeboats, though, and pointed out that Penn has $795 million in cash in the till. (Do I hear an offer for Beau Rivage?) Morgan is also bullish on Penn's expansion prospects in Kansas (really?), Ohio and Maryland.

There was even some good news for competitor Ameristar Casinos, thanks to continued troubles at Harrah's Entertainment. Wrote the Morgans team: "Harrah's has not increased its promotional activity (comps, spending, reinvestment)," boding well for everyone else.

As Morgan reported earlier this month, Harrah's was -18% in Louisiana in June, by far the worst decline of any operator in the market -- while Boyd Gaming notched a slight gain (but a major victory in that context). Just as I've expected from the start, Texas Pacific and Apollo (Mis)Management are nickel-and-diming Harrah's into the poorhouse.

Facts are stubborn things

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:14:00 -0700

A big thumbs-up to a casino company in Central City, Colo., for making its case to players not with vague claims but quantifiable facts. Famous Bonanza & Easy Street Casinos shared with its patrons Colorado Division of Gaming Statistics data that showed its dollar- and penny-slot holds were 3% and 7.3%, respectively.

The averages for Black Hawk, Colo., casinos in those denoms are 5.27% and 9.8%. Famous Bonanza is comfortably below the Central City averages of 3.8% and 9.5%, too. Anybody in Vegas or Atlantic City want to try this marketing gambit? It sounds like a winner to us. (Thank you to Raving Consulting for spreading the news about this splendid idea.)

Without referencing it directly CityLife Editor Steve Sebelius makes it clear why Mike Ensign's $96,000 hush-money payment to Doug Hampton and his two-timing wife could write finis to any further aspirations the elder Ensign has in the casino industry. Just try explaining this mess to the Kansas Lottery's casino commission and making it sound like a mere bagatelle.

Case Bets: M Resort, bad debt, Wall Street's bomb

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:26:00 -0700

After fairly flying out of the gate, M Resort has hit the wall. Unfortunately, CEO Anthony Marnell III's response to economic adversity has been to sweat the value propositions. Not only is M fretting about card counters (hands down, the silliest preoccupation in the casino industry), it's yanking full-pay video poker machines.

“We are in business to have an edge and these games are nearly break-even,” Marnell tells Liz Benston. Give him points for candor ... but if you didn't want players to have a 50-50 shot, you should never have installed the machines in the first place, fella. This reeks of bait-and-switch. The video poker community is tightly knit; word of this stuff gets arounds fast and will undoubtedly redound to Marnell's disadvantage.

Another thing that might be working against Marnell are M's distinctly underwhelming coupon offers -- far inferior to those from Station Casinos, for one. The Significant Other and I tend to forward our M "offers" straight into the WPB (waste paper basket). I'd also respectfully dissent with Benston re M's casino design: It's a throwback to the old "disorientation" days. For ease of navigation, M's not a patch on Eastside Cannery, to say nothing of Wynn Las Vegas. Heck, even the venerable Sahara isn't the rat maze that is M's gambling floor.

When "whales" attack. Indicted high roller Terrance K. Watanabe is taking on Nevada's casino-debt-collection machine and his lawyer is making some interesting legal arguments. Basically, he's contending that markers are loans, not checks (as longstanding Nevada precedent would have it). Should this argument prevail at trial, it could have far-reaching consequences.

Since markers could no longer be booked as income, Nevada would no longer be able to tax uncollected markers, as it currently does. Since enforcement of the debt is funded by assessing a 10% penalty on the debtor, Clark County couldn't afford to go after delinquent whales, either. And casinos themselves might have to think even harder before (in effect) lending money to players like Watanabe who, his attorney says, accounted for a fifth of The Rio's and Caesars Palace's casino revenue in a two-year period.

Hoist on its petard. In his latest Las Vegas Business Press column, Dr. David G. Schwartz explains how the consolidation mania of the 1990s (spurred by manic Wall Street analysts) came back to bite the casino industry in its ass when times were tough. So tell us, Nevada Gaming Commission, why was it such a good idea to have an oligopoly on the Strip (and in Lake Tahoe ... and ... )?

Vegas (isn't the only place that) needs Carmen Electra

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:51:00 -0700

Occasionally, S&G readers allow me to share their off-list bon mots with the general public. Such is the case with one Pacific Rim-based gentlewoman who's familiar with the sights and sounds of Macao. Evidently, it's a place where voluptuousness is craved all the more for being in short supply. Hence, the gyrations of a certain Carmen Electra at Crazy Horse Paris prompted this sage observation:

"Macau sure could do with some of this type of sizzle"

No doubt ... but we need Ms. Electra here. (And aren't you gents glad S&G was given a non-gratutious rationale to post yet another photo of Carmen?)

On a serious note, the Electra guest gig stirred up local media "buzz" far out of proportion to its duration. In terms of oomph for the buck, it's given the Holly Madison push at Planet Hollywood a serious run for its money: more evidence that stars are born, not fabricated. Whatever one thinks of Ms. Electra's troubled personal life, she's a "stage creature" and Vegas could use a few more right now.

Supporting the troops. Big ups to the El Cortez for giving $15 dining credits to active-duty servicemen (and women) at its Café Cortez and Flame steakhouse. Our military is grossly underpaid for guarding our liberties (such as appreciating Carmen Electra), so anything the casino industry does by way of a "thank you" deserves S&G's salute.

If you're in the Reno area and are an aficianado of the stellar cable TV service known as Cinemax, I consider it my civic duty to alert you to the following fact: Monique Parent (aka "The Thinking Man's Sex Symbol") will be spokesmodeling -- or something of that ilk -- at a Reno-area Costco next week.

Among the prolific Parent's many titles is the Citizen Kane of erotic films, Play Time ... or so they tell me. <cough> So if you've admired Ms. Parent's fine, wry thesping in Dark Secrets or The Key to Sex, stop by and show your gratitude.

Just a suggestion.

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.

LVCVA has lemons, makes lemonade

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

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

Tropic(ana) of Confusion

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:22:00 -0700

News reports are at sixes and sevens of just how much of the Tropicana Las Vegas is now owned by Onex Corp. For instance, Bloomberg states that Onex's stake represents 60% of the $440 million owed on the property (or would that be 60% of a theoretical $733 million/$21.5 million per acre?), while the Calgary Herald confusingly spreads Onex's $440 million -- or would that be $264 million? -- commitment between the Vegas and non-Vegas holdings of Tropicana Entertainment.

The Herald, in an obvious boo-boo, mis-reports that TropEnt was split into Atlantic City and non-A.C. halves. Seriously, once the new LV Trop administration starts taking reporters' calls, could somebody straighten out if Onex's commitment is $440 million, six-tenths of that or some more-confusing permutation altogether? The dueling numbers are starting to make my head spin.

The Calgary paper, though, discover the interesting wrinkle that TropEnt CEO Scott Butera is trying to make off with the Vegas Trop name and lease it back to Onex at $10 million a year. Clever, yes. And, if the courts allow it, Butera's got Onex over a barrel because relaunching old properties with new names has been a losing proposition in Las Vegas. Bereft of its name, the Trop could easily become a big-ass Hooters Hotel.

Amidst this turmoil, Alex Yemenidjian has taken the reins at the Trop with an emphasis on customer service. (Interestingly, if you read the non-R-J coverage, Onex has partly reneged on its capex commitments, rolling back a $100 million reinvestment to $75 million.) The proposed South Beach retheming will have to be done in stages but, hey, that's the way they used to do it.

One need only look at the corpse of the Lady Luck or the gravesite of the Stardust to see the perils of a do-it-all-at-once makeover. And it beats the heck out of Butera's 2014-2016 timeline for even beginning work. While Butera may have been an improvement on Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III, his diffident attitude toward the LV Trop will probably leave few regretting his departure.

Big Brother 1, Casinos 0: Round 2

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:47:00 -0700

Journalists are working gambling metaphors overtime as they chronicle Vladimir Putin's casino crackdown. Although my previous CNN link dead-ended (pun unintended) are yet more Michael Jackson necroph ... er, coverage, that proved a blessing in disguise. The best and most comprehensive short-form report on the situation in Russia comes from ...

... Al-Jazeera, believe it or not. If you've got a half-hour to spare, Russia Today goes in-depth on the situation. (Ian Sutton has been aggregating links with remarkable thoroughness over GamingFloor.com, if you want even more coverage of Boss Putin's power play.)

For an insight into the paternalistic mentality that led to the Putin Putsch, you can't do better than this:

Not that Americans can afford the luxury of smugness. Consider this Philadelphia TV station's condescending report on Atlantic City, with its snide, disparaging, cliché-ridden attitude toward both gambling and the players themselves:

1 picture = 1,000 words

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:32:00 -0700

One person's scandal is another person's marketing opportunity:

Gambling and hope

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:38:00 -0700

Andy Holtmann of Raving Consulting has a splendid essay on this very topic and the fine line that casinos must walk when playing to people's hopes. It carries particular weight as it's authored by someone who's taken a mighty wallop from the collapse of the housing market -- i.e., the sort of customer casinos need to understand when they get frustrated that people aren't spending more. Abrasive slogans like "Shut up and play" aren't going to cut it.

