David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - Boulder Strip

Ya think?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:10:00 -0700

From the latest news bulletin "blasted" by the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"Las Vegas police are investigating a shooting on Sahara Avenue near Nellis Boulevard in which a man was struck in the head by gunfire today.

"Police spokesman Ramon Denby said the man appeared to be seriously injured."

No kidding.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:32:00 -0700

"I predict a rough winter for Vegas. Swine flu may not be a pandemic, but it may really mess with the casino business. It could make the economic downturn look mild." -- a locally based casino-industry expert, in an e-mail to LVA.

Terror at Sam's Town?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:33:00 -0700

On Sept. 15, local blogger Flipchip reported that Sam's Town was being swept by a crime wave. There was, he wrote, a "rash of robberies," including two perpetrated against his wife. She was, he wrote, "then berated by the on-duty slot manager and he implied that since this was her second time to be robbed it was something she was doing that was causing the trouble."

Flipchip's entertainingly lurid chronicle describes the Boyd Gaming flagship property as having "fallen into a state of dereliction along with the surrounding neighborhood" (and I was just looking at houses near there), plagued by an "apparent lack of adequate security has made the joint easy pickings for the fleet of foot crooks." The blogger has subsequently been inundated with "horror stories of robberies, purse snatchings, and threats from the gangs often seen trekking through the casino."

Having been put wise to this story by Jean Scott, S&G rang up Boyd spokesman David Strow, who had seen Flipchip's posting and called it "highly, highly exaggerated." A Sam's Town crime wave? "That's ludicrous," said Strow, who described the problem as being confined to a lone snatch-and-dash bandit who was grabbing small amounts of cash from patrons (ranging from $3 to $100+, in one instance) before getting away. Security officers have long been in place at every Sam's Town exit, Strow added -- although that still begs the question of how the Boulder Highway Bandit manages to keep eluding apprehension.

"Some of this language is completely false," Strow said of Flipchip's narrative, noting in particular the allegations of gang activity. That, he said, is apparently a reference to the casino's younger patrons and "is ludicrous."

As for the Boulder Highway Bandit, "We are on the lookout for him," stated Strow. "Sam's Town patrons have nothing to worry about when they're on property."

Well, except for that one guy running around grabbing cash. Moral: Keep your friends close and your money even closer.

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.

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

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

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

"The federal stimulus package is so bad"

"Yes, and such small portions."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reality check

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

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

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

Aliante Station: played out?

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

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

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

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

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

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

McKee vs. Lerner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rough trade

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:09:00 -0700

May wasn't great for Las Vegas, to say the least, with hotel occupancy -6%, a figure somewhat amplified by the presence of 3% more hotel rooms. The local ADR of $96.96 would have been regarded as real money back in the day. Hoteliers now are more likely to look at it in the context of the -28% shift from last year's rates. More worrisome is that convention attendance (-33%) outslid the number of conventions held (-26%), whereas it used to be the reverse.

Indiana has absorbed the effect of its two new racinos. Casino revenues were flat in June, a decline at most boats offset by the extra dollars generated at Harrah's Entertainment's Horseshoe Hammond (+13.5%) and Boyd Gaming's Blue Chip (+4%), both of which recently expanded. Penn National was hurt by the switchover to Hollywood Casino Lawrenceberg, its new vessel, and Ameristar East Chicago (-15%) withered under the glare of Horseshoe Hammond.

Illinois is scraping along, having evidently struck bottom ... for now. Once the impact of a fire-closed Empress Joliet was backed out, Illinois was down a mere 3%. That's practically a moral victory. Of course, with the institution of slot routes en route and the Lege contemplating a huge casino expansion in the state, any celebration will be short-lived. Harrah's Joliet was the logical beneficiary of the Empress Joliet shutdown (+5%), while MGM Mirage's Grand Victoria spiraled -17%.

There were a few gainers, ranging from miniscule (Boyd's Par-A-Dice) to massive (+109% at independent Casino Rock Island). East St. Louis-based Casino Queen finally lost a significant chunk of business (-11.5%) to its augmented Missouri rivals, while Penn's Alton Belle kept its leakage to -3%.

It's not a free market. Lawmakers in the Land of Lincoln have not only introduced slot routes, they may add four more casino licenses to the state. Factor in Neil Bluhm's casino project in Des Plaines (license #10), and the gambling market in Illinois becomes seriously diluted. However, no compensatory tax reduction is on the table.

When it comes to casinos and taxes, solons think simply that more = more. However, in a state where competition is limited by statute, not only does guvmint control the levers of the market place it has an obligation to take the economic consequences of its actions into account. This is not being done and the repercussions are likely to be severe.

Quote of the Day

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

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

Station ixnays expansions

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:08:00 -0700

Stick a fork in Castaways Station -- the forlorn patch of Fremont Street land is on the block ... albeit at a considerable markup. Station Casinos, according to The Associated Press, is asking for $39.5 million on a vacant 30-acre lot for which it paid $33.7 million in late 2004. Good luck finding any takers.

Castaways Station, we never knew ye.

The '04 transaction illustrates Station's profilgate tendencies. Not only did it pay a markup of $900,000 on the Castaways' market value, Station graced the owners of the Longhorn and Bighorn casinos with $12 million more to in walking-away money. After that, Station imploded the rickety old casino, commissioned a rendering of a new, $90 million replacement from local architect Ed Vance and made cryptic noises about redeveloping the site at some unspecified future date. When I asked Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese (in whose district the ex-Castaways sits) about the status of "Castaways Station," the company became incredibly umbrageous and all "How dare you?"

In addition to the Castaways site, which Station appears to have grabbed mainly to keep it away from anybody else, ~~two~~ four additional plots are on the market. These ~~are~~ include an eight-acre chunk near Boulder Station and nearly five acres next to Sunset Station. This removes any doubt as to why Station keeps dickering for extensions with its bondholders: It's trying to raise cash ASAP so it can outbid the $950 million hostile-takeover offer that Boyd Gaming's got on the table.

(Click here for previews of Station's big land auction, including sites at the Ann Road/Sloan Land and Sunset & Lindell roads intersections. If the Castaways parcel also includes parking lots that previous owners leased from Jackie Gaughan, that may well rationalize the price increase.)

