David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - M Resort

What's a Trump casino worth?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:07:00 -0700

Only $14 million in cash (plus a $100 million equity infusion), according to The Donald. Bondholders say, we'll see your $115 million and raise you $100 million. The latter would recoup at least some -- but not very much -- of their $1.25 billion debt under their plan, while Das Trump would send them away virtually empty-handed. (Moral: When Donald Trump asks you for a loan, take a page from Nancy Reagan and Just Say No.)

The bondholders' assignment of a $75 million valuation to Trump Marina seems awfully optimistic for what is, in essence, a corpse that can't be sold. In essence, the real value proposition is resurgent Trump Taj Mahal, with the other two casinos scarcely better than throw-ins. The Marina is, if anything, an albatross around the company's neck. Still, given that CEO Mark Juliano is going to exceptional lengths to champion the Trumpster's bid, which is a big "screw you" to the debtholders, here's hoping Judge Judith H. Wizmur holds firm for a more responsible solution.

Ho: No! "I don't see major resorts opening for the next couple of years now," says Lawrence Ho. thereby raining pessimism on the expansion plans of Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and Galaxy Entertainment. The younger Ho also speculates upon the Chinese government's motivation for throttling, then somewhat relenting upon travel to Macao. Interesting tidbit: Marketwatch.com reports that "Venetian Sands" [sic] has cut its number of table games by 25%.

Nevada revenues in. And yeah, they suck. They're much less sucky than usual (-9%), showing an upward trend in baccarat plus two locals-oriented bright spots in the form of Aliante Station and M Resort. It's unclear, though, how much of the growth generated by the last two is new business vs. redistribution of dollars from elsewhere in the valley. The Sun's analysis is far more informative than that found in the R-J.

Wait 'til next year. That's the timeline for casinos in Massachusetts. Even though western Mass looks like slim pickings, lawmakers will probably have to put a casino there just to get the bill onto the floor.

Penn bid falls. Lenders to bankrupt Fontainebleau won a small victory or two, as the judge overseeing the case seems determined to keep lead developer Jeffrey Soffer as far from the disposition of F'bleau as possible. (Soffer is both a debtor and creditor on the project.)

F'bleau, for its part, revealed that Penn National Gaming's offer is now "substantially less" than $300 million, but would include money to replace the windows that are reportedly falling off the building. (One more reason not to build a Strip megaresort tower flush against the "pedestrian realm.")

Groundbreaking today for the long-awaited SugarHouse casino in Philadelphia, under the shadow of a stick-it-to-SugarHouse tax that's been proposed in the Lege. Table games, meanwhile, might be off the table in the face of a $200 million lawsuit. You see, non-racino casinos are allowed to have 5,000 slots (in return for a $50 million fee). Small "resort" casinos -- known as "Category 3" -- only have to $5 million and get 500 slots (accessible only to guests). That's proportional, obviously, and seems fair.

However ... lawmakers want to tilt the playing field by giving Category 3 casinos 30% as many slots as, say, Rivers Casino or SugarHouse, instead of 10% ... and open those games to the general public, not just guests. Of course, the state can't go to the one existing Category 3 casino and ask for another $10 million -- can it? Casino operators are also solidly behind the GOP position on table games: $10 million upfront plus a 12% tax. But, unless House Dems completely capitulate, the gaming bosses are unlikely to get what they want, at least where the tax rate is concerned.

Penn whiffs again. Although Penn Nat'l was supposed to be a bidder in the bankruptcy auction for the Lone Star Park racino, it evidently didn't get into the action and the track went to the Chickasaw Nation for $27 million. (A lot less than Harrah's Entertainment paid to get into Ohio.)

Which means that if/when gambling is legitimized in Texas, the Chickasaws will have a double advantage (parimutuel + tribal status), while Penn will be looking at yet another missed opportunity. Penn's corporate strategy is a baffling alternation of rashness and hyper-caution.

In other tribal news, much-criticized National Indian Gaming Commission Chairman Phil Hogen is gone, thank God, and with him his new, more-restrictive Class II rules. Hogen was justly pilloried for attempting a rollback of hard-won gains in what games tribes could offer. His new rules reflected Bush administration paternalism toward tribes and while they're officially postponed for a year, I think it's safe to say they're dead.* No wonder Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK) is smiling. Watch out for that doorknob, Mister (Ex-)Chairman.

