David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - Technology

On the move

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:02:00 -0700

This will be the last S&G posting before we relaunch our new format. In the immortal words of Lt. Col. Jack O'Neill, "Well, I suppose now is the time for me to say something profound. [pause] Nothing comes to mind."

See you over at WordPress.

Programming notes

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:15:00 -0700

The time has come, the walrus said, to switch over to WordPress, so regularly scheduled S&G mirth and merriment will be temporarily suspended whilst we learn the new setup. My apologies for the temporary lack of service.

Secondly, thanks to those of you who have been e-mailing Question of the Day suggestions. However ...
... the keeper of the QoDs, Webmistress Jessica, requests that you fine ladies and gentlemen use the regular question-submission form (found here) rather than employing S&G as a back channel. I apologize if this causes any inconvenience or hard feelings, but that's the word from upstairs.

Well, actually, it's from downstairs -- but you know what I mean. Anyway, I'd like to keep the people who sign my paychecks happy, so I'd be much obliged if you'd do as the lady requests. Are we OK?

Comrade Spam strikes again

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:03:00 -0700

I'm buried deep in other projects this week but I wanted to surface long enough to apologize for the recent barrage of spam in our "Comments" threads and e-mail alerts. Judging by some of the URLs involved, it looks like our old nemesis Comrade Spam is back and the Russkie bastard has learned some new tricks. Since he's figured out how to mask his IP address, it may be awhile before we figure out how to block him, but we'll work on it, I promise you that.

Also, at some point S&G will switch to WordPress (which just busted out a new mobile format). That will mean a new look and format (including extra bells and whistles). I'll let you know as soon as we have a firm launch date.

Is outsmarting a slot machine not a crime?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:08:00 -0700

... as even Pennsylvania racinos face hard times. It was inevitable that the American appetite for casinos would achieve a saturation point. We've not only reached it, the ongoing depression has pushed us well beyond the point of inelasticity.

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.

Case Bets: Reid, Goodman, Madison (Holly) & a kegger

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:06:00 -0700

As they say on Dancing with the Stars, in no particular order ...

Eight against Harry: For a speedy primer on the myriad challengers to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), you can't go wrong with Jon Ralston's droll and speedy primer. It even gets props from John Chachas (R-Central Park West), who recently tossed his homburg into the ring. At least one among the posse Ralston calls "Snow White [Archon Corp. Treasurer Sue Lowden] and the Seven Dwarfs" has a sense of humor.

Reason vs. rage: While Steve Wynn was ranting on the boob tube this weekend, Thomas Krugman's column offers an indirect rebuttal to Wynn's Johnny One-Note ("Tax policy!") table-pounding.

Run, Oscar, run! If these poll numbers don't nudge the World's Happiest Mayor into the 2010 gubernatorial race, perhaps nothing will. Oscar Goodman not only has the highest favorables among Nevada politicians included in the survey, he wins one theoretical electoral matchup and ties for first in the other.

Gov. Jim Gibbons' political future looks bleak (read: borderline nonexistent) and there's not much comfort for Hapless Harry, either. Just think how much worse it would be if Reid had an opponent possessing genuine gravitas. Besides, given the rising tide of discontent among Nevada's progressives, there's a good chance that much of Hapless Harry's old base will just stay home on Election Day.

In Oscar's domain, an architect suggests ways to revitalize Downtown by decreasing energy use, increasing sustainability and generally targeting long-term cost savings. The proposal makes a lot of sense -- a virtual guarantee it will be ignored.

Holly Madison tapped an Oktoberfest keg at Siegfried & Roy hangout Hofbrauhaus last Friday. [Your punchline here.]

"Serpent Head" Jr.: If CNN ever has to let James Carville go on vacation, don't worry ...

... SNL's Bill Hader can fill in and nobody will notice a difference.

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.

Case Bets: Wynn in Macao, "Peepshow" strips down

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:30:00 -0700

• Steve Wynn is accelerating his timetable for developing on the Cotai Strip™. If Wynn continues to learn from his early miscalculations (and I see no reason to expect otherwise), a gaming-centric Wynn Resorts property on Cotai is a far better bet than Sheldon Adelson's retail- and hotel-heavy business model.

• While the unpredictable Aubrey O'Day is the ostensible focus of this Peepshow update, she's not the main point of interest. Rather, it's the spate of cheesparing moves made by BASE Entertainment.

The show's band has been thrown overboard and the cast has been reduced, requiring some performers to double in other roles. This explains the disappearance of Katie Webber, a strong vocalist whose big number has now been reassigned to Ms. O'Day. At some point, I'm going to be obliged to revisit Peepshow but I can tell you right now I'm not looking forward to it.

• Despite Sen. Harry Reid's juice job on the Sig Rogich Victorville Flyer (aka Desert Xpress), backers of an alternative maglev project are fighting back. Given that the most difficult part of the SoCal-to-Vegas drive is past once you reach Victorville, why anybody would park their car in the broiling sun and hop aboard Sig's Choo-Choo to Nowhere remains a mystery.

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.

Robo-poker reprieved ...

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:08:00 -0700

... but maybe not long for long. A momentary uptick in the price of PokerTek stock temporarily rescued it from penny-stock status. But after decisive rejections of dealer-less poker in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the future of PokerTek as anything other than a marginal supplier looks bleak.

Vegas casino operators continue to learn that you can't export the Strip business model to Macao (our over-optimistic expectations to the contrary). Case in point: Wynn Macau, which is cannibalizing restaurants, kitchens and even a showroom to make room for more gambling positions. A sanguine-sounding Steve Wynn, meanwhile, yawns in the face of competition from Singapore and tries to spin his Macanese IPO as a philanthropic gesture.

Neil Bluhm's big break. Although $800 million Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh maybe up and running, the county assessor continues to tax the site as though it were empty land. As the bureaucrats let tens of millions of property-tax dollars slip through their fingers, casino owner Neil Bluhm has a chance to bank some serious coin here. That'll take a little of the sting out of Pennsylvania's 55% gross-revenues tax rate.

A Texas track that's now come into tribal hands may hold the key to the future (if any) of limited Vegas-style gambling in Texas. The Lone Star State's gubernatorial aspirants are all over the map. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) has cozied up to the Stone Age anti-gambling crowd, making Gov. Rick Perry's (R) qualified pro-gambling position preferable ... even though Perry would still relegate Indian tribes to the back of the bus.

S&G likes candidate Kinky Friedman best on this issue (the Kinkster is pro-casino, period), while Tom Schieffer (D) is back in the Dark Ages somewhere with Hutchison. Hank Gilbert occupies a wussy, "let's take a poll" middle ground somewhere between Perry and his GOP rival.

Crime doesn't pay; Wyden wimps out

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:00 -0700

Five dimes worth of damage, $40,000 bail -- and all to wrest a measly two grand from some vending machines at Harrah's Atlantic City. That's the losing bet made by two security guards. Couple this with the floormen who destroyed their careers for a comparably picayune sum of money they allegedly scammed from Planet Hollywood, and we're seeing a level of desperation in casino crime the likes of which I can't recall.

City of Dreams. Voters in Ohio haven't approved casinos in any form yet, but that's not stopping Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who's already had a design executed. Gilbert has lined up critical support by promising to forego hotel rooms and restaurants (though he's left himself a little wiggle room there).

But don't be fooled: Phil Satre used the same Trojan Horse strategy to get an onshore casino in the heart of New Orleans. A few bankruptcies and legislative showdowns later, Harrah's N.O. has a hotel and a couple of restaurants. (Like it or not, Satre was brilliant.) I'll be so not surprised if Gilbert gets his casino, then discovers the numbers don't pencil out at a 33% tax rate, and starts waffling on his non-aggression pact with hoteliers and restaurateurs.

Damn that vox populi! Seems that Harrah's Entertainment had a bit of contractual noblesse oblige written into its pact to purchase Thistledown Racetrack. If the issue of racinos has to be put to a vote of the people, all bets -- so to speak -- are off. Which means that Harrah's can take its $89 million and skedaddle, leaving bankrupt Magna Entertainment holding the bag. For the moment though, Harrah's is playing the issue down, saying talk of a pullout is "premature" and hasn't been given much thought.

Even Las Vegas Sands appears to be feeling disappointed with early results from Sands Bethlehem. A massive, 2,000-slot expansion, slated for November, has been scaled back by 88%. Even so, Pennsylvania casinos are busy planning for the addition of table games (although the Lege hasn't approved it yet). The price of table games will probably be higher (18% tax + $15 million upfront) than casinos want, but at least they've been successful in battling back an expansion-sapping 34% tax rate on tables. For slots, they still have to pay a usurious 55%, one of the worst rates in the nation.

But if Sands wants to maximize its drawing power, it might want to think about finishing the hotel and other amenities that got shoved onto the back burner when Sheldon Adelson's coffers began to run dry. At least Sands has gotten a temporary reprieve from sliding to sixth place because -- even with financing in place -- Neil Bluhm is taking a go-slow approach to his $355 million Philadelphia casino, out of deference to historical preservations. (Funny how Bluhm can build a Philly casino complex for half of what Adelson blew on his unfinished Bethlehem resort.)

Fortune favors the bold, which means it won't smile upon Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who apparently caved to pressure from increasingly useless and counterproductive Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). It looks like Hapless Harry is behind Wyden's craven withdrawal of an amendment that would have taxed Internet gambling to help pay for health care reform.