Speaking of excellent writing, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post waxed eloquent recently on the subject of the nationalization of General Motors. Penned by an obvious car enthusiast (and longtime GM customer), Robinson's think piece is full of wonderful bon mots like, "The roster of Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac may still leave GM with too many brands; I'd have axed Buick, too, and my opinion should count since I'm now one of the company's owners." (Well, at least we're rid of the Hummer.) My thanks to the reader who brought this to my attention -- where would I be without you guys?

The infamous Pontiac Aztek.

On the subject of GM, I hold no opinion. However, I did notice that scarcely was the ink dry on the bankruptcy filings than a very slick and expensive-looking commercial explaining the 'new, improved' GM was airing on network TV. It certainly wasn't the sort of thing one whips up on iMovie overnight. Your tax dollars -- and mine -- at work.

This just in ...

Thu, 28 May 2009 17:53:00 -0700

Minutes ago, this video fell across the cyber-transom of our e-mail "in" box. It's a look back on "Earth Hour" (which this environmentalist thought a feel-good stunt at the time and sees no reason to change his opinion) and I'm uncertain whether the overriding message is, "Wow! Dramatic energy saving!" or "Yowzers! Hella marketing gimmick!"

Yours truly missed Earth Hour, which at least must have been a remarkable sight. I was sound asleep ... practicising my preferred form of "energy conservation," you might say.

How not to promote?

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:18:00 -0700

Credit for this Strip vignette goes to reader mike_ch, who writes:

Saw this linked to on Twitter by Brian Fey on TwoWay[HardThree]:

Not sure this is the most sound marketing strategy ever:
"At O'Sheas Casino, the president of five Harrah's Entertainment Inc. hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip is poking fun at the economic downturn and the excesses that built Sin City's anything-goes reputation. Don Marrandino points at a sign pushing $45 bottles of Jack Daniels whiskey or Smirnoff vodka, and says the promotion parodies the not-too-distant past when the gambling resorts marked up liquor by hundreds of dollars a bottle and patrons couldn't empty them fast enough."

I don't know if you find the same feeling in that which I do, but I can't help but wonder how effective "remember when you got gouged?" is as a marketing tool. Especially at a moment when the rocket has only just begun to lift on room rates and even some lower market owners are scoffing at what they're getting for a room.

Don would probably be wise to put away the gag hooch and keep being photographed with pretty ladies.

Like so many recent promos (remember, "Shut up and play"?), this one could be accused of tone deafness but Marrandino's head is in the right place. And he shows a firm grasp on reality when he says, "[Las Vegas] went from bargain to high end really quickly. Now it's going back to that middle market." I'm still not sure that message has truly sunk in elsewhere on the Strip.

Update: For those who follow Twitter, our in-house tweeter par excellence deems Luxor's Twitter feed to be far and away the best of the MGM Mirage feeds, with MGM Grand's bringing up the rear. Kudos for Luxor prez Felix Rappaport for stealing a march on the competition.

Oscar Goodman, Voice of Reason

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Casino commercial of the month

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:35:00 -0700

For at least the last four weeks, Silverton Casino Lodge has been conducting a hit-and-run campaign of "Livin' Lodge" TV spots. These polished 15-second vignettes concentrate on delivering one message and doing so with humor. That's a refreshing contrast to the now-familiar image barrage (of which both Green Valley Ranch and M Resort have been guilty) which attempts to cram approximately 273.86 discrete ad messages into your cranium in 30 seconds or so. Then there's the CasaBlanca ad which vouchsafes us the sight of Randy Black giving himself a pedicure. My girlfriend's two-word review: "It's disgusting!"

Of course, nobody trying to pass themselves off as a Daddy Warbucks would be caught dead at the Silverton ... but that's an inherent part of the jest.

Enjoy! There are plenty more from whence this came:

Express delivery: It seems like just yesterday I was touting the upcoming release of Arnold Snyder's Topless Vegas. (Oh wait ... it was yesterday.) Well, it's gone from a "Coming Attraction" to "Now Playing" in the blink of an eye.

Due to its file size, Topless Vegas can't be e-mailed, but if anybody is having problems ordering it, please let us know and we'll work out an alternate method of delivery. It's copiously illustrated (hence the hefty megabytage) and Snyder isn't the least bit shy with color commentary or opinions. You'll love it or hate it but you won't be bored even for a moment.

Responding to readers

Tue, 19 May 2009 15:46:00 -0700

As you probably know, Huntington Press has been branching out into e-books. An S&G reader asked if any were compatible with Kindle. I'm told the following titles are available in Kindle-ready format:

Casino-ology by Bill Zender

Confessions of a Stripper by Lacey Lane

Cullotta by Dennis N. Griffin

Golf Las Vegas by Ken Van Vechten

Tax Help for Gamblers by Marissa Chien & Jean Scott

Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner by Bob Dancer (who else?)

Whale Hunt In the Desert by Deke Castleman

But wait: There's more! We're putting the finishing touches on our first e-book-only release, Topless Vegas. We were in the midst of page-proof corrections when Forty Deuce up and died, so we really dodged a bullet there, I tell ya.

He knows jack: An LVA member has alerted us to some Down South scuttlebutt that had Jack Binion lined up to take over the Gold Strike in Tunica. If that's the case, MGM Mirage's recent encumbrance of the Mississippi casino as debt security runs a cart and horses through that notion, I guess. Which would be a pity, if true. The casino industry needs Jack Binion and entrepreneurs of his ilk right now -- a lot more than Jack Binion needs the industry, one might add.

(Slots A) Fun Fact

Fri, 15 May 2009 12:22:00 -0700

I've just read that the 2008 cash flow for Slots A Fun, the crown jewel of what used to be Circus Circus Enterprises, was $2.8 million. Which means that current owner MGM Mirage could justify a sale price of $22.5 million-$28 million. (Penn National CEO Peter Carlino, this is your chance!)

Then again, MGM could sell Slots A Fun four times over and probably still not recoup the cost of its Criss Angel vanity project, Believe.

Atlantic City gets a monorail. And other infrastructural-type stuff. That $3.6 billion would probably be better invested into building two or three new casinos, not to mention getting rid of those Colony C(r)apital grind joints.* New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) thinks Atlantic City's recovery is on the way. But as long as the market breaks down -- as its revenues do -- into Borgata and Everything Else, "recovery" will just be a euphemism for "much slower rate of decline."

* -- If banks won't underwrite new development there, why -- laws permitting -- shouldn't the state? I'm just askin'. The alternative is pretty bleak.

This just in: Yes, TV ads for impotence drugs (think of "Viva Las Vegas" debased to "Viva Viagra"), with their tacky innuendi, are embarrassing (albeit not as much as those for incontenince drugs). But Congress has slightly better things to do that adopt the proposal of Rep. Jim Moron, er, Moran (D-VA) to force them off the air ... least not untl it's amended to outlaw any TV programming featuring the bloated visage, voice and ego of failed casino boss Donald Trump. (Sorry; can't link to the Yahoo News video. I tried.)

Irony is Dead Dept. III

Tue, 05 May 2009 18:05:00 -0700

On Monday, Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) proclaimed this to be "State Employee Week," complete with flowery script and many a preambulatory clause. That'd be the same Jim Gibbons who, the week before, vowed to cut those same employees salaries even further than the -6% he'd already proposed. No word yet on whether aforesaid employees think having a whole, entire week designated in their honor makes up for a decrease in their take-home pay. (Nevada has the fewest state employees per capita in the U.S., so it's not like they're underworked ... just pay a visit to the DMV sometime.)

Sic transit gloria Gans: Singer/actress Beyoncé Knowles (above) will be playing a short run at Wynn Encore this summer. Reports a source who keeps tabs on casino Web pages, "she was selling tix on what was formerly Danny Gans' 'page' before he was even cold." Lest we need reminding, this is not a sentimental town.

The 'CityCenter effect.' Although MGM Mirage estimates it's had 110,000 applications for a maximum of 12K jobs at CityCenter, it transpires that 17K of those came from within MGM Mirage. While that may give you a 70/30 shot at a CityCenter job if you're already with the company, the rest of us might as well forget it and scan the job listings for vacancies at other MGM Strip casinos. If a Bellagio slot attendant gets a job at Aria, that promotion should manifest itself all the way down to food chain. On other words, this is your big chance to work at Slots A Fun, the casino of which MGM is so ashamed it doesn't list it as a discrete property on its Web site.

Rising above the fray. Confronted with a classless gesture in front of his casino -- and I say that as somebody who saw the protest-like promotion with his own eyes -- Palms owner George Maloof responded with class. By the way, those weren't just 40 guys with signs, they were wearing illuminated, sandwich board-sized placards on their backs. It made quite a startling sight late on a Friday evening, one of the tackiest things I've seen in Vegas (and we write the book on "tacky" here). The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, meanwhile, continues its downward mobility.

El gringo Trump II

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:42:00 -0700

NBC-TV Sunday-night comedy star Donald Trump has always been promiscuous when it comes to slapping his name on anything this side of condoms. And why not? It gives him bragging rights to the drawing power of his moniker.

"My buildings sell out before they are built. People recognize the brand name and know what they will be getting: the best for their money," proclaimeth the orange-haired tycoon. For instance, a Baja California condo complex took reservations on 80% of its planned first tower in less than a day, so dazzled were buyers by the Trump brand. The latter may be mud in the casino industry but it's got power in real estate, at least for now.