(* It's probable the same thing would have happened under a President McCain, as either candidate would have brought a more enlightened attitude to D.C.-tribal relationships.)

Supporters of video gambling are starting to push back in Illinois, at least in rural, conservative McHenry County. So far it's been the urban areas where this expansion of gambling hasn't been gaining traction.

A repeal of UIGEA continues to gain ground in the House of Representatives, even if it got pulled off the floor in the Senate. (Thanks for nothing, Harry Reid.) The money quote, literally, is a reference to an amendment Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) which would would specify that "corporate taxes owed on regulated Internet gambling activities are collected, as they currently are from the land-based casino industry." [emphasis added]

If that means what it implies, it would remove the spectre of industry-wide federal gambling taxation from the discussion and leave taxation to the states. If not, then the nose of the federal casino-tax camel is still sticking through the legislative tent. And you know where that leads.

We've seen a nationwide gaming tax get shot down during the Clinton administration but there are desperate times, obviously. Republicans like Mike Huckabee and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) have been looking to sock it to casinos at the federal level for some years now, so I fear it could have bipartisan support, should such a debate come to pass.

It's playoff time. A tired, flat-footed Minnesota Twins squad looked positively dreaful last night, flailing at outside pitches from C.C. Sabathia (if you couldn't reach that slider in the first inning, your arms aren't going to be any longer in the seventh, son). Cliff Lee made short work of the Colorado Rockies (besides, Jim Tracy can't win in the postseason), the St. Louis Cardinals look set to continue their tradition of postseason underperformance and my Anaheim Angels are forever reduced to a quivering heap of Jello in playoff games against the Boston Red Sox. Why am I having visions of brooms?

Case Bets: California crisis, M cutbacks, "Guiding Light" in LV, etc.

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:50:00 -0700

Ist California kaput? That's the question posed by the The Observer and it makes for troubling reading. If Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) is right that tourism from California is the carotid artery of Nevada's economy, then the Silver State is -- to put it politely -- screwed. A good thing the Lege didn't follow Midnight Jim's advice and shut down Nevada's outreach efforts in China.

Speaking of which ... Amidst a flurry of economic developments and positive indicators in Macao, the casinos of Stanley Ho are backing off the expensive VIP trade and going mass-market. (Translation: "We're coming after you, Sheldon Adelson.") Thanks to reader mike_ch for the link.

Colossal buMMer. Breakfast has just been eliminated from the offerings at the M Resort buffet. Unless one lives nearby (a relatively small clientele), M is a heckuva long detour to make for breakfast, so this economy move is understandable ... but depressing all the same. No casino buffet gets higher marks from LVA readers.

That's a bit weird. Stay with me here, folks. CBS cancels Guiding Light, replacing it with Let's Make a Deal, which is shot at the Tropicana Las Vegas. So what should be coming to Vegas in December (at The Rio) but a Guiding Light farewell tour -- yes, Reva, Josh and the whole kit 'n kaboodle. How much you wanna bet they won't be taking in a LMaD taping at the Trop? The only way to make this scenario more Banquo's Ghost-ly would be for the soap convention to be held at the Trop, too.

P.S.: Better get your tickets now before the 'Otalia' fans scarf them all up.

Company. Performances resume at UNLV tonight and it's a must-see. Mind you, the Review-Journal praises the Stephen Sondheim revival with faint damns, while the Sun's review reverses that formula. But I'd pay to see it again, which I don't say about many shows in this town.

McKee vs. Lerner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The dream is dying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ... )?

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.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 01 May 2009 15:15:00 -0700

"The hope for mega-projects is gone for quite a while. The banks have all they can take of Las Vegas." -- M Resort CEO Anthony Marnell III, addressing the Nevada chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors.

A delicate balance

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:51:00 -0700

Another day, a little more movement in the CityCenter situation. Well, it's that or talk about tourism and gaming revenue numbers that are too depressing to contemplate for long.

Time was that the American banking industry was practically giving away money, not requiring MGM Mirage to pledge assets for collateral. Lucky for MGM, lucky for us, not so lucky for the banks. That's going to change and Liz Benston delineates the tightrope that MGM will have to navigate to keep both banks and bondholders happy -- a delicate balancing act indeed. The one casino MGM can neither unload nor borrow against is New York-New York, presently encumbered with three-quarters of a billion dollars' worth of junk bonds.