On the subject of high-speed rail, if you're a skeptic or simply doubt that it's a panacea for choked highways to and from Las Vegas, you'll find some comfort here. Though the writer makes some thought-provoking, however, seems of the opinion that we should do nothing, so I invite him to spend a Sunday in bumper-to-bumper I-15 traffic, heading back into California one inch at a time.

One reader suggests a solution in the form of a drastic increase in high-end buses serving the SoCal-LV corridor. Assuming that's feasible, would you make use of it? (It could do wonders for the rental-car business at either end of the trip.)

The Company That Ate Itself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Station vs. Boyd III: This time it's personal

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:46:00 -0700

You really have to hand it to Station Casinos CEO Frank Fertitta III. This dude has more lives than a cat. Every time you think his luck has run out, he slips the noose yet again.

So it was Tuesday. FF3 proved that his time at the gym hasn't been wasted, as he applied a one-two punch to Boyd Gaming. While studiously ignoring Boyd's $950 million offer for most of Station, FF3 was persuading his creditors to give him a forbearance that will extend until Tax Day. When it comes to sweet-talking bondholders, this guy is sheer Sheherazade ... especially when you consider that Boyd's offer made the Fertitta family's proposed $244 million cash infusion look like chump change.

Forbearance in hand, FF3 then unveiled a "Don't call us, we'll call you" letter to Boyd. Ker-POW! Fertitta must have been feeling his oats, as he dissed Boyd's offer on the grounds it was "non-specific" and "highly conditional." This was just a tad disingenuous when you consider that Boyd didn't have information that would enable it to make a more specific offer -- because Station wouldn't provide it.

Unsheathing his claws, FF3 then took a swipe at Boyd's soft underbelly (i.e., Echelon), cattily making note of "Boyd’s potential inability to perform due to its own financial position." Meow! Considering that Fertitta's own company is justthisclose to filing bankruptcy itself -- far, far closer than Boyd -- you have seen an instance of the pot calling the kettle black that's so brazen it may never be surpassed.

In fairness to FF3, it's not like he wasn't provoked. Boyd proclaimed its offer far and wide, doing everything short of hiring a plane to sky-write it over Station HQ. Boyd was talking past FF3 and straight to the bondholders, in effect saying, "You're a nice lad, Frank, but you're irrelevant now." So Tuesday was Payback Day.

Fertitta is like the Teflon CEO. No matter how many EBITDA projections Station misses or how outrageous its executive compensation packages are, nothing sticks to him. Not only that, he and brother Lorenzo were able to structure a deal whereby Station insiders only controlled 24% of the equity -- but 60% of the board. Then again, from a strategic and operational standpoint, would you rather put Station in the driver's seat -- or Colony Capital? It's Hobson's Choice but Station wins, hands down.

There's been one immutable bottom line to all Fertitta clan responses to Station's liquidity crisis. As Liz Benston described it:

"The plan would improve Station’s financial outlook and keep the Fertittas at the helm.

"But critics question whether Chief Executive Frank Fertitta III and his brother, co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, are worth the debts they want bondholders to forgive."

You might call that the $5 Billion Question.

Boyd's suffered a major setback in today's developments. If $950 million isn't enough to persuade bondholders not to heed FF3's siren song and lend an ear to Boyd, what is? Their response to the Fertitta's take-it-or-leave-it March 2 deadline was obviously "leave it" ... but they willing to keep the line open for another six weeks. Boyd's made what looked for all the world like a game-changing gambit and yet the chess pieces have scarcely moved.

While there's just about everything to like about Boyd as a company there's almost nothing to like about its attempted hostile takeover. Try and try, I can't make sense of it. For starters, it would cannibalize at least half of the $2 billion earmarked for Echelon, which raises questions about Boyd's commitment to the project -- or how it would flip the site with a half-built megaresort sitting atop it.

Then there's the problem (if you're Boyd) that your offer doesn't take the Fertittas out of the picture, it simply whittles them down a bit. They'd still have Red Rock Resort and Stations Palace, Boulder and Sunset. That is, unless Boyd is willing to shoulder the elephant-on-its-back burden of the $2.5 billion note with which that casino quartet is encumbered. Could Boyd withstand such an added debt load?

And when you've already put almost half your $2 billion on the table, just for openers, why even talk about buying out the Greenspun family's stake in Green Valley Ranch and Aliante Station, plus a gaggle of grind joints? Why not just stick to Plan A, which from all appearances was to make a wide, quiet detour around the Greenspun Problem and revisit it somewhere down the road? (Unless the 'Spuns are willing to sell out for cheap, in which case Station wakes up to find itself in bed with its archrival. Oh, the awkwardness!)

Which brings us to the even bigger problem that is the Las Vegas locals market. Yes, it may recover sooner than the Strip. But for now it's inelastic, cannibalized and overbuilt. One of the hidden benefits of the Boyd proposal is that would (presumably) alleviate the company of the need to build a North Las Vegas casino.

Trouble is, do you need Aliante Station and Santa Fe Station and Texas Station and the original Fiesta up there? And if you don't, who'll alleviate you of that kind of surplus? By absording even part of Station's portfolio, not only would Boyd be competing with itself sometimes within eyeshot but even right across the street. Also negated is one of Boyd's strengths: the regional balance that has, unlike Vegas-centric Station, shielded it from the recent vagaries of the Sin City marketplace.

Conversely, if you're not going to take the Fertittas off the board altogether, why settle for a half measure? Why leave them with four major casinos and a passel of developable real estate, including the prospective site of long-in-abeyance Durango Station? You'd have a bloodied adversary on the field, still upright, well armed and spoiling for revenge.

$950 million isn't going to buy even partial satisfaction for Boyd unless Station can still be forced into bankruptcy court. That much is now clear. Nor is $2 billion enough to purchase a definitive solution to the problem. For the sake of its shareholders, Boyd needs to rethink its pursuit of Station before it finds itself playing Capt. Ahab to FF3's Moby Dick. Boyd pulled back from the verge once, with Echelon. It can do it again.

Boyd vs. Station II

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:58:00 -0700

Well, that was a waste of a good hour. Boyd Gaming teased its Thursday morning conference call with intimations that All (or at least Some) Would Be Revealed about its surprise bid for most of the assets of Station Casinos. Boyd execs made a few pro forma comments about the offer at the top of the show, for want of a better term. They then announced that they would be taking no questions about the Station bid, so don't you be asking any, sonny.