Incidentally, an amendment that would have authorized $100 billion to close the infamous Medicare "doughnut hole" was voted down yesterday. Jeez, those 'Net-bet taxes could have come in handy as an alternative means of plugging the hole. (Oh, and fuck you too, Max Baucus.)

And that goes double for you, stock-picker Jim Cramer, whose spam rips through our LVA filters like Japanese torpedoes through the hull of the U.S.S. Oklahoma. It makes me sorry I ever said anything nice about you, Jimbo.

"You're no one if you're not on Twitter ..."

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:11:00 -0700

Since one might as well not have existed without being bookmarked, re-Tweeted and blogged, S&G has a Twitter feed that should be open for business as of this moment. Since Twitter is ampersand-hostile, it's just StiffsGeorges. I'm still working on who to "follow," although Joel McHale was a no-brainer.

Do not resuscitate?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:01:00 -0700

Most of us hew to the standard English-language definition of "fixation" (as in "I have a sudden fixation with actresss Crystal Chappell"). However, in Cirque du Soleil-speak, "fixation" means "damage repair." To wit: Criss F. Angel vehicle Believe has been in need of fixation since before it opened. (Only Crazy Girls and Steve Wyrick get lower ratings from LVA members.)

It's nigh upon 11 months since Believe was foisted upon an eagerly skeptical Las Vegas and apparently, the "fixation" process still drags on within the catacombs of Luxor. Or not. Whatever the case, Cirque du Stuck on Themselves ain't tellin', not even to the Los Angeles Times.

Two thoughts: If the show's problems are so intractable they take nearly a year to "fixate," why not just bag it? Also, if what Cirque is presenting is a work in progress, ought not Believe to charge consumers a "price in progress"? Like, oh maybe $15/person to see Mr. Angel and his Cirque enablers try to figure out what the hell kind of show they want to do?

While I don't share Richard Abowitz's enthusiasm for Zumanity (for me, it's a show about sex that's staged by eunuchs). Ka is awe-inspiring and Mystere is enjoyable if you have a very high tolerance for whimsy. But it is with masterly understatement that Abowitz writes, "Cirque can be pretentious on stage and in the corporate culture."

Guy Laliberté's cosmic dream, our nightmare

Scarily, he reveals that head Cirque jerque Guy Laliberté is planning to spread coulrophobia to the cosmos. Is no place safe from putty-nosed clowns? Can't they accidentally-on-purpose open the airlock when Pennywise is trying to juggle in zero gravity or whatever Laliberté has in mind? (Given the reports of Laliberté's heterosexual athleticism, I have my suspicions as to what he really wants to experiment upon in zero G's.)

On the subject of ass-clownery, this takes the cake. I guess he believes "If you haven't been bookmarked, re-Tweeted and blogged/You might as well not have existed."

Adios, Charo? Moving further up the Strip, Abowitz speculates that an ankle sprain may provide the excuse for the Riviera to draw the curtain on Charo in Concert. (I accidentally typed "Charon." A Freudian slip?) Even reliably everything-is-better-than-ever Robin Leach concurs. Who'd have thought that, back when I reviewed Charo's show for CityLife, in tandem with Ali Spuck's cabaret act, that two months later, the plucky Ms. Spuck would be the one -- pardon the pun -- still standing?

Since the flamenco-guitar portion of Charo's show was a bit light on content (five songs), the Riv could have turned lemons into lemonade by working in more guitar and less coochi-coochi. But evidently not. But don't despair, guys. The Riv's still got Scarlett, Princess of Magic and her red bikini.

In an unrelated rumor, Tony 'n Tina's Wedding is alleged to be halfway out the door at Planet Hollywood. That always seemed a mismatch of show and venue; it will surely pop up somewhere else (LVA members give it our highest rating), should the rumor turn out to be true.

The Apocalypse is nigh!

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:04:00 -0700

Las Vegas to Nowhere, all aboard!

Oh.My.God. Both Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) and I are in agreement on something: Sig Rogich's Choo-Choo to Nowhere blows donkeys and that maglev (aka, "The Sin City Express") is the way to go. CityLife Editor Steve Sebelius has the shocking news from Carson City.

Admittedly, $45 million is a drop in the bucket -- if that -- and Midnight Jim may be piqued to see Rogich in the embrace of new Desert Xpress supporter Sen. "Hapless Harry" Reid. Gibbons and the Sigmeister used to have a steamy bromance going ... at least until Midnight Jim got a little too friendly with a cocktail waitress, whereupon Mrs. Gibbons gave Rogich the boot. And lastly, by waiting until after Reid switched his support from maglev to Sig's choo-choo, Gibbons may be doing too little, too late.

But I give Gibbons credit for bucking GOP orthodoxy, which holds that a train "from Las Vegas to Disneyland"* is Evil Incarnate. Besides, nobody -- and I mean nobody -- with whom I have discussed the Great Train Debate, whether they're from Nevada or California, has the slightest intention of driving to some big-ass Park 'N Ride in Victorville, Calif., just so they can hop a train to Vegas (or rent a car to L.A.). Might as well drive the whole way.

As for Midnight Jim's belated epiphany: Welcome aboard, Guv.

(* -- The smarmy hypocrite who coined that phrase later backtracked on his own high-speed rail request after it made him a further target of public ridicule.)

Salvation for Nevada?

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:59:00 -0700

Former Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval has made it official: He's stepping down from the federal bench to challenge incumbent Gov. Jim Gibbons. That means Midnight Jim can start packing up the governor's mansion. Maybe he already is. Whatever he's doing, he's not attending to the state's crumbling tourism infrastructure. This dereliction of duty is reprehensible at a time when Las Vegas, Reno and points beyond need all the traffic they can get.

I've dealt with Sandoval in the past and he's a class act. Heck, unless Oscar Goodman throws his martini glass into the ring on the Democratic side, I might have to re-register as a Republican to vote for Sandoval in the 2010 primary. Sandoval may be fairly conservative but he's capable and widely respected, two qualities one does not associate with Nevada's current governor.

Midnight Jim has given us nearly three years of unmitigated cronyism, scandal and incompetence, and Nevada cannot be rid of him and his do-nothing "leadership" soon enough, in my opinion. Thank you, Sheldon Adelson and especially J. Terrence Lanni, along with any other gaming CEO who helped foist this buffoon upon the Silver State.

If you've sent me an e-mail and haven't heard back, it's because our current e-mail platform is -- what's the technical term? -- fucked. So I apologize for my apparent bad manners. Also, we cannot upload new imagery into the blogs. Which means that, for instance, an extremely droll image forwarded by kerr_mudgeon cannot be viewed at this time. Which really sucks.

To make matters worse, some subscribers aren't receiving automatic notifications of new blog entries because these are being randomly kicked back by the dozen. So I apologize for that, too. Our LVA tech people are doing their best but they're fighting a multi-front war right now. Thanks for your patience.

Can John Ensign disown his dad?

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:39:00 -0700

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) finally has achieved distinction within the Senate -- albeit in a manner of which he's surely never dreamt. Citizens for Ethics & Responsibility in Government* has named Johnny Casino to its Most Corrupt Members of Congress list. It's an elite club in which he'll find six fellow Republicans and eight Democrats.

This calls for an awards-acceptance speech and, like so many before him, Sen. Ensign couldn't have done it without Dad. CREW's citation reprises the role played by recent Kansas casino aspirant Mike Ensign, who once upon a time ruled Mandalay Resort Group: "Sen. Ensign’s parents paid Ms. Hampton and her family $96,000 after they had learned of the affair. Mr. Coggins [the senator's attorney] insisted the payments were not made from campaign or official funds, nor were they related to any campaign or official duties. Rather, he explained, the April 2008 payments were 'gifts made out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time.' Each of Sen. Ensign’s parents made out four checks in the amount of $12,000 to Cynthia Hampton, her husband and two of their children. [emphasis added] Sen. Ensign’s office claimed the alleged $25,000 severance payment was part of his parents’ $96,000 'gift.'"

So, in case your son doesn't show appropriate gratitude, let me say, thank you, thank you, thank you Mike Ensign for smearing feces all over the casino industry's image at the precise moment that new (and very conservative) jurisdictions are opening to it. And if you're MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren, you might want to have your accountants vet the old Mandalay corporate books, just to be doubly sure there weren't any "patterns of generosity" back around 2002, when Sen. Ensign is widely believed to have had a prior affair. (The identity of his alleged mistress is no secret around Vegas, by the way.)

For all the senior Ensign's labors in the gaming industry, he's likelier to go into the history books as the bagman and enabler for his son's sexcapades.

Sen. John Ensign believes out-of-wedlock births should be "somewhat stigmatized." But out-of-wedlock sex? His position on that is more "nuanced," shall we say.

(* Yeah, yeah, I know: Ethics + responsibility + guvmint often seems oxymoronic, especially in Nevada, but we're working on it. And the senatorial Twitter feed actually springs from the satirically fecund mind of Andrew Kiraly.)

Speaking of Mike Ensign, what the heck was Kansas Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten doing playing the role of media-shy Ensign's personal spokesman? In a literally incredible statement, as paraphrased by The Associated Press, Van Petten said of Ensign and ex-Mandalay sidekick Peter Simon: "they didn't like the fact that the Lottery owns the new gambling under Kansas law — or the 27 percent share of revenues reserved for state and local governments."