Had Trump Baja been a roaring success, I'm sure we'd be hearing no end of it from Trump Himself. Now that the developers who sublicensed the Trump name have gone to ground, leaving a big hole behind, The Donald wants everybody to know it was no fault of his: Oh no! He's not responsible for the skanky things people do once they've bought the rights to that very recognizable brand. As a sales tool it means everything ... but in terms of standing behind one's product it's not worth a farthing. That's the ~~reductio ad absurdum~~ essence of the Trump Defense.

LVCVA gets with the times

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

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

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

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

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

Macao in 3 minutes

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

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

What happens in Moscow ...

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

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

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

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

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.

Seeing is believing

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:34:00 -0700

In case yesterday's item about the return of "family-friendly" Vegas sounded like an urban legend, a link to the promo in question has been discovered and added. Apparently $105/night for a Signature suite may not be the lowest rate, either. The fine print includes the line, "Mobile users text SIGNATURE to 30364 for an even better offer." Yup, those condo-hotel units are priced to move.

Family-friendly Vegas is back

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

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

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

A too-florid 'Aria'

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:47:00 -0700

As MGM Mirage winds the clock toward Aria's Dec. 16 debut, it's launched a Web site to showcase the resort's restaurants. The over-the-top verbiage was too much for one LVA staffer, who annotated it thusly:

AMERICAN FISH by Chef Michael Mina

Is that like "American Gangster"?? And how do you truly tell the nationality of a fish?

SIRIO RISTORANTE by Restaurant Legend Sirio Maccioni

Oh, so no longer do we have "celebrity chefs"; now we have "restaurant legends"???

AND;

"Ingredients from the earth, sea and air …"

As opposed to??

JEAN GEORGES STEAKHOUSE by Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten

"The expected becomes unexpected"

Haha!! So when you order a steak, we bring you a cauliflower!!!!

OH!OH!OH!, and this one's my favorite:

"Green pastures, cows and the theory of human vanity"

This is a description of the decor?? HAHA!!!

Inside the wizard's lair: If they sold tours of Steve Wynn's office, it'd be the hottest attraction on the Strip. Steve Friess got the next best thing -- a peek behind the curtain of Wynn's design nerve center. More accurately, he was able to tour the office of Roger Thomas, the aesthetic guru of Encore (above) and many another Wynn property, and take copious photographs. Love or hate Thomas' work, it's set the trends that the rest of the Strip follows.

Thank god for Gibbons

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:59:00 -0700

Update: It looks as though Gibbons has muffed two new appointments to the Nevada Gaming Commission, replacing outgoing commissioners who include a banker with two additional lawyers ... who now comprise 80% of the commission. Nevada law specifies that "preferably" no more than two members of the same profession sit on the NGC simultaneously.

Maybe we can't take any more bad news. Or we're collectively strung out from all the CityCenter Sturm und Drang. For whatever reason, the news wires have been relatively (blessedly?) quiet today.

"I'm J. Terrence Lanni and I approved this governor."

Fortunately, God's gift to gadflies just keeps on giving. I'm talking, of course, about Nevada's utterly unique Gov. Jim Gibbons, another of J. Terrence Lanni's parting gifts to the people of the Silver State. Whenever you think his latest pronouncement has taken the cake, he goes it one better.

In descending order of importance, Midnight Jim's baffling proposal to basically scotch the Nevada Tourism Commission is getting backhanded by the Lege. 'Cause if there's one thing Nevada doesn't need right now it's tourists, but those darned lawmakers just don't get it.

Sarcasm aside, I was happy to see the RV park at Circus Circus packed like a sardine tin this weekend. No matter how difficult we make it for them sometimes, people keep on coming, bless their hearts ... or wallets, as the case may be.

(The Nevada Film Commission, from which Gibbons was going to pull the plug, also got a legislative reprieve. S&G was with the guv on that one.)

Case in point, the room-tax hike that kicks in -- with "kick" being the operative word -- this July. Midnight Jim has been going out of way to let people know that, even if he didn't lift a pinky to oppose it, that tax increase is no fault of his. Nope, it was "the people of Nevada" who done it. He didn't want to put that tax money into his budget (which he did) but we forced it upon the helpless man. Well, not me personally -- I voted against the tax hike -- but you heartless, tax-loving, Gibbons-burdening bastards know who you are. Midnight Jim has been reduced to wailing, "I used those revenues to my benefit, but I did not propose any tax increase." Damn that vox populi!

It got even funnier last week, when Gibbons was asked about oncoming primary challenges from fellow GOP-ers North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon and Dr. Joe Heck. Suffice it to say, this came as news to the current occupant of the governor's mansion. Confronted with the information, Midnight Jim huffed, "I think you've mischaracterized their interest in running for governor."

The next governor of Nevada will by definition be more competent ... but we're sure going to miss the regular episodes of Theatre of the Absurd that are acted out in Carson City.

Trop snoozes, loses

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:23:00 -0700

Like a hot potato, the Tropicana Las Vegas continues to bounce from Columbia Sussex to Tropicana Entertainment and now maybe into the hands of Alex Yemenidjian. (This management-contract arrangement looks more like laying the groundwork for a sale ... if so, thanks for taking S&G's advice, guys. It's worth what you pay for it.)

A top price of $380 million can be viewed either as a bargain -- $11 million an acre, a long way down from the berzerk price paid by ColSux two-plus years ago -- or a boondoggle, seeing as even $380 mil represents an 84X cash-flow multiple. Somebody's got a job ahead of them.

Unfortunately, TropEnt CEO Scott Butera hasn't had his eye on the ball. Now, there wasn't anything he could do to keep the Titanic and Bodies exhibits from jumping ship to Luxor. But he pulled the plug on Folies Bergere and the Comedy Stop. Then, having given magician Dirk Arthur the boot, Butera's minions had to reverse field and grant the illusionist a reprieve through September. (So if you go to the Trop in April, the only entertainment offering will be an afternoon magic show. That's it.)

Just another day at the Trop.

As of Sunday, the Trop will have no (as in "zero") marquee attractions to tout. So it's an understatement to say that an agreement "in principle" with comedian Bobby Slayton doesn't come a day too soon and a formal contract needs to be inked yesterday.

When Nero played an as-yet-uninvented instrument, Rome burned. Whilst Butera fiddles, the Trop merely continues fade. Unless TropEnt's song and dance about repositioning the Trop is just a softshoe act, playing for time until the whole problem can be deposited in Yemenidjian's lap.

Ever since he took the reins at TropEnt, Butera has been fixated upon getting the Tropicana Atlantic City back (which he should) and, secondarily, with regaining Casino Aztar in Indiana (which he did). But the LV Trop has clearly been a low priorty and now he's washing his hands of it. Which means the real problem won't be Yemenidjian's but that of Trop employees and their equally neglected customers.

Patience, thy name is a Harrah's Entertainment bondholder. A surprisingly large number of these long-suffering souls are willing to wait just shy of a decade to redeem their distressed Harrah's debt. They're better men than I.

This book looks like a must-have. And, no, Huntington Press didn't publish it. But we do have a nifty new edition of Whale Hunt in the Desert, thank you for asking.

The Unlucky Club & other Case Bets

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:40:00 -0700

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

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

(Update: It sold for $98 million.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hark the Adelson angels sing

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:29:00 -0700

World's Biggest Casino from Jonathan Schütz on Vimeo.

Seraphic choirs warble the praises of Venetian Macao in this promotional video (dug up by GamingFloor.com) which apostrophizes the $2.4 billion "spanking new behemoth" in reverential tones normally reserved for Vatican City or the Louvre.

Im tiefstem Las Vegas

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:53:00 -0700

If I remember my schoolboy German aright, that's "In deepest Las Vegas." Or, in the words of Der Spiegel ...

Im Paradies, Untergerschoß

Which translates as "In the basement of Paradise," I'm told. (Note to self: Bring German-to-English dictionary to office, stat.) However you say it, it's another success for Huntington Press author Matthew O'Brien, whose Beneath the Neon continues to demonstrate "legs" worthy of Jessie Owens.

If I had to pick an HP title with "breakout" potential, Beneath the Neon wouldn't have been the first title that came to mind, but it shows what can be accomplished when you have a distinctively different subject and are absolutely indefatigable at promoting your work. If we ever had an author who's "humped his pack" more diligently than O'Brien ... well, I haven't had the privilege of meeting her or him just yet.

Casino commercial of the year

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:43:00 -0700

Although Sheldon Adelson's taunting of the president may have seemed very clever at the time, the joke might be on the mogul. Check out this inspired TV spot, dreamt up for the grand opening of the permanent racino at Indiana Downs:

A tip of the sombrero to the reader who clued me into this brilliant ad, which has supposedly stirred a ruckus in the Hoosier State. It's the brainchild of Cordish Gaming CEO Dennis Gomes (the once and would-be future boss of the Tropicana Atlantic City), who is also credited with instituting the greatest casino promotion of all time, the Trop's tic tac toe-playing chicken.

I hear the chicken had been given its walking papers long before Columbia Sussex got ahold of the Trop. A good thing, too. Knowing ColSux, CEO William J. Yung III probably would have had the chicken killed, fried and served for lunch.