Meanwhile, James Packer continues his CityCenter softshoe routine. According to Bloomberg (see sidebar), while Crown Ltd. may not be talking to MGM or Dubai World directly, it's reported to be exchanging notes in study hall with Colony Capital ... hence the carefully couched denials Crown issued last weekend. Since Colony will be merely lending to MGM, not investing (assuming negotiations bear fruit), that'll spare the fund from having any uncomfortable chats with Station Casinos, which has near-Strip aspirations of its own. Besides, if MGM defaults, God forbid, Colony might find itself with a gem like Slots A Fun or maybe even Circus Circus, and could whistle Station in to run it.

The terms of the alleged deal -- $750 million toward debt structuring -- more than suggest that MGM has given up on any getting any more dinero out of Dubai World. If it can "clear waivers" with its lenders, it looks as though MGM's preparing to shoulder the next $800 million worth of CityCenter costs by its lonesome. Another bit of good news for Kirk Kerkorian's company is that Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Lerner has revised the EBITDA estimates of Beau Rivage and MGM Grand Detroit up a bit. Lerner's new numbers would bring the theoretical asking prices (using 7X cash flow as a baseline) to $715 million and $940 million, respectively. The question of how anybody not named Penn National is going to persuade lenders to underwrite such a deal is still begged, though.

I wonder if Barbara Cappaert of KDP Investments ever tires of having to be the one to point out the elephant in the middle of the room, namely that MGM is pawning tomorrow to pay for today. That $235 million-plus in annual Biloxi/Detroit cash flow is going to be sorely missed.

If anybody ever writes the history of the casino-hotel currently known as the Greek Isles, it'll only have one chapter ... Chapter 11. The Isles has known many incarnations but it always seems to find its way back to bankruptcy court sooner or later (usually sooner). It's eked out a marginal existence for such a long time that perhaps the casino evolutionary process needs to "select out" the Greek Isles, which occupies a forlorn backwater between the Convention Center and the Strip.

Anyway, if you enjoy bankruptcy filings, this one should keep you busy. Since the Isles is more of a slot-route outpost than a casino, the alphabet soup of ownership groups is of debatable relevance to its gambling operations, though. Will the last person to leave the Greek Isles please turn out the lights.

For Rent: One blimp, slightly used. Gets 2.1 MPG. Annual operating cost $1.1 million. Your logo here.

The Company That Ate Itself

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:29:00 -0700

Perhaps it was with dry irony that the Las Vegas Review-Journal's latest Station Casinos story's subhead read, "Company blames economy, poached customers." And by whom might those customers have been poached? By Station Casinos itself! The company's imperial overreach has reduced it to gnawing on its own femur, as each new Station property cannibalizes business from somewhere else in the Fertitta empire.

Bad as the 2008 financials were, 2009 is going to be that much worse once the encroachment of M Resort begins to be felt. Last year, Station's casino revenues fell by 11% and ADRs were down comparably. A 14% slippage in cash flow from 2007 meant that a deal valued at a rose-colored 9.7X EBIDTA is now effectively over 11X cash flow. Even had the Fertitta Brothers not insisted upon carting home a half-billion dollars as part of the buyout, its valuation would still have been quite over-optimistic.

(Even in a boom year, Station's proposal to dilute Aliante Station's revenues with a nearby "Losee Station" would be inexplicable. Given the company's current financial performance, it's an idea quite a few fries short of a Happy Meal.)

Elsewhere in the casinosphere, the closest thing to good news was Planet Hollywood's disclosure that it shaved 40% off of last year's losses, thanks to a nearly 8% revenue increase. More alarmingly, the Las Vegas Hilton -- seemingly the one casino-hotel Colony Capital couldn't ruin -- has swung from a profit to a loss.

It's a business miracle! Losses at soon-to-be-cleft Herbst Gaming widened by 60%. Most of that was driven by a -33% downward spiral in slot-route revenues. By contrast, the ouster of sundry Herbsts in favor of CEO Ferenc Szony appears to have given the company's 15 casinos a boost because, as dowdy as some of those places are, their revenue actually grew 1% last year.