Bullshit. Casino ownership by the Lottery has been part of the deal from Day One. As for the tax-rate malarkey, Mandalay Resort Group co-owned the Grand Victoria riverboat in Illinois, which -- in 2003 -- became eligible for a top-tier tax rate of 70%. In Detroit -- again on Ensign's watch -- MotorCity's tax rate went to 24%. In neither instance did Mandalay stalk out of town in a state of high dudgeon.

So the notion of Ensign Sr. falling into a gentlemanly swoon at the prospect of a 27% rate just doesn't wash. Either he and Simon knew this going in and are now prevaricating -- via messenger boy Van Petten -- or they're doofuses who failed to perform due diligence on the Kansas market. Which reputation would they prefer?

The truly inexcusable Van Petten further went on to apologize for his own state's oversight apparatus, saying, "Basically, [Simon and Ensign] just didn't like the regulatory makeup." Well too bad for them. It comes with the territory. What Van Petten should be saying is that if a couple of unemployed ex-Strip casino executives don't like the way Kansas does business, they never ought to have set their Gucci loafers in the Sunflower State to begin with. Or, in the immortal words of Law & Order's Jack McCoy:

"If you're gonna play stickball in Canarsie, learn Brooklyn rules."

Postscript

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:08:00 -0700

In detailing our blogging woes, I forgot to mention that we can't send e-mail today either. So if I owe you a response, I apologize and will get back to you as soon as we're able.

In the meantime, I'm still trying to recover from the ordeal of trying to hear Matt Goss, in his new Palms show. But if you find Justin Timberlake too edgy, Goss is your man. The ladies love him; the air was rife with cougar-esqe pheromones Saturday night. I'm only surprised no panties were flung onstage. As for his singing, I'm not convinced that ex-CIA director Porter Goss wouldn't be an improvement.

Please stand by ...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:27:00 -0700

Technical problems continue to afflict our blogs. Those of you who are subscribers had many of your e-mail alerts bounced back to us last weekend. Also, *new* photos cannot be uploaded -- only ones that have been posted on the blog in days of yore. Hence, no photographs of the late Shadow, nor of Newt Gingrich's gavel, never mind something really important like the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino fire.

As a consequence, we're looking at moving to a different software (suggestions are appreciated). Hopefully, all of the 1,500+ existing S&G entries will make the transfer ... keep your fingers crossed. Maybe this will be the end of the Comment-Eating Server, too. We can only hope.

Pod People

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:55:00 -0700

Now that our linking capability is back, here is the Strip Podcast episode in which I pinch-hit for an absent co-host. The father of new sensation Elijah Johnson had trouble finding Steve Friess' studio and the show was already on a tight schedule, so we kind of ran through everything else at bullet-train speed. Still, it was fun and I hope you enjoy it.

As a visual aid, here's some raw (very raw) B-roll of Elijah Johnson in performance at the Las Vegas Celebrates the Music of Michael Jackson benefit on Aug. 29 at The Palms. Here's hoping that Master Johnson is able to fulfill his early promise and doesn't evolve into another Earl Turner.

Twitter, ergo sum

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:40:00 -0700

OK, so we still can't upload photos but we can sort of link, thanks to a workaround.

In the meantime, Las Vegas Advisor is plentifully available on Twitter. We have ...

LVA_Tweet (1,791 followers). "This one aggregates [Question of the Day], S&G, [Today's News], Spotlight, and then whatever I throw in there manually," writes Webmistress Jessica, who's also solely responsible for the following three:

SinCityAdvisor (766 followers). Sample entry:

RT @Inkedmag Voting closes today for the Inked Awards. Vote now for tattooer of the year -> http://ow.ly/oPX3 #tattoo #ink #inked

ToplessVegas (567 followers). Sample entry:

Big Booty Urban Nite tonite @ Palomino - only nude club in Vegas with liquor license. Say hi to Foreplay for us ; ) #vegas #stripclub #nude

GreenVegas (251 followers). Sample entry:

RT @HuffPostGreen PETA is at it again: Check out this banned ad with Pamela Anderson (NSFW) http://bit.ly/Qppfj

Personally, I Tweet not. For starters, I lack the manual dexterity of Gov. Jim Gibbons (a prodigy capable of writing hundreds of text messages per day, earning him the sobriquet "Governor Busythumbs"). If the meme of the moment is "I Tweet, therefore I am," I shall have to settle for nonexistence, as per this music video:

Yup, that's Twitter phenom Crystal Chappell delivering the tag line. As for 72-year-old Guiding Light, it will be extinguished on Sept. 18, to be replaced on Oct. 5 with a new incarnation of Let's Make a Deal, starring Venetian headliner Wayne Brady (something for the tired housewife) and being taped at the Tropicana Las Vegas.

(Kinda neat how I brought it back 'round to the the Strip there, huh?)

Considering the lengths people will go to in order to get on a game show (and the near-riot that occurred when The Price is Right staged an anniversary show at The Rio), I'd say a Brady-enhanced Let's Make a Deal is economic stimulus in which Las Vegas can finally believe. Bummer about "La lumiere que guide" (™ Will Ferrell), though.

Any readers who have Twitter accounts and wish to be followed, please post in the "Comments" thread. And if the Comment-Eating Server thwarts you, I'll do a special S&G post on your behalf. Is that a deal?

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.

Optimism in Macao, euphoria at CityCenter

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:33:00 -0700

Relaxation of stringent visa restrictions from Guangdong Province came a full four months sooner than expected, starting Sept. 1. Now, residents will be able to visit Macao once a month instead of quarterly. While this has prompted J.P. Morgan to raise its price target on Las Vegas Sands stock, analysts also fret that Sands may overreact and go pedal to the metal on its unfinished Cotai Strip™ hotels.

Those same analysts are bullish on the manufacturing sector, though. They think casinos will be more willing to reinvest in the slot base as 2009 draws to a close. Also, the onward march of casino expansion means more jurisdictions and facilities to whom IGT, Bally and WMS can peddle their products. They're 'meh' on regional casino operators like Penn National, Ameristar Casinos and Pinnacle Entertainment, due to flattish performance. (Penn could catch a break in Kansas, though I still think Cordish Gaming has that sewn up.)

But that's a rave notice compared to the long face Morgan analysts pull when pondering Boyd Gaming's prospects. They cite the slow-to-recover, promo-driven locals-casino market in Las Vegas ("trickle-down" economics of the worst sort); Atlantic City's critical condition -- "the best-case scenario here is that [Borgata] would do less bad" than most of A.C. -- those blah regional metrics and new competition for the Blue Chip riverboat in Indiana, which had been looking like 2009's feel-good story.

Intriguingly, the prospect of a Strip acquistion is floated in lieu of a 'stalking horse' bid for floundering Station Casinos. Boyd's still got enough unused borrowing capacity it could even swing an acquisition of The Mirage (with money to spare), not to mention some of the lower-hanging fruit, which now includes Planet Hollywood. But if the J.P. Morgan guys are gun-shy concerning Boyd ...

They're over the moon about MGM Mirage's CityCenter: "we are increasingly under the belief that City Center will be a new must-see property for both domestic and international gamers/travelers that should drive solid visitation volumes to the Strip in 2010. We were impressed with the massive 18m-square-foot complex ... a new type of high-end product for the Strip that should garner increased trips. It has a very contemporary feel that is different than anything else on the Strip, with lots of natural light and high ceilings, interesting room product and, for a massive property, ease of getting around from one 'neighborhood' to the next."

More good news comes in the form of a press release from Commerce Casino (in Commerce, Calif.), which rolled out the welcome mat for a group of undoubtedly weary firefighters. A strike force of 30 Bay Area-based firemen is being housed in the casino's hotel, with the casino comping all meals and picking up most of the hotel tab. Let's hope that such civic-mindedness spreads through the industry like -- if you'll forgive the analogy -- wildfire.

In case it matters, "super-starlet" (yes, that's the official term) Holly Madison has been given a 12-month contract extension at Peepshow, so she's obviously earning her pay. Also, I've heard through the grapevine that she and incoming Aubrey O'Day do not get along, so the timing of the Madison announcement should make clear who's got the upper implant in this situation.

'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.

Many thanks ...

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:06:00 -0700

... to everyone who wrote in and overwhelmed us with messages of condolence regarding the late Shadow. Time doesn't permit writing individual replies to each and every one of you, although you have touched my heart deeply. So thanks go out to Steve Kallis (and I would imagine the Humane Society thanks you, too), Jeff in OKC, Jason the poolman, Richard Abowitz, arm53, detroit1051, Frank P., William Heckel (check out his Web site), Jinx (ditto), Aaron, Jim and smudger.

The apartment still seems very empty without Shadow's graceful -- if sometimes surprisingly obstreperous -- presence. Her brother, Mr. Bit, needs a lot of comforting. Fasolt is pretty much the same as ever.

Eventually the painful memories will recede and the good ones will take their place. Right now it's difficult to visualize Shadow other than as I last saw her, lying on the veterinarian's table, emaciated and misshapen, with her stomach bloated by the tumor. Her eyes seemed to say, "Let me go," but you're never adequately prepared for when they bring her back with a catheter sticking from her forearm, let alone for when you have to tell the vet it's OK to administer the lethal injection.

However, Shadow was in the extremely ethical hands of Mountain Vista Animal Hospital, one of Las Vegas' greatest assets. They could have strung me along with false hope and thereby milked my bank account dry, but they were most candid about the gravity of the situation. Thanks to them, Shadow's suffering was relatively brief. I hope I'm so fortunate when it's my turn to shuffle off this mortal coil.