Harrah's new Atlantic City pitch

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:56:00 -0700

Harrah's Commercial 1 from emily chang on Vimeo.

Two minutes of Asian American-oriented marketing messages, all of which boil down to, "Atlantic City: It's not just for gambling anymore." Lots of Total Rewards pluggery, as you'd expect, but oddly no mention of the new ACES train, of which Harrah's Entertainment is a co-sponsor (with Borgata).

"It's where the money is"

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:14:00 -0700

Famed stickup man Willie Sutton was referring to banks but it also applies to Las Vegas' romance with the upper crust. Strip casinos have taken a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of fire for targeting their prices, amenities, marketing and room product toward the affluent. It's gotten so that 85% of the room product coming online in 2009-10 is aimed at the luxury market.

But, in gaming's defense, they went that route because that's where the money was -- and to some extent still is. When I covered the 2005 Luxury Conclave (the first of its kind) at Lake Las Vegas, it was like entering an alternate reality; the amounts of money sloshing around in the top income brackets were so great people almost didn't know what to do with all that wealth. From there it was but a very short leap to 100 condo towers being planned for the Las Vegas Valley or triple-digit room rates becoming the rule along the Strip. In the latter instance, Vegas got expensive for the simple reason that the market would support it.

The hidden consumer upside to all of this is, as the party winds down, all those high-end-oriented rooms are going to have to be filled any way they can. So MGM Mirage, for example, can plan all the triple-digit midweek rates for Aria's 4,000-plus rooms it likes. What the market dictates is wont to be something quite different.

On the subject of marketing, remember that idiotic, head-butting "Shut Up and Play" ad campaign that mocked consumers' economic anxiety? The New York-New York charm(less) offensive has been succeed by a far less disdainful pitch, on that strives for a personal touch and emphasizes a bargain-oriented message.

That's more like it.

Gibbons retreats, sorta

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:33:00 -0700

Gov. Jim Gibbons has scuttled away from one of his several proposals to jack up taxes on the only segment of Nevada that's carrying its own weight -- the casino bidness. He's retreating from a demand that casinos pay taxes on uncollected markers (which, in turn, would be certain to cause a tightening of casino credit). Midnight Jim continues, though, to support raising hotel-room taxes in Clark and Washoe counties, and taxing comped meals. The casino industry's love affair with Gibbons -- which helped get him into office -- has so far proven a one-way romance.

Worries about Boyd. Here's why I resist the occasional invitation to give stock picks: No sooner have I sung the praises of Boyd Gaming's sound fundamentals, its diversified casino portfolio and its (Echelon excepted) aversion to risk, comes news that analysts have the heebie-jeebies in re Boyd. A slow-ramp-up at Water Club in Atlantic City and weakness in the Las Vegas locals market are the primary worries.

Advertising during the Oscars: Casinos that ran ads during last night's interminable Academy Awards snoozer included M Resort (twice), Encore, the CasaBlanca in Mesquite and Green Valley Ranch, which has suddenly discovered a great lurve for the local clientele. The latter is quite a turnaround for a property that used to tout its high-end cachet. Oh, and Mickey Rourke got totally, utterly and criminally screwed. Which ruined the evening right then and there.

Atlantic City Death Watch, cont. After taking a long gander at the market, Macquarie Securities analyst Joel Simkins had this to say: “In our view, there is a distinct possibility that one to three casinos could be permanently closed in the next few years, particularly when many older locations are barely breaking even and, we believe, cannot be rehabbed to be economically viable.” [emphasis added]

Anybody care to speculate which casinos Simkins has on the "do not resuscitate" list? Resorts Atlantic City is a no-brainer for the "one." As for the "to three," we could toss in the Atlantic City Hilton and Trump Marina, where the news comes in two flavors -- Bad and Worse.

The Tropicana might also be on the bubble, partly because it's not performing up to its preponderant size and also on account of interim management's inability to restore the business that was lost during the Columbia Sussex reign of error. A veteran Trump-watcher has another suggestion, writing that"his decision to abandon and bad-mouth the company suggests that this may not be the routine Chapter 11 bankruptcy from which the company eventually emerges. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last gasp for Trump's three Atlantic City casinos."

How desperate is Scott Butera?

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:08:00 -0700

Perhaps sensing that the Tropicana Atlantic City is slipping irretrievably from his grasp, Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera has taken his case to the media -- seeking an audience with the editorial board of The Press of Atlantic City, no less. Butera has a persuasive manner, as you'll hear in the attached audio excerpts. Repositioning the Trop as a smoke-free property seems a bit out there but it has the virtue of novelty, so let's give it the benefit of the doubt. (There is a serious disconnect, though, between what Butera thinks the Trop to be worth and what the market is telling him.)

Butera's real sales job is going to be with the hard-to-convince New Jersey Casino Control Commission, of course ... a task not made any easier when TropEnt sole shareholder William J. Yung III popped up at a New Jersey Supreme Court hearing on the Trop's fate, about as welcome a sight as Banquo's Ghost. Short of drawing and quartering Yung in front of the assembled NJCCC, I'm not sure what Butera can do that will guarantee him a fair hearing.

He might have one ace left to play by throwing his support to Carl Icahn's mooted stalking-horse bid. Even if Icahn doesn't really want the Trop, the mere possibility that he could throw all or most of $1.4 billion in secured debt onto the table should force rival bidder Cordish Co. to either pony up some real money (instead of incessantly haggling) or drop out. Of course, Butera needs Icahn more than Icahn needs him; the old corporate raider could always rustle up Richard Brown and the rest of the old ACEP band and run the Trop himself.

Still no word on whether Colony Capital will be run out of Resorts Atlantic City or not. The NJCCC is playing this close to the vest. From a logical standpoint, Colony's argument that Column Financial can't be allowed to take over because the latter doesn't have a gaming license (and never mind that Colony is three months in arrears on its mortgage) is silly. It's like saying your banker can't repossess your car because he doesn't have a driver's license.

However, the law is something else again and Colony appears to be on firm ground there unless Column can make the case for a state-run trusteeship. Not that such an arrangement worked out entirely well in the case of the Trop.

Quote of the Day

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:11:00 -0700

"Tropicana says its five-year plan calls for the company to grow its revenue base, maintain its current level of operating expenses and improve net income." -- from a GlobeSt.com profile of Tropicana Entertainment's image makeover. Higher revenues on a static operating budget? It'll be interesting to see how that's implemented.

Who are they kidding?

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:35:00 -0700

Mesquite casino oligopolist Randy Black bought himself some TV ad time during the Super Bowl to tout his latest value proposition (starring one Randy Black). His opening gambit: "Everybody's cutting back." Uh no, not if you're Randy Black and just served yourself a nice pay increase while skipping loan payments and sacking the help. But we digress ...

What's Randy's big value message? A midweek rate of $99/night, which gets you either a free spa treatment or a round of golf. The prospect of a $99 golf game or spa visit had better be pretty strong, because there's certainly no point in hauling ass out to Mesquite for a $99 hotel room, not when you can stay at Planet Hollywood this week for that little -- or for even less at The Rio or the Flamingo, to name two of the nicer propositions. (If your standards are more flexible, you can stay on or very, very near the Strip for $20.)

Columbia Sussex continues to live in a dream world, demanding $249/night midweek for the Westin Casuarina. Heck, you could stay at Trump International for less than half that amount. Donald Trump and Phil Ruffin really let both the condo market and the budget get away from them on the latter, whose budget quadrupled to a final $1.2 billion. But it's not one of those properties (I'm looking at you, Aladdin) where you walk around and wonder, "Where did the money go?"

The recent discounting binge on the Strip may have done its job. J.P. Morgan reports "we are finding that casino operators are reducing the number of promotions that are available by and large" and theorizes, "operators have built up a book of occupancy that enables them to not have to rely on a promotional environment." If that's the case and promotional-rate offers continue to dwindle, it's a classic case of gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

Another sign of the times

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:06:00 -0700

Station Casinos' billboard near LVA HQ is now proclaiming "SENIOR TUESDAYS!" at Palace Station, accompanied by a big picture of Jerry Tiffe. Buffet, bingo and points specials are promised. I guess there's nothing like a recession to remind you who your bread-and-butter customers are.

(When we get the promised LVA digital camera, I can actually show you this stuff instead of just telling you about it, which would be an improvement, I think you'll agree.)

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?

Case Bets: CityCenter, Detroit, Boyd in Indiana

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:03:00 -0700

CityCenter: Cash cow or calf of gold?

It's received wisdom that, in its worship of the Golden Calf known as CityCenter, half-owner MGM Mirage is prepared to sacrifice some of its high-value properties, including MGM Grand Detroit, even in the face of numbers like these. Perhaps a history lesson is in order.

After the 9/11 attacks and the crippling blow they dealt to the Vegas economy, one of the ways companies like MGM stayed afloat (and, in MGM's case, profitable) was that their Vegas operations were backstopped by regional footholds in markets like Detroit and Biloxi. Now one keeps hearing that MGM is bent upon putting all its eggs in the Vegas basket, with even MGM Grand Macau possibly to be had.