For most companies that might be unremarkable; for Herbst it's a miracle. It also puts paid to the Herbsts' face-saving insinuation that, by keeping the slot routes and parting with the casinos, the family was hanging onto the real goodies. I can't even remember the last time I went into a Terrible's convenience store and saw somebody playing the slots.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. The Nevada state budget is a two-legged stool, balanced upon gaming and sales taxes. That stool is getting wobblier by the day. Unfortunately, if the Lege has any solutions, it's keeping them to itself.

'M' is for 'mobbed'

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:08:00 -0700

Local naysayers have been gleefully predicting the swift demise of M Resort for weeks now. And I'll admit I even entertained a few doubts as we drove out there yesterday morning. I mean, unless you live well south of Vegas proper, you have to drive all to hell and gone to reach M. Was that initial fortnight of frenzied business just a novelty phase?

Boy, were my doubts misplaced. M was crawling with players and other customers at 10 a.m. on a Sunday, with lines soon forming for just about every restaurant on the property. That's to say nothing of the number of people queuing up to join the players' club. That was about a half-hour wait, followed by what must have an even longer one for the buffet, although my bad back was flaring up so fiercely that A) it played hob with my sense of time and B) I was sure I'd be leaving M on a gurney.

That buffet is no doubt one of the main drivers of M's early success. (Savvy marketing is another.) Both in breadth and quality, it rivals the two buffets at The Rio, thereby putting it in the top three among off-Strip buffets. M manages the not-inconsiderable feat of putting Station Casinos' Feast buffets in the shade and the respectable Sam's Town one is left completely in the dust.

Leaving M, you'll pass the once (and future?) site of Gary Goett's Olympia Gaming casino-resort (above, as originally conceived), now retitled Legends at Southern Highlands. One billboard vows an April 2010 opening, which is preposterous, while another -- right next to it -- only promises 2011. As of this writing, not so much as a spadeful of earth has been turned. This project was announced before M but has slipped into the "believe it when it happens" category.

Donald Trump likes to sue but this time he's on the receiving end. Depositors in insolvent Trump Ocean Resort Baja are claiming "fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment and violating federal disclosure laws" after the project blew through $31.5 million worth of deposits with nothing to show for it but a hole in the ground. As is quickly becoming the case whenever a Trump-branded product goes belly-up, the orange-haired TV star is claiming he had nothing to do with it.

More M Resort pix

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:15:00 -0700

Armed with my first digital camera (which the Significant Other won during the brief run of "The Real Deal" at the Venetian), we scoped out M Resort on opening night. If Encore marked the return of "the red casino," M responds with what might be called "the resinous casino." If you grew up in a region thick with sap-laden trees, the look will be familiar:

This pillar motif runs throughout the resort ...

... as here, over the slot floor.

Fixtures like these ...

... also make nifty places of concealment for the domes that mask the PTZ surveillance cameras.

This lovely canopy in the grand foyer ...

... is but a stone's throw from the check-in desk.

The sports book. Obviously.

The requisite wild-and-crazy casino carpet, for those who dig that jazz.

Blown-glass ornaments in the VIP players' lounge, where the TV (not shown) ...

... was set to Family Guy, in a gesture of impeccable taste. Other teevees throughout the property were tuned to either ESPN or Fox Noise, er, News. The lounge was also home to ...

... this floral arrangement. (Like, duh.)

Sample table setting (out of several) in one of the smaller meeting rooms.

Just add conventioneers and stir. (Groovy carpet, huh?)

Lastly ...

... your humble blogger comes to grips with one of M's self-service beverage stations. As you can see, I'm partial to the Real Thing. And, yes, I often look similarly vexed. All this and we still got home in time for United States of Tara. (Toni Colette can play damn near anything.)

Enjoy!

Nevada Lege sticks it to you

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:52:00 -0700

Although a few Democrats in the state Senate toyed with the idea of growing a spine and opposing raising the hotel-room tax, all of them -- plus several Republicans -- did the easy thing and opted for Plan A: Soak the tourists. Again. So the new top rate in Las Vegas will be 13%. Pardon us while we put this cigar butt out in your face, too.

All the rationale you need can be found in the final line of Ed Vogel's story, where he's told this "may be more palatable than other tax increases because the tax would be paid by tourists." The disdainful tone expressed toward tourists by KVVU-TV talking heads on this morning's 7 a.m. newscast simply drove the point home: Tax that schmuck behind the tree.