In the meantime, it's a little difficult to give a rat's patootie about what's happening in the casino industry. I'm sure you understand why.

Besides ... the fallout from last week's blog meltdown continues to descend. Our linking capabilities are temporarily kaput and the photo library has vanished. Hence the somewhat gray and bare-bones look of S&G these days. Darn, and I have this great screencap of Edward Quartermain looking for all the world like Sheldon Adelson ...

Good luck for Illinois casinos

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:49:00 -0700

Turns out that it's not so easy to shower the Land of Lincoln with 45,000 video poker machines ... especially when no money has been allocated to regulate the process:

Quote of the Day

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:25:00 -0700

"It’s a bit disappointing to see that after months of work they come up with a new strategy which is a bit like the old strategy." -- Fortis Investment Partners fund manager Theo Maas on Aristocrat Leisure, which continues to flounder. The company recently wrote down its stake in fading PokerTek, primary supplier of robo-poker technology.

Stupid Politician Tricks

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:43:00 -0700

Please meet our contestants:

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV). "I think it would be inappropriate to start any other way than to say I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry. I can't say I'm sorry enough. I made a big mistake in my life and I apologize once again to all of you." Thus spake Johnny Casino to 100 supporters in Fernley, Nev. Perhaps he was rehearsing those remarks for when he has to deliver them to his dad, Mike Ensign, whose Prairie Sky casino proposal was (rather too) coincidentally and summarily dismissed in Kansas this week.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), techno-whiz and renowned psychic. "There were a couple of people in the crowd 'with YouTubes, Mr. Baucus added (meaning cameras), and he posited that the agitators were paid and probably from out of state. ('I could just sense it,' he said.)" Yes, my fellow Americans, it is this clueless old fogey whom Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has made virtually the sole arbiter of the future of American health care. If you have reasons to vote for Reid next year, subtract one.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), churchy casino opponent. The hypocrisy here is so rank that ... well, let's just go to the video (Jindal's up first, so you can skip the remainder if you like):

Ah yes, because the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor is so much more heavily traveled than I-15 between SoCal and Vegas. Besides, New Orleans is a renowned temple of virtue and Louisiana doesn't have any o' them vile casinos like Las Vegas. [/sarcasm]

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA). Included for party balance and on the presumption that he continues to employ, at taxpayer expense, a raging termagant who hates, hates, HATES being called "Liz." And boy, will she let you know it.

Rivers Casino by the numbers

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:30:00 -0700

Now that you can play the slots in Pittsburgh, just what's on tap? J.P. Morgan has published the slot inventory of brand new Rivers Casino and the slot floor (which is 55% reel-spinning) breaks down by denomination as follows:

Pennies: 973

Two-cent: 320

Nickels: 348

Quarters: 673

50-cent: 38

$1: 351

$5: 85

$100: 4

$500: 1 (plus sundry $2, $10, $15 and $25 slots)

Electronic roulette: 26

Electronic blackjack: 70

Three-card poker: 10

Interesting to see how penny slots, despite being a poorer value play, are now dominant over quarter machines and have thoroughly routed nickel slots. Congratulations to Neil Bluhm and his executive team for getting Rivers Casino up and running in what seems like no time at all, especially after initial developer Don Barden had left it stuck in the mud. Thankfully, the only lasting damage will be to Barden's ability to get future casino licenses.

There's treachery afoot!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:10:00 -0700

There I was, 90 minutes into composing a piece de résistance of blogging about palace intrigue surrounding Stanley Ho's sickbed ... when a defective link to some Macao TV coverage froze my computer. Dozens of links, paragraph upon paragraph ... all gone, force-quitted into oblivion. It's enough to make one retire to the nearest sickroom. Aaaaarrrrggghhh!

In the future, when I get the notion to engage in long-form blogorrhea, somebody please belabor me with the nearest heavy object until the fit passes.

When hackers attack

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:35:00 -0700

Unlike the now-debunked ATM scams at the Riviera and The Rio, this is the real deal, as it played out at Mount Airy Casino in the great state of Pennsylvania:

Adelson bombing in Pennsylvania; RoboPoker returns; Dissent over Wynn

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:26:00 -0700

Both the opening of Sands Bethlehem, and recent expansions of Meadows Racetrack & Casino (+29%) and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs (+21%) drove an 18.5% increase in slot revenue this July. With $19.6 million in gross revenue, Sands was only good for fifth place, barely behind Mohegan Sun ($19.8 million).

Adelson's new slot parlor was well off the pace set by Philadelphia Park Casino & Racetrack ($30.8 million) and The Meadows ($29.9 million). Harrah's Chester didn't perform too shabbily, either, pulling in $27.3 million from the one-armed bandits. Both it and Philadelphia Park were less than 2% down from their July '08 revenues, putting paid to the theory that Sands Bethlehem would draw -- at least in any significant degree -- from the Philadelphia area. Only nearby Mt. Airy Resort & Casino is taking a serious hit.

Downtown Reno's nicest casino, the spacious Silver Legacy, is taking a big step downmarket by succumbing to the cheesy allure of RoboPoker. Even that bit of good news for PokerTek wasn't enough to keep Aristocrat Leisure from writing down its share of the company.

Steve Wynn is The Man, at least in Macao, according to the controversial Jim Cramer. I agree.

Why then, is Wynn Resorts COO Marc Schorr cashing out at a time when the stock is arguably undervalued? Maybe he's just one more American who got overextended in the go-go Bush Era.

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: Midnight Jim, Sands, "Peepshow", Hard Rock, Reid

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:50:00 -0700

Chronic ineptitude by Nevada's governor is endless fodder for comedy (like entrusting your re-election campaign to the former marketing director of a ski resort and political novice.)

But it also has perilous consequences. For instance, his thoughtless decision to pack the Nevada Gaming Commission with lawyers now threatens to hamstring the board. Jane Ann Morrison details how new Commissioner Joe Brown had to abstain from 24% of last month's votes. Seems he had conflict-of-interest issues with a couple of miniscule slot houses called Station Casinos and Harrah's Entertainment. Whoops. Brown's is the most egregious problem but it's hardly the only one.

Most of Jim Gibbons' appointments to the NGC and the Nevada Gaming Control Board have been solid but this was a real boner and somebody up in Carson City should have seen it coming.

Midnight Jim discovers Facebook. He also learns the need to think before you "friend." He sure won't be getting Bill Raggio's vote next year.

Rescue may be at hand for the beautiful and historic Boulder Dam Hotel, thanks to a mysterious benefactor. As for recent arrival Shear Madness, not so much. I hear that the "interactive" show may not have been interactive enough to ride the Vegas wave of Marriage Can Be Murder and Tony 'n Tina's Wedding.

In case you missed it ... Apparently eager to stanch the flow of exiting executives, Las Vegas Sands has given Rob Golstein a promotion to senior VP. The new title comes with a $535,000 raise. For those of you keeping score at home, that's $2,758 for each of the 194 workers Sands just pink-slipped.

Bean out, O'Day in: The producers of Peepshow are, more than anything else, great at generating publicity. It's official that Shoshana Bean will be supplanted in late summer by Playboy cover girl Aubrey O'Day. It sounds as though Bean was plugged into the cast on very short notice (with seven days or fewer of rehearsal), lending credence to the reports that Mel B.'s disappearing act came as an unpleasant surprise to the erstwhile Scary Spice. At present, Bean is the best thing Peepshow has going. How unfortunate it was but a brief fling. Shoshana, we barely knew ya.

Rushing in where angels fear to tread, Morgans Hotel Group will open 490 more Hard Rock Hotel rooms on July 27, well ahead of schedule. The timing seems odd but Morgans and financier/hostage DLJ Merchant Partners have to make their rash of expansions at the HRH start turning a buck.

Reid safe at home. The window of opportunity for unseating Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is closing fast. Thanks to Reid's support of assault weapons, the National Rifle Association has got his back. Avowed challenged Sharron Angle is woefully short of cash, while GOP dream candidate Rep. Dean Heller has even less financial traction. If Reid's unpopularity with the home crowd makes him a low-hanging piñata, the GOP just keeps flailing at empty air.

To blog or not to blog?

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:52:00 -0700

That is the question for today. It's not the larger, existential question of whether the opinions of one curmudgeonly blogger amount to a hill of beans in this world, especially when even the village idiot has a cyber-soapbox.

No, it's a more practical quandary. My cup runneth over with prospective topics -- and with pending deadlines. To wit, a theatre review and a news story for the July 23 CityLife, reviews to stockpile for Mike Shackleford's forthcoming WizardOfVegas.com Web site, three Question of the Day topics, and a revision of an old article I wrote for Washington National Opera in the wayback.

Say ... one of the QoDs upon which I'm working asks for instances of complaints about Harrah's Entertainment. Care to chip in? You'll be duly credited (or not, if you prefer). Actually, the back pages of S&G have been a marvelous source of information on this topic, due in no small part to your contributions. Actor Ben Browder (Stargate SG-1) says that the most important element of any story is the audience. That goes double for S&G.