(A moment of levity: A Dutch casino executive, speaking at G2E, suggested in all seriousness that MGM buy Station Casinos or Boyd Gaming and transplant their [locals] customer base to CityCenter. Which shows almost as little understanding of the Vegas market as I have of Holland's casino business.)

If this is an accurate reflection of the corporate thinking at MGM, shareholders should be alarmed, at the very least. A CityCenter-centric strategy concentrates risk, rather than spreading it across multiple markets. The kind of pullback that's being mooted in the blogosphere and podcast cosmos would be so irresponsible that it would call the judgment of MGM leadership into question. However, so long as said management is answerable only to Kirk Kerkorian, that question may never be called.

Don't look for rescue from Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun. Their slot revenues have been sucking wind this year. Also, salary cutbacks to 9,800 Mohegan Sun workers bode very poorly for further expansion by the casino, which was bullish on the Kansas market not so long ago.

Boyd fights back. The opening of nearby Four Winds Casino really did a number (as in approx. -40%) on revenues at Boyd's Blue Chip riverboat in northeastern Indiana. Watching double-digit revenue declines, month after month, might spur those of us with lesser intenstinal fortitude to cut and run.

Not Boyd. It's reinventing its business model for Blue Chip, in best "adapt or die" fashion. The three-pronged response of a new hotel, spa and concert venue is an aggressive pushback. It probably won't restore Blue Chip to former levels of glory, at least where gambling revenue is concerned (Four Winds still has the "convenience factor" going for it with Michigan punters). However, it does fling a strong challenge at its adversary. Four Winds, the ball is now your court.

The silence

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:59:00 -0700

That gurgling sound you hear from up north is Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) trying to drown the state government in his bathtub. And if the casino industry gets soaked in the process, fine by him.

What you're not hearing is a peep of protest from gamers who, you'd think, would be tired of acting as the milk cow for the rest of Nevada. Whether it's revoking tax emptions on comped meals, raising the room tax for the umpteenth time or collecting taxes on dishonored markers, the casino industry is the one sector of the Nevada economy that can be singled out for additional levies without any fear of polical repercussion.

Maybe the fellows in the executive suites have tired of being a doormat, but they're giving scant evidence of it these days. After all, it might be awkward to say, "Hell no, we won't" to Midnight Jim after J. Terrence Lanni and friends invested so much capital installing Gibbons in the governor's mansion -- and precious little thanks have they received. By this point you'd think they'd be ready to kick Gibbons' butt up one side of Carson City and down the other. However, they seem more inclined to absorb an(other) ass-kicking than administer one.

As for Gibbons, he seems mesmerized by the logic of those anti-tax obssessives who incessantly repeat the mantra that even the measliest tax burden upon big-box retailers and mining conglomerates will translate into catastrophic job losses. If we subscribe to that line of thinking, should taxes on Nevada's casinos be repealed, employment in the gaming sector would explode!

Actually, no, it wouldn't. When the casinos in Midnight Jim's own backyard have collectively lost money for two fiscal years running, they've got priorities considerably more urgent than expanding their payroll.

More about Siegel. No, not Bugsy. S&G was contacted by Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Benjamin Spillman to draw our attention to a piece on Stephen Siegel's expansion into the Mount Charleston market. It features commentary by LVA's Anthony Curtis, who -- although we haven't discussed the matter -- is of the same mindset as yours truly. Namely, that as smaller operators continue to struggle and (are expected to) shed properties, Siegel will be nicely positioned to move in and start sweeping them up.

Harrah's vs. Harrah's. I apologize for some confusion that was inadverdantly sown amongst the readership. The dilapidated Harrah's Entertainment Web site to which I was referring was not Harrahs.com but the press site, media.harrahs.com. Not only are some Harrah's properties altogether omitted from the site, other pages -- like the one for Grand Casino Biloxi -- have clearly been neglected for a long, long while. (Web site as corporate metaphor?)

The contrast between, say, the aggressively well-maintained Atlantic City pages and who-cares attitude regarding other ones is a reminder that, nearly four years after completing its absorption of Caesars Entertainment, Harrah's media-relations operation is still "siloed" into a hodgepodge of fiefdoms -- a patchwork of principalities that resembles pre-Bismarck Germany. For efficiency, it doesn't begin to compare with the equivalent MGM Mirage operation down the street.

Rogues' gallery

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:08:00 -0700

After a fitful start, blogorrhea is sweeping the business desk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, resulting a veritable flood of news nuggets today ...

Planet Hollywood prexy Michael Mecca has resigned to pursue the proverbial "other opportunities" at a time when revenues have been up. On the next Vegas Gang, Jeff Simpson predicts -- with unassailable logic -- that Mecca is going over to Crown Ltd. to head up James Packer's North American gambling operations (in which case Mecca will have his work cut out for him, but congratulations all the same).

A less-charitable alternative theory would be that Mecca has been scapegoated by Planet Ho for having been in charge when it got dragged into the Omar Siddiqui scandal. (The indicted ex-Fry's Electronics exec lost $9 million there in one gambling session alone.) Planet Ho's lawsuit against Siddiqui got tossed last month.

"No more wire hangers!" Whatever the case, somebody leaked Siddiqui's player profile to the San José Mercury News and, geez, this "whale" sure is a whiny little bitch. (Sorry, I meant that to read, "a high-value, loyal customer and a good friend of our casino staff, who look forward to his every visit.")

Good news for visitors: The Nevada Department of Transportation is at least talking about widening I-15 south of Tropicana Ave. Whether NDOT can get the money from Gov. Jim "Scissorhands" Gibbons is another matter, but it can at least remind Midnight Jim that he himself identified California as Nevada's Numero Uno tourism priority in the course of disparaging Asian marketing as "a waste of taxpayer money."

And who knew that the Circus Circus RV park was the new "in" place to stay?

Randy Black, aka Mr. Thrift. Many of his employees are out of work, the former Si Redd's Oasis may be a hollow sepulchre these days and his Black Gaming has defaulted on debt. But we don't need to pass the hat for the self-aggrandizing Black Sr. quite yet.

Seeing financial havoc all around him, Black decided that austerity measures are for other people (like his employees) and awarded himself a nearly 4% raise for this year, escalating to 5% for each year afterwards. Whatever meagre EBITDA Black's Mesquite casinos achieve, 5% of that will be redirected into Black's pockets as a "management fee," on top of $21,200 in other goodies.

At a time when Nevadans from all walks are being asked, or sometimes told, to accept wage freezes and outright reductions, Black's greed is a disgrace to the state. R-J reporter Arnold Knightly is to be commended for keeping tabs on SEC filings and ferreting out not-so-niceties like this.

In other news ...

Folies Bergere: 49 is the new 50.

From showgirls to no-girls: What's Ron Thacker's first official act as president of the Tropicana Las Vegas? What else but shut down Folies Bergere well shy of its 50th anniversary? The no-frills spirit of Columbia Sussex remains, protestations to the contrary, clearly alive and well [sic] at the Trop.

Thacker's press release made noises implying that the Trop had a replacement for Folies waiting in the wings but, when pressed by Norm(!) Clarke, a Trop flack could only weakly respond that it was "exploring options" and was "definitely not closing up shop." (The Trop gave the Las Vegas Sun a different, more definitive story, saying it does have a new show en route.) Unspecified property improvements are also promised. Pardon my skepticism, but we've heard that before -- and are still waiting.

Geez, first Titanic and Bodies take a hike over to Luxor (where they're doing even bigger business). Now this. Since it's a just a wee bit too cold for swimming right now, is there any reason left to visit the Tropicana? Bueller ... Bueller?

Harmon blame game: It looks as though the truncation of The Harmon into a 25-story stump is ultimately the fault of the same people who overlooked scofflaw remodeling jobs at sundry Harrah's Entertainment properties: Clark County's ever-(not)-vigilant building inspectors. "What? Fifteen floors of deficient rebar you say? Gosh, I guess I missed it. My bad. When's lunch?"

The Las Vegas Sun's story comes with a helpful graphic that shows how Perini Building Co. and its subcontractors ineptly installed and then further compromised the rebar that ultimately turned the (would-have-been) 49-story Harmon into what we might call The Half Harmon. In the accompanying video, Clark County's Ron Lynn threatens the culprits with a "potential disciplinary hearing." Oh, they must be quaking in their boots.

Peppermill exec in line for state job. No, not the beloved Peppermill restaurant on the Strip but rather Reno's Peppermill Resort Casino. Director of Marketing Kim Stoll is one of six finalists for the job of Nevada's tourism czar. Not making the cut was underqualified Gibbons crony Kirk Montero. Then again, Gibbons wants to eliminate the selfsame job that he tried to gift-wrap for Montero, so maybe the also-rans in this competition are its real winners.

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.

From A(ztar) to Z(ilch)

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:05:00 -0700

If Tropicana Entertainment management's bankruptcy plan is accepted by the courts (one bond analyst thinks otherwise), former CEO/sole owner William J. Yung III will be left with -- what's the technical term? -- diddly squat. (So will his unsecured creditors, alas.)

Actually, he'll have less than nothing because he'll not only be forfeiting the remnants of his Aztar Corp. acquisition but also six TropEnt properties whose purchase predated the ill-starred Aztar buy. A portfolio cobbled together in bits and pieces over several years will be gone with the thwack of a gavel.