Later, they did relax to the extent of allowing that they assume that Station's management contract with the Thunder Valley tribal casino near Sacramento would be included (but implied that Station's management pact with a Michigan tribe would not). The reason that the general public is in some confusion about what Boyd would be paying $950 million for is: Boyd itself is uncertain. Company officials implied they weren't getting any cooperation from Station -- or to the mythical entity that Boyd's president consistently refers to as "Stations [sic] Casinos." (You know ... the archivals of Boyds Gamings and builders of Red's Rocks Resorts.) After he buys it, of course, he can call it whatever he wants.

One of the many questions begged by Boyd's non-presentation was what's going to happen to Echelon, now that the company proposes to cannibalize its remaining $2 billion in borrowing capacity (against $2.6 billion in debt) to finance the Station deal. That money had been earmarked for finishing Echelon. Seemingly intent on having his cake and eating it too, Boyd prexy Keith Smith said, "We have nothing to report on [Echelon]" but added that having a Strip presence remained a long-term goal. Translation: Don't hold your breath.

Smith also ducked some pointed Larry Klatzkin queries regarding performance expectations at Blue Chip, in Indiana. (He evaded a question about ADRs, too.) ~~CFO~~ COO Paul Chakmak, referring to the expanded riverboat complex as "the new Blue" (do I sense a marketing slogan there?), said that early results are promising if not definitive. He noted that a record 2008 and January '09 performance at Delta Downs in Louisiana "shows the value of our geographic diversity" and noted that Borgata was the only Atlantic City casino to post growing slot win in 2008. Boyd will be taking a variety of one-time charges, including on some of its North Las Vegas real estate, and will be drawing out the payment schedule on Dania Jai-alai, a would-be Florida casino venture that has gone into the freezer, due to a disappointing Sunshine State market.

"Our goal is not just to get by," Chakmak said, while allowing that the Las Vegas locals market "remains challenging." Downtown, he added, was a better scene, given that increased charter flights were offsetting any effect that might be felt from reduced commercial airline service to Hawaii. Why one would want to exponentially expand into a "challenging" Vegas market right now was yet another of those questions that didn't get to be asked.

Good news for bargain hunters in Atlantic City; Smith expects promotional allowances to "stay elevated" in 2009. He also said that, with only two weeks of service so far, it's much too early to prognosticate about the performance of the ACES train (a joint venture with Harrah's Entertainment). Boyd execs did talk up the savings achieved by infusing T.G.I. Fridays, Fuddruckers, Sbarro, etc. into their locals properties. If you were a Boyd restaurant employee whose eatery was displaced to make room for a fast-food franchise, you might not share that enthusiasm.

Cannery sale on ice?

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:41:00 -0700

Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander was kind enough to ring up pesky old NGCB detractor S&G today and provide some clarification on why Crown Ltd. and its supremo, James Packer, passed muster in the Silver State but have run into heavy weather in Pennsylvania.

"When we first started ... the Packer shares are held in a variety of trusts," controlled by Packer himself, Neilander explained. NGCB representatives met with trust counsel and "pored through all of the trusts," concluding that Packer was the controlling shareholder. "We have no concerns about it here. It was all disclosed to us."

(A government source adds that trustees fear Keystone State confidentiality provisions are less airtight than Nevada ones and information provided to regulators would become public. Which is why three Crown Ltd. participants are suing -- under aliases -- for declaratory relief, in a Delaware court.)

As for a spate of recent developments, Neilander said that Gretel Packer (above) -- who's suddenly gotten cold feet about Pennsylvania licensure -- didn't reach the 10% ownership threshhold necessary to mandate Nevada scrutiny. "We did" have contact with gambler Harry ~~Kanavos~~ Kakavas, Neilander added, saying that at the time there was no indication that Kanavos had tapes of Crown executives allegedly making illegal overtures to him. (Pennsylvania has sent an investigator Down Under to hear the recording.) And with regard to bribery allegations connected to Melco Crown Entertainment's City of Dreams project, those arose late in the proceedings, the chairman said, and there was not enough evidence from which to reach a conclusion as to their validity.

Neilander added that the NGCB is monitoring both the Kanavos and Macanese situations for potential post-licensure action. But with Cannery Casino Resorts bosses William Paulos and William Wortman accusing the Packers of colluding to scuttle the sale, these questions may soon be extremely moot.

Station vs. Boyd

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:09:00 -0700

Seeing as I'm still trying to make sense of Boyd Gaming's offer to buy much (but not all) of Station Casinos -- and some Station assets may not be worth obtaining -- I'll just pass along Station's response to the Boyd offer:

"We received an unsolicited, non-binding, preliminary indication of interest from Boyd Gaming Corporation to buy some of our company's assets. We intend to continue to work with our lenders and bondholders to pursue our previously proposed plan of reorganization, but we will evaluate the terms of Boyd Gaming's proposal."

In other words, Station is blowing off Boyd ... but Boyd is already talking over Station's head. Its true audience is Station's debtors. And with Boyd putting $950 million on the table (and drawing attention to its $2 billion line of credit), the prospects of bondholders falling meekly in line for that March 2 debt swap suddenly got a whole lot worse. Thursday's Boyd conference call is going to be must-hear podcasting.

Gibbons retreats, sorta

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trop's agony soon to end?

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:59:00 -0700

The bad news is that the New Jersey Casino Control Commission has voted to grant yet another extension on the interminable sale of the Tropicana Atlantic City. The good news that it's merely been pushed out another month, not the three that butterfingered trustee Justice Gary Stein wanted. The NJCCC finally seems to have run out of patience with this comedy of errors and past time, too.

Then again, the prospect of a Carl Icahn purchase concentrates the mind wonderfully. Since it's a credit bid, neither the State of New Jersey or former owner Columbia Sussex will see the payday they've been envisioning. But if Icahn can get his affiliated creditors to put their whole $1.4 billion in secured debt on the table, it'd crush anything Cordish Co. has offered or is likely to. The mere specter of Icahn has to be very bad news for Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera. Since the Trop is the engine that drives (or drove, before ColSux CEO William J. Yung III crashed it) his company's bottom line, Butera has been tireless in his quest to re-obtain the property. If he succeeded, it would also allow him to return victoriously to the market where he made his name as Trump Entertainment Resorts' boss. But, through no fault of his, TropEnt is in far worse standing in the Garden State than is Icahn.