Of course, the tax increase was popular with two-thirds of Clark County voters. Wouldn't you love any tax that somebody else has to pay? Despite having booked the revenue already, Gov. Jim Gibbons will take the coward's way out and let the new impost become law sans signature. That hardly befits a decorated military veteran. (Proving yet again that irony is dead, Gibbons reiterated his now-is-not-the-time-to-raise-taxes mantra the very same day.)

The solons' fecklessness is pithily summarized by an understandably exasperated Jon Ralston:

The session is nearly a third over and a pervasive sense of deja vu is settling in. Governor presents controversial idea(s). Legislature declares them DOA. Partisan sniping ensues between lawmakers and governor and among legislators. Final budget/revenue plans are an abomination, some kind of Frankensteinian creation that has no policy underpinnings but fills a budget hole with cobbled together revenue Band-Aids.

While Gibbons' budgetary 'solution' might be dubbed the Nevada Chainsaw Massacre, the Dems' non-response is equally deplorable, consisting as it does of socking it (among others) to the casino industry even more than ever. This approach would simply amplify existing inequities in Nevada's structure, as Hugh Jackson tried to explain to the Lege, throwing in some charts that even a legislator could understand. They neatly highlight the disparity between the enormous revenue contribution made by casinos -- hundreds of millions of bucks -- and the measly input from the mining industry.

Silver Lining Dept.: Amid all those beyond-horrid numbers from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, note that slot hold is down almost a full percentage point. Hopefully the example of M Resort, trading off loose slots for longer play (the old Cactus Jack's philosophy) will find more adherents. Oh, and Washoe County was up. We'll take any good news we can get and this was pretty unexpected.

A reader enlightens me. Among the possible reasons for the increased smoke infestation at formerly respectable joints like Sunset Station (and Eastside Cannery), a California visitor suggests another: The ban on smoking in Nevada restaurants has driven the cigarette-and-cigar crowd to the casinos more than ever, since the latter represent one of the few safe havens remaining. He's noticed a gradual increase in the smokiness of Red Rock Resort and comparable places that provide a one-stop-shop for dinner, video poker and a smokin' them while you've got 'em.

Can't argue with that ... although the rapid declivity of both Sunset and E-Can into mega-ashtrays suggests to me a confluence of factors, all of them untoward.

Scant love for Boyd, big love for M

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:51:00 -0700

I guess Fitch Ratings doesn't have the stomach for Boyd Gaming's attempt to take over Station Casinos either. It's downgraded Boyd, whose bonds sank "further into junk status."

Locals love M Resort, it would appear. The Anthony Marnell III property has been open less than a week and is already hiring an additional 250 staffers -- after being swamped by early busness. Instead of the projected 5,000 covers per day, M's restaurants have been doing closer to 10,000. Also, the number of sign-up stations for the players club will be increased to 20, the casino having realized 80% of its goal of having 25,000 enrollments in March. (This may explain why furniture was being removed from parts of the main floor.)

Another 100 slots will be added and there will be more sightings of the gambler's best friend: the ATM machine. Obviously, some of the "honeymoon" hubbub will wear off once the curiosity factor has subsided (which is what happened to Red Rock Resort). But good news is at a premium these days, so we shan't look this gift horse too closely in the mouth. That surely goes double over at MGM Mirage, whose minority stake in M looks more and more like one of that company's savviest investments -- not to mention likely to yield the most bang for the buck.

M in pictures

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:16:00 -0700

Well ... sorta. You'd think a billion dollars might buy a decent press kit but M Resort's didn't arrive at LVA HQ until the day after the opening. To add to the farce, most of the pictures aren't bonafide photos but extremely obvious computer-generated renderings. As a PR effort goes, this was a real face-plant. You know what they say about first impressions and second chances.

Anyway ...

M's overall vibe is one I'd describe as "understated elegance." If the message of Encore is that nothing succeeds like ripe excess, M aims for a decidedly un-Vegas image -- Southwestern simplicity and a moderately upscale position, and oh yes, we do have gambling here.

The foyer of the spa, which wasn't quite finished on opening night. There are, among many other amenities, two heated pools. One is 101 degrees, the other 104 Fahrenheit. I neglected to ask why the three-degree discrepancy was so important.

You wouldn't guess it from this rendering but the Ravello lounge has excellent sightlines and is an intimate -- but not claustrophobic -- venue for live music.