In which case, it will essentially close the book on The Worst Casino Acquisition of All Time, Bar None. Since Yung swung the Aztar deal by cross-collateralizing his motley fleet of casinos and riverboats, losing the Tropicana Atlantic City meant putting the whole kit 'n kaboodle up for grabs. Yung's dismissive attitude toward New Jersey casino regulations came with a $2.8 billion price tag.

Lighthouse Point: Last voyage departs soon.

I was going to write that no one in the casino industry will miss Yung, but he still owns the odd non-Trop casino, like the Westin Casuarina. So he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

The plan being for the secured creditors to roll their debt into TropEnt equity, one can see why CEO Scott Butera was at pains to complicate, stymie and/or outright thwart various asset sales initiated either by Yung or the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. As a Jan. 2, 2008 Morgan Joseph report pointed out, casino companies sell for higher cash flow multiples when peddled en masse, not piecemeal. For instance, Yung paid a whopping 11.3X EBITDA for Aztar, as compared to the 8.4X he plunked down for a Penn National castoff, the Belle of Baton Rouge.

So maybe Butera really thought he could land a higher price for Casino Aztar than Eldorado Resorts was offering or perhaps he just wanted to queer the deal that was on the table. Either way, the endgame was the same: more money. Since his plan hinges partly on regaining control of cash cow A.C. Trop and Casino Aztar, neither of which is a given (and one of which is exceptionally unlikely), TropEnt is still a long ways from being out of the woods.

Tropicana Las Vegas: Same this year, same next year, same in 2013.

Thinking positively, if Butera can't -- as seems inevitable -- get the Boardwalk property back, he can redirect money planned for Atlantic City upgrades into that eternally deferred Tropicana Las Vegas facelift. There's a case to be made, if not much of a case, for New Jersey to brush aside the $550 million offered by Cordish Co. for the A.C. Trop -- particularly if Butera were bound to the same conditions the Division of Gaming Enforcement recommended imposing on Yung 14 months ago: a one-year probationary license and a 26-point set of benchmarks.

But the Garden State is so revenue-parched that it's unimaginable it will tell Cordish to keep its money. And whatever tenuous faith the NJCCC might have in Butera won't necessarily be bolstered by his turnaround plan. The document makes some concrete promises (including $153 million in A.C. Trop upgrades), and its property- and market-growth projections are mostly conservative. For instance, Butera clearly harbors no illusions about the difficulties ahead in Baton Rouge, where Pinnacle Entertainment has a new riverboat coming over the horizon. God bless him, he's an optimist, though: Who else would postulate five straight years of single-digit revenue growth in Atlantic City?

But Butera's strategy posits revenue growth within the context of relatively flat operating and maintenance budgets. Some outright reductions, at least, can be attributed to the cessation of operations at Lighthouse Point in 2009 and Horizon Tahoe two years later. Were it not for that, Butera's numbers would look like something out of the Bill Yung playbook. In fact, certain of the promised reforms, like "Optimize [read: "tighten"] ... slot hold," centralized corporate purchasing and "utilizing third parties for certain services" are purest Yung. Others, such as a Nevada-wide loyalty-card program, appear to be new. (But why stop at Nevada?)

As for a reinvention of the Vegas Trop, don't expect anything before 2014, at the earliest. Likewise, the overdue replacement of Casino Aztar just isn't in the budget. It's a lean regimen for grim times, but give Butera this: He's not spending money he doesn't have and now the creditors to whom he is answerable will be literally invested in improving TropEnt's performance ... if they hope to see their money again.

Capt. Casino sails again

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:03:00 -0700

Usually, when I'm on the receiving end of some "how-to" book about best business practices, it's some buzzword-laden, drearily packaged tome that can't get to the bookshelf fast enough. That will not be the case with Conrad on Casino Marketing, which arrived in today's mail.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the days when I was laboring on Casino Executive Magazine (we're talking Clinton Administration here, folks), there was always at least once piece of copy that we looked forward to reading every month. It was "Conrad's Corner," written by industry veteran and Raving Consulting President Dennis Conrad (whose considerable repertory of experience includes teaching table games to newbies under the nautical moniker of "Captain Casino").

One reason that Dennis' column was always read with alacrity and pleasure was that he writes just as he speaks -- excellently, memorably and personably. The same Dennis Conrad you meet in the flesh is the one who materializes on the page. He's unpretentious, self-deprecating and a gold mine of anecdotage. (Knowing Dennis, he'd say it's not anecdotes, just dotage.)

True to form, he accompanies preview copies of Conrad on Casino Marketing with a cover letter that reads, in part, "A lot of work went into this latest effort, particularly in touching up my photos. It's hard to look like an interesting person who might be worth reading." No, not hard at all when you write like Dennis.

And one way to do that is to write not like an industry insider but like a customer. Because, for all his varied experience, Dennis is an executive who thinks and reacts like a consumer or a player. Which is a rare commodity in this industry ... except at Raving, where a braintrust of like-minded veterans has been mustered. The core of Raving's philosophy is the seemingly radical notion (at least in casinos) to apply simple common sense. Or, to use the old Cactus Jack's business model: "Find out what your customers want. Give it to them."

Just from skimming the new book, I'd say most of the pieces -- many of which ran in Casino Journal or Native American Casino -- are in the 600/1,000-word range. Dennis is a skilled communicator, always getting to the point speedily, memorably and with an enviable economy of words. (A skill I have never mastered.) Just read any of his periodic iterations of "I Am Your Customer" and you'll see what I mean.

The current collection (Dennis' second anthology) reflects the 2004-2008 period. If it goes to a second printing, perhaps footnotes or dates of publication could accompany certain chapters, when relevant. For instance, the very first chapter "I'll take Isle" was obviously written during ex-CEO Bernard Goldstein's tenure at Isle of Capri Casinos, before his business plan ran aground and he abandoned ship. This disjuncture, coming right at the start, induces a momentary "time-warp" sensation. (A couple of chapters on Harrah's Entertainment -- whose Total Rewards was voted both the best and worst "Comp Club" program in the recent "Vegas Trippies" -- should spark healthy debate.)

Minor quibbles aside, Conrad on Casino Marketing promises to be a valuable and necessary counterpoint to (LVA's own, I must admit) Casino-ology by Bill Zender, with its rigorously empirical approach. (Don't take my word for about Zender; ask UNLV's David G. Schwartz.)

One might say Zender writes from the perspective of the eye in the sky, Conrad from that of the consumer on the floor. Each complements the other and regular doses of Conradian common sense are not only illuminating for the layman. They're captain's orders for any casino executive who's losing touch with what it's like to be a customer.

Banned in Britain

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:20:00 -0700

From our Today's News page:

Ladbrokes' humorous "Quench Your Thrill Buds" TV spots didn't amuse Britain's advertising czars. The bluenoses at the Advertising Standards Authority have nixed airings of the commercials, one of which showed a risk junkie accidentally plunging to his death by attempting to use a potato chip bag as a parachute. The punchline: "If only he'd seen Ladbrokescasino.com his thrill buds would have been quenched."

After receiving one (yes, one) complaint, the ASA dropped the hammer on Ladbrokes, informing The Guardian that "while the TV ads would not be viewed as realistic or aspirational, it agreed with the complainant that the overall portrayal of gambling was in a context of toughness with links to excessive risk-taking and reckless behaviour." Ladbrokes responded that the ASA's prudishness was "political correctness gone too far."

And now, as an S&G public service, we present the ads that were too funny for the nation that gave us Monty Python and Eddie Izzard. The sun has well and truly set on the British Empire.

"Climber":

"Parachute":

and, best of all, "Shark":

21

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:39:00 -0700

That's the number of predictions for 2009 issued by Spectrum Gaming Group, an Atlantic City-based outfit. They are, in no particular order:

• Advancements in technology that impact revenues and cut costs will continue to be attractive to operators even in an economic downturn.

Continued ...

• ... conversion of racetracks to racinos, as well as non-gaming expansions to existing racinos.

• ... elimination of jobs, both through cuts and attrition.

• ... moratorium on development of big-box gaming resorts due to economic downturn.

• Convenience-based gaming continues to achieve better year-over-year results than destination-based gaming.

• Corporate and property debt restructuring in wake of declining revenues.

• Eastern European countries will increase their efforts to meet EU regulations, including smoking bans.

• Gaming companies increase efforts to export their brands globally.

• Gaming equipment manufacturers continue to invest in games that appeal to a younger demographic, including lotteries, bingo and server-based technology.

• Increased legislative acceptance of allowing the deduction of issued electronic promotional gaming credits from the gross revenue tax/fee calculation.

• Increased use of electronic games, including the emergence of scalable electronic table games in which players at different locations on the floor wager on a single outcome.

• Increasing alliances between commercial gaming operators and outside investors, as well as between commercial and tribal operators.

• Internet gambling in U.S. will be a hot federal issue for the new administration and Congress; gaming companies will fund lobbying efforts on both sides.

• Major gaming operators commence deleveraging by selling off properties to emerging operators.

• More pronounced shift in market share among suppliers as operators attempt to shift away from IGT participation games.

• Native American tribal gaming revenue estimates remain on track to surpass U.S. commercial gaming totals.