If Icahn is primed to re-enter the casino industry that he left not so long ago, it's a positive augury both for Atlantic City and the business as a whole. It would also enable him to cock a snook at Pinnacle Entertainment, which purchased the old A.C. Sands from Icahn, quickly demolished it, then has been high and dry ever since. Under Icahn's ownership, the Stratosphere went from being a joke to a successful casino property. His taste in casinos isn't always pretty (Arizona Charlie's, anyone?) but it's proven smart and successful.

Looking for good news in Vegas

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:08:00 -0700

If I wanted to drive myself to strong drink, I could write about depressing, atrocious numbers coming out of Nevada casinos in December. But as that great philosopher, Linus in Peanuts, would remind me, it's better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. (Next panel: Lucy hollering, "You stupid darkness!") Let's just say that December revenues hew to my saw that when Wendover sneezes, Nevada catches pneumonia and move on.

Two Sundays ago, the Review-Journal ran a pair of stories that warranted mention here at the time but got lost in the shuffle. Time to give credit where it's due, especially as these articles highlight some of silver linings inside the present-day storm front.

Boyd Gaming's is the least-sexy brand among the major casino operators ... but sexiness can be overrated. (See: Station Casinos) Unlike a certain crosstown rival which put all its eggs in the Vegas basket, Boyd has always rejoiced in a diversified portfolio. With Wall Street falling in love with the regional casino market, Boyd is likely to experience newfound appreciation on the Street.

Echelon: Stopped in the nick of time.

No wonder CFO Josh Hirsberg strikes such a sanguine tone. He also fesses up to a number of uncertainties, which is a refreshing change of pace. True, the company has halved its 401(k) matches but it hasn't deep-sixed them altogether, unlike several competitors. Also, it stopped Echelon while it still had the ability to alter the scale of the project, whereas Caesar Palace's Octavius Tower had crossed that Rubicon. It certainly doesn't rank anywhere near as high on the Mortification Meter as MGM Mirage's forced truncation of The Harmon (now to be an ungainly stump) or Las Vegas Sands' abrupt cessation of its St. Regis tower. Boyd's ongoing infatuation with fickle Morgans Hotel Group remains a major puzzlement but let's not belabor that now.

Boyd's chances of coming out the economic tsunami intact look good. Besides, the company has surprised people before. Who would have picked it to be the one that would shake up the Atlantic City market and force everyone else to keep pace?

A project that has the makings of a comparable success story in Las Vegas is M Resort, brainchild of the Marnell family. (You know, the folks who gave The Rio its cachet -- before Harrah's Entertainment took over and "geriatrified" the place.) Admittedly, $1 billion for a 390-room hotel/casino doesn't sound anything like optimal bang for the buck, but M Resort has three things going for it that Station's Red Rock Resort and Aliante Station don't: location, location, location.

Strategically, M's site is killer. It sits just north of the pass through which I-15 flows into the Vegas Valley, as you head in from California. In fact, you see the M tower even before you reach the pass, stunningly framed between the canyon walls. The vista from the north side of M ought to give it must-visit cachet when it opens in two weeks (March 1). The relative paucity of hotel rooms may bespeak caution over whether the stay-off-Strip/commute-to-Strip business model has worked yet. As they say on Wall Street, "visibility is limited" because like-minded Green Valley Ranch and South Point have gone private.

Also, by limiting their exposure on the hotel side -- where so much of the rest of the market is overexposed -- the Marnells should have supply/demand dynamics in their favor. A place like Morgans' Hard Rock Hotel, which only drew a third of its cash flow from gambling before Morgans went on a frenzied expansion binge, is super-exposed in the area that's most sensitive to price fluctuations -- hotel rooms -- and soon to become even more so. (The HRH puts a brave spin on it but it's no secret why the project is fully funded: It's 85% owned by the bank which, like the pig in the ham-and-egg-breakfast analogy, is committed while Morgans [i.e., the chicken] has but an interest.)

One also has to laud CEO Anthony Marnell III's incremental preparation for the Vegas market: a stint managing a tribal casino (giving him experience in the drive-in market), followed by acquisition of the Saddle West in Pahrump (ditto the locals market), then Laughlin. So his $1 billion dice-throw was approached via a circumspect route. George Maloof has already shown that a steady locals/hipsters mix can work as a business model. M Resort is the first project since The Palms to wholeheartedly go that route.

With nearby Olympia Gaming and Station (Inspirada) casino developments on indefinite hiatus, Marnell should be firmly entrenched before anyone else in the area gets a shovel in the ground. It's a serendipitous combination of preparation and circumstance. Of course, M could be either a succes d'estime or an outright bust, but the buzz I've been hearing is strong.

Tamares Group giveth (booking a new magic show into the Las Vegas Club) and Tamares taketh away, pulling back on a planned art museum (above). So if this is no time to invest $12 million in an art museum, maybe Tamares might want to invest it in its casinos. Comic relief is supplied by Mayor Oscar Goodman, who's been exceptionally obtuse this week. (See: President Obama, Silly Feud with)

Casinos in Texas are one of the longest of long shots but Galveston's name keeps coming up. The whole thing screams "Tilman Fertitta!", especially since we know he's wanted a casino there and was even rather colorfully accused of surreptitiously installing casino infrastructure in his Galveston convention center. He got a good chuckle out of that one, as I recall.

False economies

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:16:00 -0700

In today's edition of "You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?" ...

As counterintuitive as it seems, one of the first things to take it in the neck during the present recession is customer service; cleanliness is the other. (Jean Scott has some thoughts on this today). Two examples should suffice.

Can't-See-the-Sunset-for-the-Cigarette-Smoke Station

Last Tuesday, the Significant Other and I decided to take advantage of a bingo promotion at Sunset Station. Now, if you're running a promotion for which you've barraged the area with coupons, you'd be prepared for a big turnout, right? Not Station Casinos. There were but two people manning the booth and the parade of would-be customers stretched well across the room even after the session had started. We left.