Also, in the (I hope) very near future, there will be some original S&G reportage on labor negotiations at Caesars Palace, among other topics. In the meantime, I have a week of GamingFloor.com to catch up with, plus wrapping my brain around LinkedIn and Facebook, when there's a moment to spare. Given the exponentially faster advance of technology (compared to say, 1965), I can but conclude that it's a Star Trek world and we're just living in it ... long and prosperously, one hopes.

In the meantime, if the blogorrhea is less generous than average, I beg your indulgence.

All-Star Game: Not much to say about it, other than its relative brevity was merciful. (Never saw so much first-pitch swinging in my life.) Contrary to expectation, the most interesting aspect was the usually tiresome pre-game extravaganza. Sheryl Crow gave a master class in how the National Anthem should be sung and President Obama threw a rainbow curve the likes of which I haven't seen since the heyday of Sid Fernandez.

And it did bring a lump to my throat to see our nation's first black president shaking hands with Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, venerated figures in the Cardinal-worshiping McKee family and two players whose prime coincided with the apex of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. I'd love to know how much Brock and Gibson think our country has advanced since then. Oh, and Tim McCarver was actually bearable. Wonders never cease.

The Internet has jumped the shark

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:47:00 -0700

Yesterday's online version of the Las Vegas Review-Journal devoted actual bandwidth to Editor Thomas Mitchell singing along with his computer:

And you thought we just made that up. Looking on the bright side, Mitchell's hootenanny has gotten exponentially more views as any of his other YouTube videos, one of which features him wearing his trademark Stetson. Oh, and for excitement that's truly palpable, you can't beat this. It's like listening to Gramps wax rhapsodic about his Tin Lizzie.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:19:00 -0700

"We rode the [Las Vegas M]onorail once, 'we' meaning me and the overpowering sense of desolation and abject loneliness that occupied all the other seats." -- Las Vegas CityLife Managing Editor Andrew Kiraly.

Case Bets: California, Packer pickle, Macao pix, Holy Cow!, Singapore, RoboPoker, etc.

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:24:00 -0700

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seven essential Web sites ... and other news

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RoboPoker is dead!

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:17:00 -0700

In Vegas anyway. Excalibur is shutting down its 12 dealerless poker tables, three months after field trials ended. I can't imagine the World Series of Poker crowd was gravitating to the Ex, that's for sure.

In a masterpiece of spin, PokerTek CEO Mark Roberson proclaimed, "We do not expect the termination of this agreement to have a significant impact on our reported revenues or results of operations." Man, your product just bombed on the Strip! That's definitely going to crimp the future of robopoker. (Remember, the games were also a flop -- pardon the pun -- in Atlantic City.) Not fooled, one investment house promptly downgraded PokerTek.

You go, Gaughan

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:22:00 -0700

South Point Hotel and Casino from Motionbug on Vimeo.

South Point owner Michael Gaughan demonstrates yet again why he's part of that noble but vanishing breed: the casino executive who realizes that you have to spend money in order to make money. Gary Loveman could learn a lot from this guy.

The Stepford Casino

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:52:00 -0700

Welcome to the casino of the near future. Those robo-dealers are looking more and more lifelike ... and foxier.

(Kudos to Ian Sutton of GamingFloor.com for unearthing this gem.)

Robopoker is on the march, too.

Loveman in denial

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:36:00 -0700

Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman continues his media-availability tour. In today's installment, he grants an audience to the Las Vegas Business Press and insists that not only is everything as right as rain at Harrah's but that the LBO he steered the company into is really "an ability to focus on long-term viability and the health of the business." (Bond analysts remain skeptical.)

Despite bragging on the vast "resources and ... expertise" (like these?) of Apollo Management and TPG Capital, Loveman doesn't have any new strategems or projects to offer. The overwhelming consensus of stock analysts and customers nowadays is that Less = Less at a Harrah's-owned property. Meanwhile, the debtholders who bankrolled the buyout are asked to take haircut after haircut, and could be forgiven for thinking they've been played for suckers. Is anybody benefiting from this deal? Oh, I forgot.

One could go on but the story's mostly a rehash of old Loveman platitudes, plus another refrain of "We Love Macao." Harrah's management has been warbling that tune incessantly of late -- so much so that it sounds like an overt courtship of Pansy Ho, should she and MGM Mirage get a divorce.

The most newsworthy aspect of the story is the accompanying photo, in which the former Harvard prof appears to gotten a deep chestnut-brown dye job. If indeed that's the case, Loveman should ask for his money back: It's not only undignified, it's inept.

Gordie Brown goes down: If you think Loveman gets a bad review, you should read about the Golden Nugget's star attraction, who inhabits "a place where pop culture pressed 'pause' at about the time of 'Achy Breaky Heart,' Hootie & the Blowfish and Forrest Gump."

Then again, there must be people who groove to Hervé Villechaize jokes. Trouble is, they're all going to be down at the Riviera, watching Charo. And when you're described as a poor man's Danny Gans ... well, do the blows land any lower than that?

Great news for slot players: Seven more years of Clue and Battleship. Give Hasbro credit for knowing a good thing (in this case, its alliance with WMS Gaming) when it saw it. And, just because we can't say it enough, WMS' Star Trek machines are the cat's pajamas. Just for the record, you know.

Train to Nowhere II

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:59:00 -0700

Sig Rogich's choo-choo to nowhere won't really be the privately funded enterprise that it's being sold as, the Las Vegas Sun helpfully explains. Bottom line: Rail transportation is inherently unprofitable, so you and I will be ponying up for the R&R Express (as in Rogich & Reid) sooner or later.

Vegas on TV: Our fair city is showcased on Dateline NBC tonight, but not in a nice way. Look for the cameo appearance by Bally's Las Vegas in the pimp-daddy segment. Judging by the brazen attitude of the miscreants shown in this morning's preview on Today, they've taken that "What happens here, stays here" bromide for gospel truth.

Xanadu: the prequel?

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:26:00 -0700

Martin Stern's 1975 conceptualization of a Xanadu casino-hotel, as virtually reconstructed by Dr. David G. Schwartz, struck a familiar chord with one S&G reader. They quickly detected a resemblance between Welton Becket's 1971 Disney's Contemporary Resort, built in modular fashion (hotel rooms were hoisted into place one at a time) for Disney World ...

... and the Xanadu design ...

How does it look to you? That pyramid look was certainly the "in" thing back when Stern was pitching Xanadu (which probably explains his choice of concept). Here's another example, from Cancun, the Grand Oasis:

Of course, when Las Vegas did get around to a pyramid-shaped hotel, it was such a flub (Luxor) that it's still being "fixed" to this day. Too bad we'll never know if Stern's concept would have worked because post-Luxor nobody's going to try anything remotely like it in Vegas again.

In other news: What may soon become know as Juice Train 2 continues to make headlines, thanks to Sen. Harry Reid's (D-NV) sudden flip-flop.

Comrade Spam

Thu, 28 May 2009 12:39:00 -0700

Our spam-blasting friend from the land of Mao Tse-Tung has struck again, posting another 10-odd "comments" which -- if you're an S&G subscriber -- wind up in your "in" box. Whoever this fellow is, he's a wily and persistent bastard. No sooner have I blocked an IP address than Comrade Spam counterattacks from another. And another. If this cyber-cockroach wants war, I shall be happy to oblige him. My only regret is that faithful readers have been caught in the virtual crossfire.

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.

Under Attack II

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:50:00 -0700

Aside from being the title of ABBA's final single (and lamest music video), it's also the status of our Web site. Which means precious little blogorrhea, I fear. In the interim, experience an absolutely mind-boggling interview with Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, then take a sanity break with this:

Since the music video (one of the few not directed by Lasse Hallstrom) is such a non-event, I opted instead for ABBA's last-ever appearance in Germany, an emotional occasion where the audience swarmed the stage during the final credit roll.

"Fixations"

Thu, 21 May 2009 11:23:00 -0700

No, Guy Laliberté is not prancing around our offices in cap and bells, reducing staffers to helpless laughter with declarations of, "Criss Angel is not a magician ... he is an artist!"

Instead, cyber-gremblins have rendered our Web operations FUBAR -- as you have undoubtedly discovered already. This necessitates a temporary suspension of S&G operations. Among the items trapped momentarily in Limbo is an explanation of why it looks more and more like MGM Mirage will have to evacuate Macao ... plus early dispatches from the front lines of The Lion King.

However ... a few S&G tweaks have been performed, including a direct link to the article that inspired "Inside the Mind of Trump." It's a wild ride inside the Trumpian psyche.

I'll catch you on the flip.

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.

Dream on!

Wed, 13 May 2009 11:08:00 -0700

We're less than three weeks away from the opening of City of Dreams, the megaresort that many hope will defibrillate Macao's economy. One of its must-see attractions is sure to be this variegated LED ceiling. You can probably get the idea without watching the entire video. On the other hand, it is very soothing and relief is a precious commodity these days.

QoD'd out

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

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

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

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

Harrah's saves $$, hires robots

Mon, 11 May 2009 12:38:00 -0700

No shit, man. This comes straight from the mailbag, courtesy of Dennis Conrad's daily news flash: Harrah's Seven Stars members (the highest-tiered customers) received a unique gift as part of special invite to Harrah's Grand Biloxi casino resort. Invitees could pick up a free iRobot Roomba® (the self-operating intelligent vacuum system that roams your floors and cleans as it goes). Guests also received a complimentary two-night stay and up to $800 in reimbursed airfare.

What Dennis is too great of a gentleman to mention is that if you're hoovering your own hotel room, Harrah's Entertainment potentially saves on maid service. Thrift, Horatio!