M Resort's eponymous bar. We skipped this one, I think.

Rooftop restaurant Veloce Cibo was closed for a Marnell family event (it's a big family, I hear). The only way you could get that view out the window -- practically atop Wynn Las Vegas -- would be if Veloce Cibo was in the belly of the M Resort blimp.

The foyer of Marinelli's. In terms of decor, this is the fanciest of the M restaurants. Gastronomically, we were too maxed-out to sample the fare.

The Studio B kitchen, just off the buffet. Try as I might, all I could think of was the council chamber in Babylon 5 ("Delicacies by Delenn"? "Noshing with the Narn"? "Lunch at Londo Mollari's"?) We overdid it at the buffet proper but the cooking staff really put its best foot forward for the opening-night crowd.

A standard room. You can't really see it at this size, but the "view" out the window makes the Strip look several miles closer than it actually is.

A flat suite, with another incredible (as in "not to be believed") view.

Partial view of a "Classic" one-bedroom suite.

The lobby of the conference area. Overall, it's almost as swanky as Encore, if not as breathtaking as Red Rock Resort.

Does the billion bucks show up in the final product? Yes. Is it worth the (not inconsiderable) drive? Yes. Hopefully it will stand up to wear, tear and cigarette smoke, as M made a powerful first impression of "affordable luxury," offering a higher-than-average number of amenities in a soothing atmosphere. We'll see how that imprint is sustained once the slot machines start chiming en masse and the players light up in similar numbers ... and let's not kid ourselves: In this economy, large numbers of anything (except foreclosures) tend to be welcome.

M-enations

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:29:00 -0700

Last night's grand opening of M Resort wasn't quite your usual Vegas casino debut. The 4,000-7,000 (sources vary) who turned out for the VIP preview were an older, more outwardly affluent and buttoned-down crowd than one expects. Nor is the presence of Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Dina Titus and former Sen. Richard Bryan an everyday occurence at one of these hootenannies.

Also in attendance, though we missed them in the crowd and the resort's disorienting layout, were bloggers extraordinaire Hunter Hillegas, Steve Friess and the Queen of Comps herself, Jean Scott. LVA's David Matthews also turned out, but the Significant Other and I had taken a powder -- missing the Son of Cirque umbrella show -- before he arrived.

Verdicts on M are, suffice it to say, all over the place. Big LVA kahuna Anthony Curtis was remarkably impressed and Jean was arguably even more so. Our resident poker pro was nearly as upbeat but had a few minor qualms. Both Messrs. Hillegas and Friess were pretty 'meh,' although Friess was the less guarded of the two in his summation. As the latter is quick to concede, his photos don't do M justice, whereas Hunter's gallery gives a very accurate impression of the resort. (And, yes, that is a jolly-looking Friess in the third photo.)

I do have to agree with Hunter that the casino floor is more than a bit -- how shall I say? -- generique. Those who worry that server-based gaming (or server-readiness in M's case) will erase much of the idiosyncrasy from the slot floor will have their fears confirmed at M.

The Las Vegas Sun has been all over the M opening like a tight-fitting suit, complete with photo gallery and video. Coverage by the Las Vegas Review-Journal has been somewhat more restrained. The R-J does have an attractive slideshow. Over at the "multimedia" department (where we hear they're still struggling with a newfangled concept the kids are calling "fire"), they couldn't manage any video footage -- just the breathless declaration by Nathan Tannenbaum, "How 'bout the Sunday night fireworks way on the south end of the valley ... ?" over a lame graphic. ("How about it?" I wouldn't know -- because you don't have any f***ing footage.) There is some pre-opening video video, if that's any consolation, though it leaves an unfairly "blah" impression.

With Matthews and Scott "pro," and Hillegas and Friess "con" on M Resort, I was hoping Richard Abowitz or David G. Schwartz would weigh in with tiebreakers ... but nothing yet. And why all the fascination with the last wheeze of Siegfried & Roy? The charity bash they headlined looks like it cost more than it could have garnered.

Or maybe I'm just grumpy because nobody succeeded in taking any snaps of Kristin Davis. Oh well ...

Quote of the Day

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:56:00 -0700

"Vegas had a really good run and the value curve got far away from where the customers’ expectations were at, and it went there because it could. It was unbridled capitalism at full throttle." -- Anthony Marnell III, whose M Resort opens on Sunday.

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."