On Friday, I went for lunch to the neighborhood Quiznos. One person was manning the entire counter as the conga line backed up. Even after seeing a man about a horse, I found that the queue had not budged appreciably. I took my business -- and my $10 -- next door. We ran into a similar phenomenon yesterday at Best Buy, so fewer employees/longer lines looks like the trend du jour.

In the first two cases, we have businesses that saw money walk off the premises because of mingy, corner-cutting thrift moves. At Sunset Station, the down-at-heels impression was amplified by a casino floor that reeked of cigarette smoke to a degree that might make Arizona Charlie's blush. At least the latter is a grind joint that knows it's a grind joint. Ten years ago, Sunset Station was the flagship of the Station fleet. Now it's just another Boulder Strip casino. Even the older Boulder Station is holding up better.

Bargain$ tonight in Vega$

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The prodigal son

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:03:00 -0700

Poor Kerry Packer; the late Australian mogul and famous high roller must be doing all his rolling in the grave now. Reputed for being daring at baccarat and cautious in business, the media baron is at least spared the indignity of seeing son James Packer blow through his patrimony at a record pace.

Going is the $33 million yacht; on hold is the $40 million corporate jet. Even work on the $2.5 million backyard swimming pool has been suspended. (Don't you hate it when that happens?) At least the pin placements on Packer's Greg Norman-designed golf course are still "changed every day at massive expense," reports Rupert Murdoch's News.com.au.

More seriously, Packer is reported to be suffering from depression, though other media reports dispute this. Given the debilitating, even paralyzing nature of the disease (something for which I can vouch firsthand), it puts a potentially very different cast upon Packer's December no-show for a Nevada Gaming Control Board hearing.

When Packer did turn up, Chairman Dennis Neilander admitted to being somewhat foxed by Packer's acquisition of Cannery Casino Resorts (for $1.8 billion). "You and me both," I thought. As Packer seemingly played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, buying not only Cannery but positions in Fontainebleau, Station Casinos, Harrah's Entertainment and the flaccid Crown Las Vegas 'failsino'-tower, I tried to convince myself that an overarching strategy was at work. In retrospect -- especially after the writedown of the Station and Harrah's investments -- what we were witnessing was James Packer, Shopaholic. (How did he manage to miss out on the Cosmopolitan?) One begins to see why Steve Wynn steered clear of Packer, back when the talk of a Wynn-Packer joint venture was the buzz du jour on the Strip.

Even the Crown Macau cash spigot has been sputtering, although Melco Crown CEO Lawrence Ho keeps insisting that Chinese access to Macao will improve in time for the City of Dreams opening. (Either he's whistling past the graveyard or he knows something for which others would pay a very great number of patacas.) Market share is down at Crown Macau and the Macanese government is predicting a serious diminution of gaming revenue for for the overall market in 2009, placing it somewhere near $10.7 billion.

Plus, the ripple effect doesn't stop there. Aristocrat Leisure, which could really stand to have some good news, had been hoping for a fivefold increase in its installed slot base in Macao over the next two years. Not only is that unlikely, operators are trimming their existing slot inventory.

Underscoring their pessimism regarding reduced visa restrictions, Macanese tourism officials are turning their gaze at least partly away from China. Among the newly coveted markets are Singapore's presumed feeder markets -- India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and even Australia and New Zealand -- to say nothing of Singapore itself. It's long been presumed that Singapore's got a tough row to hoe when its casino megaresorts come on line and it just keeps getting tougher.

MGM CEO sez, "Make me an offer"

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:47:00 -0700

“We are certainly not looking to aggressively sell assets, but the point is that we do have assets that are attractive and we are going to be very responsive.”

That's MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren's way of saying that he's not going to hold a fire sale ... but don't be shy with those purchase offers, either. He's identified drastic debt reduction as his top priority, which partly explains why the company is spinning its undoubtedly mortifying The Harmon fiasco as A Good Thing, Really, as it brings the moving target which is CityCenter's budget down to a svelte $8.6 billion ... assuming they don't have to refund those $88 million worth of Harmon deposits. (Murren may have conceived CityCenter but it is his perceived rival, CityCenter CEO Bobby Baldwin, whose resumé is much likelier to be blotched by the forced truncation of a planned 47-story tower into a 25-story stump.)

CityCenter: Now with 50% less Harmon!

Elsewhere, Murren contends that MGM could have gone back and finished The Harmon at its intended height. Well, yes ... but even if the bankers are reopening their checkbooks, as Murren says, it's difficult to imagine a scenario in which they happily agree to pile additional hundreds of millions in debt onto a project that still isn't fully funded. Unspecified Chinese banks are reportedly being supplicated for those elusive last few (millions of) dollars.

Perhaps Murren was being a mite tongue-in-cheek, as the odds of financiers underwriting a Harmon do-over are probably somewhere in the same realm of probability as flying pigs and Guy Laliberté admitting that Cirque du Soleil screwed the pooch with Believe. (Mais non, it's nothing that as much as six months of "fixations" can't cure, mes amis.)

The James Packer Jinx redux? This isn't reassuring: Soon-to-be Cannery Casino Resorts owner James Packer's Crown Ltd. is promising "a new Las Vegas-based senior management team and board" and that "many" current managers and employees will stay. Furthermore, the company will apply business models that have worked for it in Australia, Canada and Macao to improving the not-exactly-struggling Cannery performance.

Now, this is what's called fixing what isn't broken. Nor has the Vegas market been kind to operators who have come here from overseas and attempted to reinvent the wheel. One cautionary example Packer hopefully will heed is that of Swiss Casinos, whose somewhat pretentious Resort at Summerlin tanked unmercifully, to much glee within the industry. Swiss Casinos made it plain it didn't want to hear Word One about what worked in Las Vegas, they had it all figured out. Their pride went before a fall into Chapter 11. Ironically -- or prophetically, perhaps -- Packer will inherit the erstwhile Resort @ Summerlin, which Cannery manages in its current guise, the Rampart Casino.

Less the value of that management contract, Packer is paying $600 million apiece for two locals casinos and a Pennsylvania racino. That seems more than a bit steep, even in a good economy, but looked like a much better idea at the time it was hatched, before Wall Street did a face-plant and hindsight became 20/20.

Well, at least Packer was able to get a plane ticket to Las Vegas this time. (He missed his previous scheduled appearance.) That's a good start.