Why are you reading this ...

Fri, 08 May 2009 18:54:00 -0700

... and not out seeing the new Star Trek movie? Unless you already have. (Lucky dog.) Of course, getting a ticket this weekend might be as difficult as finding an empty seat at a Star Trek slot machine. I've seen some themes either get bungled or just plain underused, but WMS was right on target with that puppy.

To Gans or not to Gans? That is the question.

Fri, 08 May 2009 12:00:00 -0700

A week after the demise of Strip entertainer Danny Gans, fissures are starting to appear in the cone of silence that's enshrouded his untimely exit from this vale of tears -- and let's just say it's not pretty. The Las Vegas Review-Journal is hamstrung by a potential conflict of interest because its book-publishing arm is slated to bring out Gans' memoirs, but the Las Vegas Sun has been less circumspect and the blogosphere is buzzing like bees. Already, war has broken out between two cyber-journalists and things promise to only get worse.

What do you think? Would you care to read a boiled-down summary of "The Investigation So Far" (as TNT reruns of Law & Order bill their mid-episode recaps) or is it better to remain aside from the fray? My mind keeps looping an unanswerably pithy aphorism: "Don't touch shit with gloves. The gloves get shittier, the shit doesn't get glovier."

Speaking of Law & Order, habitual viewers of TV crime dramas (like myself) got a salutary dash of reality via the Gans post morterms. You know how Lt. Van Buren used to be able to "get the tox screen" in a matter of hours? The toxicology report on the unfortunate Mr. Gans will not be complete for weeks to come, supposedly. And "Las Vegas" on CSI looks remarkably like the residential parts of Burbank, come to think of it.

On the lighter side, be sure an check out today's "Question of the Day," involving a robotic version of comedian Foster Brooks that once inhabited MGM Grand 2.0 (i.e., the lion's-mouth version). It's a strange story, even by Vegas standards, but it's only available today. We're working on ways to put the whole QoD archive online ... honest Injun. It's just taking a while.

Technical difficulties, please stand by

Mon, 04 May 2009 16:48:00 -0700

As you've seen, we're having some problems with the embedding of the most recent Macao video montage. S&G apologizes for the temporary convenience. Trust me, it will be worth the wait ... but, if you're disinclined to wait, go to Ian Sutton's invaluable GamingFloor.com and watch it there.

"I tawt I taw a Twitter Tweet!"

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:50:00 -0700

No furry felines reside at Las Vegas Advisor, but we have joined the wonderful world of Twitter. If you sign up, our online alter ego lva_miguel (long story) will update you on Questions of the Day, blog postings, Today's News items, polls, etc. We're still debating which LVA features to "tweet" (or to "twat," as Stephen Colbert memorably put it) and you might say we're "taking requests" on that front.

Not to worry. These are automated "twats," not customized ones. Which means I shan't be Tweet-ing you to break the news that I just ate two Pop-Tarts or whatever. The phenomenon of Internet exhibitionism, whether in the form of Webcams, MySpace pages or sending minute-by-minute Twitter reports of how bad Criss Angel's Cirque du Soleil show is (as if that information wasn't already old hat all the way out to Centauri Prime), is something that I regard with a fair degree of bewilderment. But one must adapt or go the way of the dinosaurs.

Heck, I was naively surprised when a Rio employee recognized me on sight -- such are the perils of blogging. We should have stuck with that Dr. Evil Stiffs & Georges avatar while we had the chance ...

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.

Regulators brace for crash

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:02:00 -0700

Wow.

I'll say it again.

Wow. It wasn't that long ago that the prospect of multiple major casino bankruptcies was unthinkable to a degree that words cannot convey. Even now, after weeks of bad news followed by worse news, the enormity of the present collapse didn't really sink in until the Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the Nevada Gaming Control Board has formed a special crisis unit to handle an anticipated series of bankruptcies. I daresay the NGCB probably never thought it would have to clear the decks for multiple crash landings like these.

Big deal? The Sun Herald of Biloxi is practically squeeing over the arrival of some A.C. Coin & Slot products that offer communal bonus rounds. (The story reads more like advertorial copy than serious journalism.) What I find interesting here is that the shared bonus round is something I've heard used as a selling point for server-based gaming. So, if it can be accomplished with conventional slot technology, why retrofit your floor for SBG? The casino crash isn't going to smother SBG in the cradle but it's definitely going to subject it to a very prolonged infancy.

A.C. Coin, meanwhile, is making inroads with these slot banks. In the Vegas area, "Super Bankroll Bonus" is in 14 casinos and not a grind joint in the bunch. "Slingo Bonus Deluxe" is on 11 Vegas gaming floors with Bellagio and Mandalay Bay soon to join them.

Meet the New Vegas, same as the old Vegas. Or so one entertainment scribe contends.

Quote of the Day

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:39:00 -0700

"Raise or be destroyed."

"So the score is poker dealers 1, cylons 0." -- UNLV Center for Gaming Research Director David G. Schwartz on the failure of robo-poker at Trump Plaza.

New LVA feature

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:21:00 -0700

Thanks to the wonders of technology, LasVegasAdvisor.com is now able to host video. To kick off this feature, who more photogenic than Donny & Marie? Personally, I think Earth Hour is a silly idea, a near-meaningless "feel good" gesture that exculpates us from doing anything serious about climate change. But who am I to argue with the Osmonds? Besides, it makes for a short and snappy kickoff of our first LVA-hosted video. Enjoy!

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.

Quote of the Day

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

"You mean like when I go to any given page of the R-J site and a gigantic roll-down ad takes over my browser and then disappears? Like that?" -- "Bill," pointing out the hypocrisy of a Review-Journal column decrying embedded advertising in TV newscasts.

Venetian Macao rescued

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:53:00 -0700

The video, that is. (The future of Sheldon Adelson's folie de grandeur is anybody's guess.) Yesterday's jumble of embed code has been replaced with graceful imagery, thanks to the wizardry of our IT department. Happy viewing!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Packer gets a discount; solving the I-15 problem

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:50:00 -0700

Though it can't seem to settle on a dollar figure for James Packer's renegotiated Cannery Casino Resorts purchase, this story makes one salient point: A $1.7 billion-plus acquisition could be converted into a 25% stake for $370 million-$390 million. That effectively reprices 100% of Cannery at $1.48 billion-$1.56 billion. Which enables Packer to save face on what is described as an "increasingly onerous deal." Or it could be a graceful way of bowing out of further U.S. casino adventures in favor of a renewed Down Under focus.

A reader writes ...

I know that you are a big fan of a high-speed rail system to Vegas, and I do see the need to increase the traffic flow from SoCal to Vegas.

But I wonder if anyone has run the numbers to compare adding an additional highway lane or two (and even expanding any bridges) from the north edge of the LA area to Vegas? And how that figure compares to the cost of a high-speed rail.

Again, I'm not an opponent of rail lines (in fact, my wife comes from a long-line of train-employed relatives), but I wonder where the best "bang for the buck" would come from.

From some VERY basic numbers on the web, I'm getting estimates of about $1 million per mile per lane for highway building in the desert. Even with adding a lane in each direction, that's about $2 million per mile, or around $400 million for the approx. 200 miles from the north edge of metro LA to Vegas. Even if you more than double that figure for bridge expansions, etc., you still only end up with a cost of $1 billion. Compare that to the $8 billion in the stimulus package for high-speed rail (although I'm not sure how much of that $8 billion goes to the Vegas rail, or what the total cost of that project would be).

As you can tell, I am NO expert on this, but it might be interesting to hear from some experts (and who don't have a dog in the hunt).

You make good points, Kemosabe.

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!

Case Bets: Bank shot, Sin City Express

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:37:00 -0700

In today's Movable Buffet, Richard Abowitz speculates on the possible evolution (devolution?) of Las Vegas from a boomtown built on junk bonds to critical-care patient who's a ward of the banks. To Abowitz's mention of the bank-owned Cosmopolitan, I would add the Hard Rock Hotel, Stratosphere, two Arizona Charlie's and the Las Vegas Hilton. The first is owned by DLJ Merchant Partners, most of the others by Goldman Sachs.

Goldman has but a minority stake in Colony Capital's LVH. However, it enjoys veto power over any capital expenditures. Which is as good an excuse as any (or none) to mention that on my last visit to the Hilton the volume on the slot machines had "gone to 11." If it was a clever ploy to create the subliminal impression that the casino was busier than it actually was, it worked.

"Sin City Express": That mag-lev train that's causing Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) and others of his ilk to lose sleep is a real juggernaut, consisting of one unpaid retiree living on the west side of Vegas. (For the record, LV lifeline I-15 has undergone regular midweek closings this winter, to facilitate blasting, as well as one snow-induced shutdown.) At least Jindal's a smart guy just pretending to be dumb, not an out-and-moron like Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who fantasizes high-speed rail from Disneyland to a Carson City brothel. Whatever turns you on, Congressman.

"Sin City Express"

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:37:00 -0700

Expect to be hearing that catchy new canard a lot, not to mention the "Las Vegas to Disneyland" little white lie that Gov. Opie Jindal (R-LA) trotted out in his Tuesday-night audition for the 2012 presidential nomination. "Vegas to Disneyland" is, of course, a linguistic formation sure to stoke the ire of the "family values" crowd far more than the fiscal-restraint one. A jab that might possess some heft were it coming from Vegas-friendly Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) rings hollow when spouted by politicians who are anti-gambling cranks opportunistically masquerading as fiscal conservatives.