• Prices for hotel rooms, shows and food and beverage will return to lower levels at large gaming resorts as operators need to fill their properties.

• Slow but continual advancement toward server-based gaming, as operators remain skeptical as to the potential financial returns on investment.

• States consider expanding or legalizing casino-style gaming to help fill state budget gaps.

• Support from China to ease visa restrictions, increasing flow of visitors into Macau.

• Uncertainty in various European countries concerning regulation, thus increasing cases being referred to the European Court of Justice.

We'll have to check back in a year, God willing, and see how clear Spectrum's crystal ball proved to be. There's nothing on that list that strikes me as off the beam and much of its seems dead on target. The only "WTF?" comes courtesy of a Spectrum exec who told a reporter, "In times like this, it's not like these are company-specific problems that can be attributed to some glaringly bad decision by the company."

I respectfully beg to differ. Choosing unreliable and/or overcommitted business partners (Boyd Gaming) was a decision. Opening in far-flung markets while your core properties were losing market share (Isle of Capri) was a decision. Taking on preposterous amounts of debt (Harrah's Entertainment) or simply assuming more debt than your cash flow and lavish spending tendencies can support (Station Casinos) were decisions. Trying to build metaresorts all at once (Boyd, MGM Mirage) was a decision. Rashly demolishing the Atlantic City Sands and thereby leaving yourself with empty, non-revenue-producing land (Pinnacle Entertainment), that's a decision.

Launching major projects that aren't fully capitalized (Las Vegas Sands, Cosmopolitan, Majestic Star) is a decision. Stubbdornly jeopardizing the license of the property that generates 40% of your cash flow (Columbia Sussex) is a decision. Making not one, but two major acquisitions at a time when your cash cow -- slot routes -- is giving less milk and then overpaying for some of the new assets (Herbst Gaming) is a decision.

Opening a $2.3 billion, years-in-the-making megaresort at the nadir-to-date of the economy (Wynn Las Vegas)? Now that, that was not a decision. That's playing the hand you were dealt.

What'$ in a name?

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:59:00 -0700

A reader recently enquired as to what became of the plan to re-name Harrah's Entertainment as Caesars Entertainment. When I asked Harrah's as to whether that was still on, no response was forthcoming.

My questioner wanted to know, "Do you think Harrah's shelved the plan to rename the company to Caesars partly because they might like to sell Caesars if the price were high enough ... Does going up market with the company image become a hindrance in these tough times?"

Second question first: This is actually a great time to be a casino patron, provided you've got a modicum of discretionary income. I was working on next year's iteration of the Pocketbook of Values today and the offers for 2009 are much better, IMO. Also, we've been seeing a barrage of bargain-oriented marketing messages from MGM Mirage, "freecations" at Herbst Gaming's Primm Valley trio of casino-hotels, plus a Harrah's Las Vegas promo for its comedy club that -- after you factored in the value of Improv tickets and buffet admission -- actually paid customers to stay there, to the tune of $1.50/person. (Some will argue that Harrah's should pay people to stay at its titular Las Vegas property.)

So, yeah, unless you're Steve Wynn, a "snob appeal" message doesn't have much traction these days. The people who can afford a high-end Vegas experience are already here; it's the other demographics we have to worry about. Even Las Vegas Sands -- hardly the image of a consumer-oriented company -- is expanding its loyalty program (Club Grazie) beyond a casino-only proposition. Expenses charged to your Palazzo or Venetian room will now earn points as well.

As to the greater fungibility of the Caesars name if it's only attached to single properties and not the whole company ... absolutely. Who'd want to buy a spun-off Caesars Atlantic City, say, if you had to forfeit or sub-license the Caesars brand? Putting any Harrah's-to-Caesars plan on hold avoids all manner of red tape and legal rigamarole, as well as keeping the option open of unloading those lucratively branded Caesars properties.

Of course, given that a strategy at Harrah's these days has the lifespan of a soap bubble, who knows if that just another of CEO Gary Loveman's will o' the wisp ideas, flung out for public consumption, then quickly forgotten. Indeed, to speak of "strategy" in the same sentence as "Harrah's" is oxymoronic, as the company doesn't evince any -- unless flailing about in every direction like a spastic octopus constitutes "strategy."

Which brought to mind another Loveman idea, mooted and apparently discarded, that of concentrating Harrah's around three brands (Caesars, Harrah's and Horseshoe), which would be designated as its "core" brands. It currently carries 11 on its masthead and has several others. Re-branding Bally's Las Vegas as a Horsehoe was floated -- though mostly razzed -- and Harrah's squandered a capital opportunity to bring the Horseshoe name back to Vegas when it redubbed the Barbary Coast with the generic "Bill's" brand.

An effort to maximize the Caesars brand moved but in fits and starts. So far it's consisted of taking it off the Glory of Rome riverboat casino in Indiana and putting it onto the former Casino Windsor, in Ontario. Harrah's Jacqueline Peterson says, "I can't put a price tag on how much it costs because so much more went into these properties than just marquee and business card changes ... there were new spaces created and upgrades made throughout."

Asked about the "core brand" concept, she was understandably flummoxed. "We have no intention of becoming three brands and we need look no further than Las Vegas to understand why that wouldn't work[:] we have eight distinctive properties here and renaming those into just three names would be silly and really confusing for customers." Of course, during the five minutes that the Harrah's/Caesars/Horseshoe-centric strategy lasted, it was thought that Imperial Palace wasn't long for this world (this was back in 2005, remember) and the Barbary Coast was still firmly within the Boyd Gaming orbit.

If Loveman has more brands than his company can exploit, he's neither alone nor the first. What used to be Caesars Entertainment (née Park Place Entertainment) went through three CEOs without ever cracking that particular nut.

So, is the Caesars brand up for grabs? I'd be very much surprised if it weren't, although that would be one of the most extreme measures Harrah's could take in order to lighten its colossal debt burden.

Mountain labors, brings forth mouse

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:14:00 -0700

Liz Benston has an excellent précis of the bells and whistles on display this year at G2E. The money quote is: Some Nevada casinos offer Bally’s iView — a small screen below the game that displays a gambler’s account and offers casino promotions — and will soon offer touch-screen games from IGT that allow players to order cocktails, view and print coupons and make show reservations.

Try to get a slot exec to tell you what server-based gaming has to offer the player and you can't much past this. (IGT's Ed Rogich, to be fair, went a bit further, but our conversation was off the record.) And the bad news for manufacturers is that these kinds of targeted convenience-and-marketing services are already being enabled without having to wait for networked gambling. (Four words: Las Vegas Gaming Inc.)

So, after years of server-based gambling being the Great & Powerful Oz, is this what it's come to be? (Remember how you had to sign away the movie rights to your first-born child to gain admittance to the triple-secret downloadable-slot booths at past G2Es?)

Call me crazy, but slot boffins need to talk less about how networked gambling is going to make life easier for casino owners -- who can't afford to go "all in" with the technology anymore -- and more about why John Q. Public should be wanting, nay, demanding it. Because, in an economy where casino companies are paralyzed by debt, significant implementation of server-based gambling isn't likely to happen without a big push from the players themselves.

The R-J's roster of reluctant bloggers is about to expand to include Howard Stutz. Or so it would appear. I came across a link to an alleged Stutz blog this weekend but only found a head shot and an otherwise blank page. Those crackerjack Stephens Media IT people must have errantly made a beta site "live." Meanwhile, the paper's answer to Harry Hope from The Iceman Cometh (and its newest blogger) used his Sunday column to -- you guessed it -- make fun of blogs. Darn those horseless carriages!

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.

I hate G2E

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

Allow me to clarify.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And yet ...

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

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

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

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

• Chair massages. 'Nuff said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shut up yourself

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:58:00 -0700

New York-New York's obnoxious new ad campaign, "comes right out of an honest voice," says ad exec David Angelo. "Stop your whining and have a great time."

It's "an honest voice," all right: That of Phil Gramm, who famously called us a "nation of whiners," victims of a "mental recession." And that message resonated so very effectively, didn't it?

I'm guessing Angelo and MGM Mirage decided the slogan, "Give us your money, chump" was excessively subtle.

A third-quarter loss is hardly good news, unless you're Sheldon Adelson and your company's red ink actually narrowed from 3Q07. Too bad about St. Reggie's, though.

Then there's Ameristar, which increased revenues by $56 million, turned a profit -- and yet all it can talk about is cutting jobs and sweating comps even more than it already has. Ameristar's embrace of "death spiral marketing" is further evidence -- if any were needed -- that this company is adrift, lacking any forward-looking strategy.

Case Bets: Sands bankruptcy?; California spite, Ted Binion still dead, etc.

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:52:00 -0700

The 'B' word. Yup, somebody finally said it. Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Steven Wieczynski blames The Big Sands Sell-off on fears that "Las Vegas Sands is in jeopardy of running out of cash and going bankrupt." Sands stock closed the week at a dismal $6.32 a share, 96% off its 52-week high.

The Adelson family, meanwhile, plans to turn its pockets inside out, looking for money.

Gary Jacobs is a good guy. The MGM Mirage executive veep is among the donors supporting California's Proposition 2, which would ban certain forms of cruelty to farm animals. Which earns him this animal lover's vote of thanks.