Nevada in October: It was the pits

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:47:00 -0700

Taken at face value, October's revenue numbers for Nevada casinos were calamitous. Looked at in context (i.e., coming off a 10% increase from October '06 to '07) they were ... still bad. But I'm going to resist the temptation to jump off my second-floor balcony at LVA HQ, especially since we're measuring the most anemic month of 2008 against the ~~strongest~~ second-strongest of 2007.

However: The next time somebody, anybody says the casino industry is "recession proof," they should be made to walk the plank straight into the new Mirage volcano, where their screams will mingle piquantly with the percussive stylings of Mickey Hart. Every day, I see more boarded-up store fronts and, last weekend, the Better Half and I were able to book a bargain-rate stay at Loews Lake Las Vegas. Talk about a ghost town: Other than the quacking of ducks, there was not a sound to be heard from our patio. (The casino across the lake at MonteLago wasn't quite dead, but they might want to keep those defibrillators handy.)

In an economy that has been brought to near-total ruination under the malign neglect of George W. Bush, it would be just plain unrealistic to expect people to gamble as they did during Vegas' halcyon years. We should have known this day was coming the moment we started reading about credit card and mortgage debt reaching unprecedented levels, as Americans lived off tomorrow to pay for today.

To the numbers ...

Again, remember that these declivities are magnified by being directly compared to a robust year-before performance. The big story appears to be quadruple-whammy leveled on the Strip, where table game drop was down (-20%), as was baccarat drop (-36%), ditto table hold, ditto baccarat hold. Less play + unlucky play goes a long way (as in $100 million-plus) toward explaining the wretched -26% overall comparison. A 17% slippage in slot handle didn't help, but the real damage was done in the table pits, which led the way to a 10th straight month of declines.

The locals market is still slightly (3%) up for the year, but October won't help, with Downtown (-20%), Laughlin (-15%), the Boulder Strip (-28%) and North Las Vegas (-35%) -- where Station Casinos was poised to open Aliante Station -- all taking it on the chin. Compared to those numbers, Reno's "mere" 7% dropoff looks like a moral victory or something.

After posting an anemic ~~$475~~ $905 million for October '08 ($475 million on the Strip), was Nevada able to match the previous November's less-than-stellar ~~$520~~ $981 million ($520 million " ")? The answer will tell us whether we've hit an extremely nasty pothole or been driven clear off the road.

Update: Table game play was extremely lucrative on the Boulder Strip, of all places, which means ... which means ... nah, I got nuthin'.

In fairness to Leon Black (see previous item), his new gambit of gobbling up $20 billion worth of devalued debt beats the heck out of, say, buying an already-debt-encumbered Harrah's Entertainment at a premium price. But, given the choice between investing one's money with Apollo Management and hiding it under the mattress, the mattress is looking awful good at the moment. At least money's not going to lose any value there.

Station gets it; In defense of Boyd

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:56:00 -0700

Kudos to Station Casinos for agreeing to give its employees first dibs on apartments to be built near Fiesta Henderson. This is a story that fell through the cracks recently but deserves to be highlighted. The land was originally set aside for expansion of Fiesta H., but the locals-casino market is pretty saturated at present. (And, one suspects, Station could probably use the capital that can be realized by selling the land to developer Trammell Crow.)

Affordable housing, on the other, has been in short supply in the Vegas area. This is probably a crackpot suggestion, but I've often wondered if Harrah's Entertainment was ill-advised to start shuttering and razing the myriad apartment complexes it bought up behind its Barbary Coast/Flamingo/Imperial Palace/Harrah's Las Vegas agglomeration.

Construction workers have been an underserved market for housing (many were hanging their helmets at the Klondike before it closed). Even if only Harrah's Caesars Palace expansion is still in train -- and that's a big "only" -- the company might have been able to turn a dime or two off of all those newly acquired domiciles, as well as giving its workforce a place to live that's within a stone's throw of the Strip.

Like I said, probably cockamamie, but it's been rattling around in my brain for so long that I thought I'd fling it out there for the heck of it.

Another good Station idea is to 'double up' on its concert bookings once Aliante Station's Access Showroom opens its doors. At least some acts will be shared between Aliante and either Green Valley Ranch or Boulder Station (whose Railhead is currently suffering the indignity of being pressed into service as a temporary buffet; it's not one of the comfier dining experiences in town).

As Mike Weatherford notes, with gas prices being what they are, it's an iffy proposition whether Station patrons will drive 25 miles or so to see a concert; Station's solution effectively halves the problem. It also means that, as it seems to be my karma that Station books jazz-piano stylist Keiko Matsui for dates when I'm either out of town or sick, my odds of actually catching her in performance have slightly improved.

Boyd Gaming's Morgans deal defended. A reader writes, "I can't blame Boyd for wanting so badly to open the whole [Echelon] at once. All they have to do is look down the street at the Palazzo chaos to see what a disaster it can be to open in stages or half-assed (and remember that the Venetian had the same problem).

"Venetian has obviously overcome it but who knows how much of Palazzo's current problems have some basis in the fact that when the hotel opened the sign wasn't even built and there was still a huge construction project in front. I think the only thing that a resort can get away with opening in stages these days would be the hotel itself -- nobody cares if half the rooms are yet to be built ... when the resort is otherwise functioning at 100%.

"Steve Wynn didn't open his doors until everything was in place, and look at the attention and publicity he got for it. Palazzo was exactly the opposite."

Those are all excellent points and well worth considering. Boyd's prostration before fickle Morgans Hotel Group is still embarrassing, though.

Mont-blew it; more E-Can; Trump struggling

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:45:00 -0700

"Montbleu screwed our pooch." That's the conclusion of Chuck Monster, who chronicles a bait-and-switch at the former Caesars Tahoe. It's now part of the prospering casino fleet that is Columbia Sussex and its "pet friendly" package turned out to be more like "pet indifferent." After withholding it for a full year, in hopes of a partial refund that materialized, Chuck has finally released a Montbleu-by-blow account.

New casino overseer Scott Butera may be promising a new, improved Tropicana Entertainment but, from what Chuck says, it's still ColSux as usual for the time being. At least the incident gave him excuse to post numerous photos of Montbleu being inspected by a totally adorable pug named Maxine, who is certain to steal your heart.