Then there was the Tennessee congresswoman whose official Web site informed constituents that the train would run from "Los [sic] Vegas to Las [sic] Angeles." Your tax dollers [sic] at work, folks. Perhaps federally funded literacy programs should start with remedial classes at the Capitol.

As for "Sin City Express," if the feasibility study goes well and if the Anaheim-to-LV route is approved and if it can be financed (a whole lotta "ifs"), we ought to call the mag-lev train precisely that, just to make its detractors suck on it. For that matter, why is the need for high-speed rail of any sort open to debate? Do we pride ourselves on taking a back seat to other industrialized nations?

In the meantime, deficit hawks and pietists bicker amongst themselves. And Howard Stutz makes a trenchant observation: The fortunes of Lousiana -- where Harrah's Entertainment and Boyd Gaming are major employers -- are tied to those of Las Vegas. Maybe Jindal would like to take a long, slow ride on Amtrak and think it over.

"Singapore City Express": No cost overruns at Sands Marina Bay, quoth Sheldon Adelson. Unfortunately, his "no significant changes" comment begs the question of whether the $5.4 billion figure represents the actual budget or whether the tab is still in the neighborhood of $3.2 billion. If it's the latter, perhaps Sands still can make this mega-gambit pencil out.

An anonymous Harrah's bondholder

No harm, no foul: At first blush, Harrah's Entertainment has lined up strong arguments for dismissal of a bondholder lawsuit. The only non-starter would be appear to be Argument #1 -- the assertion that bondholders have suffered no harm -- which, at minimum, "assumes facts not in evidence," as the saying goes. When debt is being swapped out at a 40% writeoff, somebody's taking an uncomfortably close shave, to say the least.

"things we don't need"

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:12:00 -0700

That's the characterization of the Anaheim-to-Vegas mag-lev train purveyed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose rote recital of stale policy nostrums and stilted, faux-folksy delivery have already been likened to Kenneth the page from 30 Rock. (For me the big laugh line -- delivered with intensely furrowed brow -- was, "Never forget: We.ARE.Americans." No? Really? Get outta here!)

So it appears the high-speed rail line is to going to replace the Mob Museum as the new inside-the-Beltway pincushion of choice. Because facilitating access to two our country's leading tourism destinations is so un-American and suchlike. Then again, Jindal opposed the ballot initiative that paved the way for Pinnacle Entertainment's Porte Cochere project in Baton Rouge, so his hosannas to enterprise capitalism need to be taken with a few grains of salt. It looks like we're dealing with another case of Coburn Syndrome here.

Also, on a personal note, what parallel universe does Jindal inhabit in which decisions about medical care "are made by doctors and patients"? Many's been the time when the methods my doctor could prescribe or the number of treatments I could receive (such as acupuncture for my fibromyalgia) were second-guessed or circumscribed by some pencil-pushing dweeb at an HMO. But since Jindal is big into faith healing, I'm guessing he doesn't figure we need that fancy-pants science-y type of curing anyway.

iTouch myself

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:02:00 -0700

While New Jersey regulators have kept their cool on the iPod/iTouch card-counting application -- which one game-protection guru calls "a toy" -- their Nevada counterparts lost no time in going off half-cocked ... especially Gov. Jim Gibbons' first appointee to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Randall Sayre. (Remember, it was Mr. Sayre who was the ultimate beneficiary of Midnight Jim's witching-hour -- and unconstitutional -- swearing-in, conducted under false pretenses so that Gibbons could void certain of his predecessor's 11th hour appointments.)

Having gone way out on a ledge with this one, Sayre shows no inclination to be talked down, at least not yet. The "cheating device" in question is debunked in today's LVA, too. A larger civil liberties issue remains to be addressed: What if casino security goons descend upon some "suspicious" iPhone user, conduct a warantless search and find the card-counting program resident upon his phone, but not actually in use. Given Las Vegas Metro's documented propensity to act as a taxpayer-funded extension of casino security, the poor fool might find himself staring down the barrel of a felony rap and hard time.

Thanks to shoot-first, think-later NGCB blundering, every Nevada casino customer who's in possession of an iPhone is now a "person of interest." Meanwhile, background investigations of new players in the industry are either bungled (James Packer), skimped (Goldman Sachs) or skipped outright (the new board of Tropicana Entertainment). Great work, guys.

No thought required. Apparently the prerequisites for publishing a newspaper do not include actually reading it. Always good for a laugh, the head honcho of the Las Vegas Review-Journal has suddenly discovered the bullet-train proposal for an Anaheim-to-Las Vegas route. Or, as he puts it, "the mystery train nobody knew they wanted."

The only person to whom it's a mystery is the chap in the Amish beard who, if he deigned to read what his reporters write, would know that the Anaheim route is one of two competing proposals. The other is a half-assed notion to run a line from Vegas to -- wait for it -- Victorville. The latter is being shopped around by political fixer Sig Rogich, the man who brought you Jim Gibbons. 'Nuff said.

Case Bets: Foxwoods, Greektown, Mesquite, iPhone follies

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:19:00 -0700

Foxwoods Casino Resort's Philadelphia beachhead is financially beleagured by problems on the home front. Says one economist of the Connecticut metaresort, "Their plan for growth was built on an economy that no longer exists and is not coming back."

A glimpse of Greektown:

Blackout? Casino oligopolist Randy Black is contemplating ditching his three Mesquite casinos (one of which is barely operational). Considering that the bottom has fallen out of the Mesquite market, it's difficult to imagine who'd buy.

Own-goal for Control Board: An overreaction by the Nevada Gaming Control Board to an iPhone card-counting program has sent the latter's sales to stratospheric levels. Silver State regulators have unwittingly made Travis Yates the entrepreneur of the year.

Joint 2.0

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:48:00 -0700

Yesterday, a large gaggle of local media traipsed through the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's in-progress new version of The Joint (or Joint 2.0, if you will). Those on hand included Mike Weatherford and Jason Bracelin from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, City Life's Mike Prevatt and Dave Surratt, as well as a gushy, gung-ho reporter from KLAS-TV, among many others (but not "the Hindenburg," thankfully).

As is the case with many a hard-hat tour it bordered on pointlessness, in that you're looking at an empty concrete shell much of the time. Only the stage (40 feet deep, with a 69-foot proscenium) actually resembled what it will eventually become. The stage's dimensions, we were informed, match those of the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts ... site of ABBA's only Las Vegas appearance, by the way.

Why these preview tours aren't given when the facility is in some semblance of finality is one of the enduring mysteries of Las Vegas. Hence, computer-generated renderings will have to provide an idea of the finished product, which ought to look very much like this:

All those seats can be stored beneath the stage on a series of beds that roll out at the touch of a button, yielding this look:

As you'll see, the sound-and-lighting booth has been moved to smack-dab in the middle of the main floor. Not only will the stage be flanked by giant video screens, a third, even larger one (18' X 24') will hang at the rear of the set. Other technical specs include:

• A 96-channel mixing board • 12 subwoofers, distributed in clusters of three apiece • 23 "delay" loudspeakers (presumably to simulate the resonance that is being soaked by the acoustical-absorption material that will cover many of the surfaces) • 38 small-ish flat-screen TVs • four video projectors • 28 moveable lights • a live-blogging station for media coverage • WiFi access throughout.

As big as it looks, the furthest seat is 155 feet from the stage and I can report that the sightlines are excellent (something that could not always be said of Ye Olde Joint, with its flat main floor). If your taste runs to blood sports, Joint 2.0 can be rejiggered to host wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts, like so:

HRH exec Paul Davis said the goal of the new facility was to cosset "arena-sized productions in a small-capacity [4,000-seat] venue." Why upsize the old Joint? The market has changed, particularly in terms of the size of the shows -- and the guarantees demanded by the artists themselves. ("We're doing our best to keep ticket prices in check," Davis promises.)

Aforesaid artists shan't have to mingle with regular people, as they can go straight from a loading dock that accommodates three buses or trucks to a four-dressing-room backstage area, augmented with a luxurious green room. The latter is connected via a spiral staircase to Wasted Space, if the artist feels like a late-night jam session.

Keeping with the current Vegas spirit of pointedly sequestering the haves from the have-nots, the second floor of Joint 2.0 is all-VIP. The side balconies will be outfitted with highboy tables (it's standing-room only one floor up) and the middle of the tier is given over to seven luxury suites, approximately 430 square feet apiece. Some can be made even larger still, thanks to retractable walls. There is seating for 12 or ...

... an ottoman-laden lounging area, if you can't be bothered with watching the concert. Back on the main floor ...

... the foyer and back-bar area are spacious indeed. The style of the railings (not shown) is carried over from the previous Joint. The walls are done in the style of a guitar fretboard, one which we were assured is musicologically correct.

The HRH was able to obtain Paul McCartney as its first superstar act because -- as Davis put it -- "He wanted a down-and-dirty, old-fashioned rock 'n roll show," where he could see "the fans right down in his grille" The fact that the Joint's opening coincides with McCartner's Coachella gig didn't hurt either. General Manager Yale Rowe said "all the stars aligned" to land McCartney in the HRH's lap. "We were quite conscious of having multiple styles [of music]. We wanted to have a mega-concert that was going to open The Joint."

Open the doors and see all the computer-generated people!