Other Nevadans are really motivated to donate to Proposition 8. Steve Friess has all the details. Having shot Nevada's economy in the leg with their opposition to gay marriage, some of the same folks may inflict similar economic damage on California. Which is their First Amendment prerogative and amen to that, but I'm not of the misery-loves-company persuasion.

Nevada's casino resorts have been cut out of on a lucrative market segment, although Harrah's Rincon has been among the California ones benefiting from Silver State prudishness, which Harrah's Entertainment has cannily leveraged into some Vegas-honeymoon promotions. If tribal sovereignty doesn't shield Harrah's Rincon and other gay-friendly casinos from Prop 8, I guess that Prop 8 donors from economically blighted Nevada can congratulate themselves on having lopped off their nose to spite their face yet again. Anyway, kudos to Harrah's execs Michael Weaver and Gwen Migita for contributing to the anti-Prop 8 campaign.

Marker for murder? Back where I come from, we call this "motive."

Time Tunnel. How drastically has the Vegas Strip changed since 1992? Follow this awesome photo stream and find out.

This just in: Made-for-cable movie about Lonnie "Ted" Binion stinks. Hey, it's a Lifetime Channel production. What else would you expect?

Bad timing

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:20:00 -0700

If MGM Mirage isn't begging and pleading the producers of Mamma Mia!'s Mandalay Bay company to extend its run past Jan. 4, well, maybe it should. Because, as of now, it's winding the show down at a time when ABBA has once more blazed its way to the top of the charts. The film soundtrack has marched to #1 on the Billboard album chart* (and in ABBA-mad Australia), while 16-year-old "ABBA Gold" remains #1 in Britain (#4 down in Oz).

On top of that, Universal Studios will release a sing-along version of the movie in the U.K. on Aug. 22, with various studio sources saying (albeit not for attribution) that a U.S. version is planned for Labor Day weekend ... which might partially explain why the co-promotion between Rave Motion Pictures and M'Bay has been extended through the end of September.

Whatever the case, it hardly makes sense to fold the tent of the Strip's longest-running Broadway musical when ABBA-mania is reasserting itself yet again. If sales-and-marketing manna like that can't sate the decision makers, I guess nothing will.

* -- I had a hand in that ... well, me and 129,999 other people.

Bargains? Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

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

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

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

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

Las Vegas' newest bargain joint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's in a name?

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:32:00 -0700

Not that much if you're MGM Mirage and trying to leverage your brand recognition into Mainland China. Toward the tail end of his most recent earnings call, MGM Mirage CEO J. Terrence Lanni said the company had made an erroneous assumption that "because MGM is a known name because of our former sister company, the [film] studios, that people would flock there in the mass market and the slot area ... frankly, those people may recognize the studio but they didn't recognize the fact that there was an MGM Grand hotel casino, if you will, in Macao."

So all those Chinese watching pirated DVDs of Stargate SG-1 (and selling them on eBay) aren't making a connection between Leo the Lion and the MGM/Pansy Ho pleasure palace on the South China Sea. Lanni estimates MGM's share of the Macao market at 8%, putting it in last place behind -- and these percentages are approximate, based on the best available figures -- Galaxy Entertainment (11%), Wynn Resorts (17%), PBL Melco Entertainment (18%), Las Vegas Sands (22%) and Stanley Ho's SJM (24%).

Which would mean only seven percentage points now separate fading frontrunner SJM from relative newcomer Wynn (which has but one property to Ho's 19), and Wynn itself has already gotten taken down a peg by PBL Melco's Crown Macau. As for getting a larger slice of that pie, MGM is putting its focus on mass market/slot players "because that's where the real margins are."

Wall Street sets too little store by the fable of the tortoise and the hare, but ... has MGM's being the last entrant into the Macanese market hurt it? Macao players can be fickle, given the right incentives, but did MGM lose the first round of the customer-loyalty war by being so late to the battlefield?

Quote of the Day

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:22:00 -0700

"Corporate thinking is to squeeze every penny, paying attention only to today's bottom line and ignoring the negative effect that impersonal and greedy service has on future revenues. But is this not the style of business that has forced the sale of the Tropicana and the virtual collapse of Columbia Sussex?" -- Online Casino Advisory's Joshua McCarthy, weighing on the pro-comp side of the current schism in Atlantic City over whether or whether not to comp.

Plaza still a "go", Tropicana gets new boss, Gibbons still irrelevant

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:10:00 -0700

It's Day Five of the "Hell No, We Won't Go" crisis and Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners members Drs. Daniel McBride and Javaid Anwar continue to thumb their noses at Gov. Jim Gibbons. As does board Executive Director Tony Clark. There's little I would I like to see much more than watching a pack of dobermans chase McBride, Anwar and Clark from their offices.

Then again, it's quite a spectacle to see Nevada public officials not only recognizing that The Gibber is a paper tiger but openly daring him to do something about it. For now, we've got a Nevada governor who looks increasingly ineffectual -- with 2 3/4 years to go on his term.

"Forging ahead as planned." That's the word on Elad Group's Plaza project, budgeted at $6 billion -- with 6,700 units and a casino floor larger even than the MGM Grand's -- slated to open in 2011. The Clark County Commission gave Elad the green light yesterday. So, anybody got $6 billion these chaps can borrow?

(For the absolute latest in Plaza designs, see VegasTodayandTomorrow.com)

Columbia Sussex Watch: The first day of Spring also means that William J. Yung III has 12 days to find a buyer and consummate the sale of Casino Aztar, in Evansville, Ind., or risk having it taken away from him when Indiana's gaming commission meets to reconsider Columbia Sussex's license, on March 31.

Meanwhile, Yung has enlisted some adult supervision (and relinquished one of his 21 corporate titles) by installing Scott Butera as president of Tropicana Entertainment. Butera has bounced around these last five years, from UBS to Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts to working for local developer Brett Torino and thence to 15 months with the runaway Cosmopolitan Resort Casino.

To say that Butera's got his work cut out for him at the remaining Trops is a considerable understatement. But he does know the casino business, which appears to be more than can be said of the crew currently calling the shots from Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.

Chips ahoy! Following a well-publicized rollout in Las Vegas, Harrah's Entertainment is taking its $25K gold chip gimmick to Caesars Atlantic City. Hey, if it's working, more power to 'em.

Man bans himself from Atlantic City casinos for life, but wants to play elsewhere, then finds he can't. What part of "self exclusion" do bozos like this fail to comprehend?

Shameless Self-Promotion Dept.: Like real estate ads, I'm inescapable in the Las Vegas media this weekend. So if you're not glutted already, you can read my takes on the new movies Look and Under the Same Moon, not to mention UNLV Opera Theatre's recent staging of Mozart's Cosi fan tutté. Oh, and did I mention last week's DVD review? I didn't? How remiss of me.

"Press" tells you where to go

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:56:00 -0700

... in Atlantic City, that is. The Press of Atlantic City has just added a guide-at-a-glance to the Boardwalk's casinos, complete with a potted history of each, plus other fun factoids. Anybody contemplating a first trip to A.C. -- or merely in need of a fact sheet (like me) -- will want to download this puppy.

Starstruck; MEGACENTER attacks; Viral marketing

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:19:00 -0700

So there I was, at a rally for John Edwards (where I got interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor, as luck would have it). He's intro'd by James Denton (good news for the predominantly female crowd).

Meanwhile, I look around, and who's standing toward the back of the throng than that actor's actor, Jean Smart, as well as Kim Zimmer -- whose portrayal of Reva Shayne Lewis Cooper Spaulding Lewis Lewis (I'm not making that up) on The Guiding Light draws acclaim from our own Anthony Curtis. Both women couldn't have been more personable -- or tall! So there I was talking local media ownership with Reva Lewis and Aileen Wuornos. Surreal. Smart, in particular, has a very powerful presence, even when just listening. If you get a kick out of strong women, it was an inspiring experience, although meeting AmandaTapping still takes the cake.

"I am MEGACENTER; prepare to be destroyed!": If you scroll down to "Best Name Ever?" on David Schwartz's blog, you'll find a very funny and thoughtful item about the thunderously unimaginative name Las Vegas Sands dreamed up for its agglomerated Sands Expo/Palazzo/Venetian super-megaresort. What they came up with sounds like something out of Transformers or Toho Studios. "Eek! It's MEGACENTER! Run for your life!" Where's the Cloverfield monster (aka "Mr. Grumpypants") when you really need him?

Speaking of Cloverfield, a dreadful movie whose marketing campaign (here's its original spore) is the best I've ever seen, to what extent is the casino industry exploring viral marketing?

Given the high level of interest that surrounds every new casino or redevelopment of an existing one, not to mention the fever pitch that usually accompanies a grand opening (when properly done), wouldn't it benefit Company X's coffers to tease the consumer with hints and tidbits throughout the long runup to that moment when the doors swing open and the players stream into the newest pleasure palace?

In view of the popularity of sites like Two Way Hard Three and VegasTodayandTomorrow.com, it would seem that giving these folks a well-timed glimpse here and there would only help ramp up (and shape) expectations for new and remodeled properties. Instead, casino companies get all defensive and demand, for instance, that all CityCenter images be removed (as briefly happened to VegasTodayandTomorrow).

These people are your allies! Work with them! It's a win-win scenario if ever I saw one.