E-Can makes the rounds. The reviews of Eastside Cannery keep rolling in. There's a Compton/Dancer critique of its gambling value (good). Steve Friess went a while back and was mildly amused/bemused. For his part, Chuck Monster deconstructs its decor. Our new issue of Las Vegas Advisor contains a lengthy appraisal by Anthony Curtis.

Trumped. Perhaps the single most interesting fact in Chuck's review is buried way down at the end and it's this: On an upcoming weekend, when E-Can is commanding $129/night ($1 less than Circus Circus), rooms at Trump International are going for $163/night -- $38/night less than Excalibur. Yes, Excalibur! (And $346/night less than Wynn Las Vegas.) Can you say "bomb"? I thought you could.

E-Can debuts

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:27:00 -0700

We got out of the way of the front doors of Eastside Cannery last night just in the nick of time. For all the apprehension about opening new casinos in the current economy (especially when locals' gambling budgets have taken a big hit), patrons were out in force for the opening, literally charging the casino floor when the doors swung wide. Whether by car or by foot, it was impressive turnout -- not the mob scene that greeted The Palms in 2001 -- but quite a heartening sight nonetheless.

E-Can is yet another nail in the coffin of the old "entrapment" theory of casino design. The entryways are airy and easily visible throughout the casino floor. Aisles are wide and, even with 2,100-plus slots, one gets that sense that Cannery Casino Resorts could have jammed in quite a few more but elected not to. Good on them.

Ceilings aren't so low as to be oppressive, but not so high as to engender the "slot barn" feeling of Palazzo or South Point. The various eateries are distributed in a "restaurant row" along the east wall. The sports book is very open and spacious, and wouldn't look out of place at a Strip casino -- and is far superior to some Strip books I could name, but won't.

We gorged a little too much early in our go-around, so we didn't do justice to each restaurant's offerings. (Though, for the record, oysters on the half shell and covered with chives and melted cheese tastes a helluva lot better than it probably reads. Kudos on the sausage-stuffed mushrooms, too.) If what was on display -- and in our stomachs -- last night was a representative sample of the everyday fare, my biggest concern will be whether such a high standard can be maintained over the long haul.

If you grew up in the Sixties, as I did, the prevalent color and décor schemes will have a comforting familiarity. The overall aesthetic could be called 'Light Industrial,' and I don't mean that in a cute or pejorative way. Exposed pipework appears to be part of the statement, although I'm not so sure about the lack of drop ceiling. I couldn't tell whether the acoustical tiling has simply been omitted or is going to be installed later.

There's not a lot of fine detailing; strong colors, acute angles and long, undulating curves all typify a casino where the design elements are writ large. Sometimes form takes precedence over functionality: Stools in the sports book and one of the restaurants may be pleasing to the eye but they're distinctly unforgiving to the ass. On the other hand, the keno lounge is as classy and comfortable as any I've seen in Vegas.

Given the unbelievable thrift with which "the dollar Bills," Messrs. Paulos and Wortman* pulled E-Can off, one does feel the compulsion to scan the place for obvious economies, trying to figure out how they did it. The exterior is pretty Spartan; big, sharp and sweeping lines (and a wraparound neon display after dark) endeavor to divert one's attention from an otherwise utilitarian look.

Inside, certain of the wall coverings and materials screamed "Cheap!", especially around the proscenium in Marilyn's, the live-entertainment lounge. Some upfront savings will probably mean frequent-replacement costs on the back end. Then again, I heard similar criticisms of The Palms when it opened (and George Maloof arguably overcrowded his slot floor in the early going -- a mistake not repeated here), but keeping construction costs low was one of the cornerstones of that place's success.

Paulos and Wortman's heir, James Packer, will be in profit on E-Can a lot more quickly than will any recent or forthcoming Station casino, given the latter company's current tendency to spend lavishly and then scrimp down the road. Assuming that maintenance is proactive and frequent, I don't see any downside for E-Can.

Despite my longstanding fondness for Sam's Town, the pioneering Boyd Gaming property will seem that much more like a crowded and badly laid-out warren of gambling rooms -- definitely Old School, if that's what you dig. Given the two casinos' proximity, I can see Sam's Town evolving into a "dormitory" where people stay or park their RVs, take advantage of the movie theaters, etc., but do their playing at E-Can. Plus, the cheerful, retro Cannery "brand" has struck quite a chord with Las Vegans. Aggressive counter-marketing will have to be the order of the day.

* -- "The dollar Bills" was Hollywood's nickname for producer William Pine and his business partner, William Thomas, so named for their budget-conscious tendencies. It seems affectionately apt for the Paulos/Wortman duo, who balance fiscal conservatism with quality.

Eastside Cannery update

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:25:00 -0700

Yesterday, I asked how William Paulos and William Wortman were able to bring in Eastside Cannery (which opens tonight) for 250 million clams -- $425 million less than Station Casinos is splurging on Aliante Station. In today's Sun, Liz Benston explains how. The two Bills have a history of turning sow's ears into silk purses and, should the buyout of Cannery Casino Resorts by James Packer go through, they'll only stay on long enough to get their Pennsylvania racino open.

Hopefully -- hopefully -- Packer will retain enough of the Paulos/Wortman-assembled executive team to get things humming along in their wonted fashion, and will refrain from meddling. Casino operators, especially ones from overseas, who are novices in the Vegas market tend to have a very rough go of it here.

Harrah's makes the news and not in good way. On the other hand, who knew that the erstwhile Barbary Coast was where the hip-hop crowd likes to roll, especially after a run-in with the law? Of course, the "Suge" Knight incident is big news for us at LVA, seeing as it went down an Olympic shot put-throw's distance from our Procyon Ave. corporate headquarters. And now Gary Loveman can brag on how "gangsta" his properties have become.

Durango Station, slightly downsized

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:28:00 -0700

Station Casinos has filed its latest set of plans for Durango Station and it looks like they've pulled back a bit, although you can judge for yourself. Hotel inventory has been reduced from 1,040 rooms, then 1,000, to 726; the smaller of the two towers has been scaled back an additional 10 feet in height.

Bingo players will be displeased, as a bingo room has been scrapped; ditto a bowling alley. Two fewer reasons to go there, IMO.