Back when Ed Scheetz was still calling the shots at HRH minority owner Morgans Hotel Group, he identified Priority One as raising ADRs at the property. Rowe says that goal met with "great success" initially, when the Vegas market was at its zenith. "The consumer is almost dictating what the price points are going to be [now]," he added, noting that the Hard Rock's room rates aren't as resilient as those for most Morgans properties, though not as depressed as those of Vegas in general.

The Joint represents $60 million of a $750 million expansion, stacked atop the $770 million Morgans (or rather, its bank) paid to acquire the HRH. Much of that money is also going toward 60K square feet of convention and meeting space. Hence the 860 additional hotel rooms, in two towers, that are coming on line in August and December, respectively.

Another reason for the more-than-doubling of the property's room capacity is that, according to Rowe, the HRH has been doing spectacularly well with high-end play, save one respect: "We haven't had the room space that satisfies their discerning requests." And anyone who's followed the "Omar" Siddiqui* scandal knows just how unpleasant a dissatisfied high roller can be -- sort of like unfed infants, only more hysteria-prone.

(* -- Turns out Siddiqui's luck wasn't entirely bad. It seems he cleaned the clocks of Tim Poster and Tom Breitling back when they owned the Golden Nugget.)

HRH officialdom keeps voicing the refrain that their project has been "fully financed" since Homer was a pup. In light of this, a question was irresistible: Why didn't Morgans finance its pre-existing commitment to Echelon instead of channeling all that dough into the Hard Rock? How did the latter jump to the head of the financing queue? (It was Morgans' terminal fecklessness that helped send Echelon into cold storage, though that may yet prove a blessing in disguise.) Morgans says they'll get back to me on that but I'm not holding my breath.

While gambling still represents but a third of the HRH's cash flow, Rowe adds that he "always gave Hard Rock the credit for debunking the theory that all the revenue had to come through the casino." He also praises Peter Morton's regime for proving that the pool could be a major source of lucre. As for the current decline, he says it's consistent across all departments of the property. Allowing that it's "tough not to clamor up and play defense all the time," Rowe says, "We still succeed in getting volumes of people" into the place ... although the casino floor was utterly dead on Thursday. It can't help that construction has rendered the HRH damn near inaccessible.

The only bad news regarding The Joint is that, from the outside, it looks like somebody has flung a big-ass, off-white warehouse on the Paradise Road side of the HRH. Between that and a new parking garage and hotel tower on Harmon Avenue, Morton's original boutique hotel is almost completely masked from the street. A couple of Hard Rock neon icons on the exterior of Joint 2.0 will provide scant relief from what can only be described as a ghastly design miscalculation.

At least this will remove any ambiguity from giving directions to the HRH in the future: "It's the huge, fugly jumble of stuff down there; you can't miss it."

Hot air at Harrah's

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:49:00 -0700

In the course of reading some of Jean Scott's observations (always a valuable learning exercise), I came across this Wall Street Journal profile of the troubles at Harrah's Entertainment. I'd seen it before but one thing struck me afresh. One of the ways that CEO Gary Loveman planned to save money was by slowing down investment in technology. So why did his CFO recently liken present-day slot machines to pre-World War II products, especially if keeping pace with technology is now a low-priority item? I guess this is the new line of blame-shifting at Harrah's: "It's the slot makers' fault!"

Quote of the Day

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:31:00 -0700

"A good company does not always make for a good stock." -- J.P. Morgan gaming analyst Joseph Greff, downgrading WMS Industries today. Factors in his decision included WMS sales projections that looked over-optimistic in light of a slackening replacement cycle and limited casino expansion. Regarding the slot market, Greff wrote, "Visibility appears terrible."

Head-scratcher at Shuffle Master

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:02:00 -0700

Come March 15, Shuffle Master CEO Mark Yoseloff finally gets to leave the company -- something he's wanted to do for a while but which has been stymied by the difficulty of replacing him. Just how difficult was it? So much so that Shuffle Master's board settled on a relative lightweight: Timothy Parott, who was Aristocrat Technologies' CEO of American operations for 2006-08. Prior to that, Parrott -- a newcomer to the manufacturing side -- had been out of day-to-day casino operations for eight years. To make a bad slot-machine pun, it was a move from well outside "the box."

Industry scuttlebutt had it that subsequently discredited Aristocrat Leisure CEO Paul Oneile wanted to exert more direct control of Aristocrat's North American operations and that the Parrott appointment furthered that brief. (Parrott's exit from Aristocrat Technologies roughly coincides with the appointment of Jamie Odell to succeed Oneile.) It looks like the power behind the Shuffle Master throne will be board chairman and former Greenspun Corp. President Phil Peckman, who steered the Greenspuns into the casino business but subsequently fell from favor.

You've been served. Can a casino be held responsible for being in receipt of (allegedly) ill-gotten gains? The Venetian gets to be a guinea pig. Lucky them.

"An instructive example of Murphy's Law." That's the verdict from Liz Benston on the botched, bungled and increasingly beleagured Tropicana Atlantic City sale process. If anything has gone right in that snipe hunt, it's escaped my notice.

Take that, Loveman!

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:42:00 -0700

In a resounding "ZING!" to adversary Harrah's Entertainment, its former CEO, Philip G. Satre, has been named to the board of International Game Technology. Harrah's has been trying to herd IGT revenue-sharing games off its casino floors, going so far as to make the preposterous claim that "Wheel of Fortune" lacked popularity. CFO Jonathan Halkyard piled on a few days ago, asserting that slot makers hadn't evolved their product significantly since, oh, about 1935.

Phil Satre, ca. 2003

On the one hand, this could be IGT's way of extending the olive branch to Harrah's. But that would be almost masochistic after Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman dissed IGT's product to IGT boss T.J. Matthews' face in a memorable exchange at G2E.

What's more plausible is that, by signing up with IGT -- upon which Harrah's has essentially declared war -- Satre is tacitly rebuking his former company and lending Matthews additional credibility (not that he needed any). Good luck to the Harrah's people when they try to spin this one.

Casino CEOs get religion?

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:45:00 -0700

Industry leaders have had a near-death experience and seen the light ... or so they say. Considering that I paid $12.50 for a (mediocre) Bloody Mary at Encore last week, I'm going to believe "a back-to-basics approach that focuses on delivering a quality at good prices" when it manifests itself on a widespread basis.

Also, the timing of this 'come to Jesus' moment is problematic, seeing as the vast majority of incoming room inventory -- one estimate puts it at 85% -- is aimed at the luxury market. It's difficult to contemplate the looming form of Big Blue (aka Fontainebleau) and not brace oneself for a grinding collision between Supply and Demand.

Big Blue: brace for impact.

To give MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren his due, he's been walking the walk. Kirk Kerkorian's portfolio of Strip properties has a plethora of value-oriented messages streaming through cyberspace these days. Interestingly, the only non-participant as of this week is Bellagio, so one can surmise nothing other than that Steve Wynn's grand dame continues to do bang-up business.

What's more, Murren endeavors to drive a stake through the Bellagio-is-for-sale talk by telling AP reporter Oskar Garcia that the Bellagio "brand" is underemployed and he's considering sublicensing it overseas (Bellagio Ho Tram anyone?), along with the titular MGM brand. Having set the completion of CityCenter as a do-or-die proposition, Murren openly puts other company assets on the table, including not only the Atlantic City acreage Jeff Simpson recently characterized as "low-hanging fruit" but also undeveloped property in Vegas.

Could this be the end of "Project Z" or even "City Center North"? If anybody foresaw the announcement of CityCenter and its all-in-one-big-gulp development as the moment that would make or break MGM, please step up to collect your Nostradamus Award cum laude.

As for Harrah's Entertainment, when its CFO is saying the U.S. casino market has reached saturation point, I guess that makes it official. Jonathan Halkyard, however, somewhat undercuts his credibility when he decries a "shocking lack of innovation" in slot machines. That's not only deeply unfair, it's an affront to the slot makers, who I've always found to be trying quite hard to innovate. (OK, so there was that addiction to themed slots but it's behind us now, much like collegiate "experimenting" with LSD and lesbianism.)

"I mean if you look at the slot machine, it's basically the same as it was 75 years ago," says Halkyard. By that yardstick, so's the automobile. Ditto the airplane ... or just about any casino game you could mention. It's probably best to write Halkyard's comment off for the hyperbole it clearly is, perhaps meant as another poke-in-the-eye provocation toward IGT and other Harrah's nemeses.

At least Harrah's is trying to keep its marketing messages in step with the era. While I didn't see the magic word Twitter, I'm sure that's the sort of thing Halkyard has in mind. The one company refusing to adjust to the times is precisely the one you'd expect: Las Vegas Sands. Yup, just keep building those big boxes and hang in there until the economy conforms to your strategy, not vice versa.

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.

Handheld gambling approved

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:20:00 -0700

Scarcely had I finished mocking Cantor Gaming's handheld-gambling devices as the next iteration of "vaporware," comes news that Cantor has been green-lit to deploy its eDeck gizmos in Nevada. (They're currently in field trials at the Venetian and will be among the offerings at M Resort when it opens.) It took a full year of testing -- plus several years of hype -- but it's now a reality. So the next time you're at the Venetian pool, you can still sate your gambling jones: Just rent an eDeck and deal up some Bonus Roulette™ or XtraOdds Baccarat™ and may the best thumb win.