Rather than wait, though, Station will go ahead straightaway with the second of two parking garages. Even with 4,048 covered spaces, Station is also budgeting for over 2,100 surface-parking spaces, causing Clark County planners some minor qualms over the oceans of asphalt surrounding Durango Station and the pedestrian hazard they could represent.

Joe Hasson, Aliante Station GM

Carol Thompson, Aliante's assistant GM

On the executive front, Station has selected the general manager and assistant GM for Aliante Station. They are, respectively, Joe Hasson and Carol Thompson. The former boss of Harrah's New Orleans, Hasson -- who Casino Executive Magazine once described as "whippet-thin" (and who, if memory serves, is a marathon runner), comes to Aliante from a lengthy tenure at Green Valley Ranch. If he looks familiar, it's because he was a regular on the Discovery Channel's American Casino, filmed at GVR. Thompson, who is active in local philanthropy, honed her managerial school at some of Station's "farm team" properties, such as Barley's.

The only question remaining is this: If Aliante Station cost $675 million, why was Cannery Casino Resorts able to build Eastside Cannery for $425 million less? Yes, Aliante has a concert hall and a 16-screen cineplex. But ECan has 105 more hotel rooms, more meeting space and an equal number of restaurants. (It also boasts a spa and a bingo room, items not listed among Aliante's amenities.)

ECan also makes a bolder, striking architectural statement, the jagged parapet of its hotel tower serrating the sky. Aliante's outward style might be described as Office Park Chic.

Station just doesn't seem to be getting nearly as much bang for its buck. How come?

Case Bets: Luxor, Excalibur, Cannery East

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:32:00 -0700

MGM Mirage has provided a little more insight into just how much it's doing in terms of spending on renovations to Luxor and Excalibur. "We are spending around $100M in improvements on each of these properties this year, and we have invested millions more since the 2005 merger," writes a company representative (emphasis added).

You could argue that Excalibur needs a lot more than that -- or maybe just some well-placed dynamite -- but it's good to see something being done. It's an open secret that Mandalay Resort Group let things slide at its Strip properties while MGM's buyout was in progress, leaving the new owners with a lot of remedial work to do.

Out-of-towners who haven't seen Eastside Cannery arising along the Boulder Strip may enjoy this funky montage of its nightly light show. The building is an extremely striking addition to the eastside, dominating the landscape for miles around much as Sam's Town used to do. Poor Sam's Town: It used to look so monumental and now it's dwarfed by the upstart down the street. (For the record, Cannery Casino Resorts only manages Rampart Casino and it's [CCR] being bought out by Crown Ltd., not Melco PBL.)

Ola, Amigo!

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:38:00 -0700

As of yesterday, I'm a newly minted Amigo card holder, having joined Station Casinos' spinoff players club for its Fiesta properties. (Chalk up a very modest victory for Fiesta's spirited marketing efforts.) Why Station, having put nearly a decade of effort into building up Boarding Pass, went and pulled it from the two Fiestas in favor of a new card without any brand equity ... well, that's a puzzler.

Perhaps its a way of repositioning the Fiestas for sale, though this is a heckuva time to be peddling assets, even if Station has a trainload of debt to pay down. If that's the case (and I'm 101% speculating here), Station wouldn't be the only company in town to discover that it missed the boat when it came to offloading non-core assets.

Whatever the case, I now have $6.63 in "Samurai Master" winnings to show for my shiny new players card. Yup, "whale" is my middle name.

But what to make of Fiesta Henderson? An "Amigo" here and an El Pollo Loco there, and it's still about as Latin as Nelson Mandela in a sombrero. In the older part of the casino floor the African decor ill-advisedly chosen by original owner Ameristar Casinos is still luxuriating about at every turn. It's not hard to see some of the reasons why, in its original incarnation as The Reserve, this was a rare Ameristar mega-goof, one which has apparently scared the company off the Vegas market to this day.

When it opened, in early 1998, The Reserve was operating in the shadow of Sunset Station (which was also bigger, more fashionable, and a lot closer to where the people were). Even by locals-casino standards of that time, The Reserve had a small casino floor, rendered dark and claustrophobic by the Trader Horn design scheme, with its big fake trees and heavy canopies. Station has considerably enlarged the place and substantially upped the number of amenities. The Station-built side is airier and more appealing, if visually nondescript.

If you look at it from Station's standpoint, with two flagship properties on the Boulder Strip, it made sense not to knock themselves out re-doing The Reserve. They were endeavoring the best of a bad situation: agreeing to take a dud casino off the hands of Craig H. Neilsen so that Station could make a quick getaway from Missouri, where Ameristar assumed control of Station's scandal-brushed riverboats. So what's now Fiesta Henderson arrived on Station's doorstep as sort of a red-headed stepchild and the trick was to make it thrive without eating into business at favored sons Sunset or Boulder Station.

As for the "Fiesta" brand, it was one that George Maloof had grown into marquee value up in North Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Station didn't seem to know what to do with it after buying Maloof out, so now "Fiesta" is just a means of designating casinos that don't rate the "Station" moniker but which are a healthy cut above a Wildfire or a Lake Mead Lounge, to say the least.

So I'm left figuring out where Fiesta Henderson fits into the grand scheme of things. If Arizona Charlie's Boulder has gotten too dingy for you, I can definitely see the appeal. But there's no question that nearby Sunset Station is the infinitely superior casino-hotel product, unless you crave a more a laid-back experience, away from the teenybopper crowd, in which case Fiesta Henderson might float your boat.

Kudos to Fiesta management, by the way, for recycling all the used paper from its bingo rooms. The question for other casinos in town is: Why aren't you doing the same?

Speaking of themed casinos, former bargain-casino mogul Gary Primm is back in the news these days, as though to remind us who we have to thank for New York-New York, home of -- among other things -- the Strip's most dysfunctional sports book. (You have to sit in the slot stools on the other side of the corridor to see the TV screens without requiring the services of a chiropractor.)

MGM Mirage is in the process of effecting an upgrade on the property, one of several they've had to perform in order to gradually de-Primm-ify it. NY-NY was far from the worst of the hyper-themed casinos (Excalibur, anyone?) but it wasn't until the tail end of the cycle, when Paris-Las Vegas was rolled out, that it seemed possible anyone (the late Arthur Goldberg, in this case) could go that route and wind up with something stylish.

Lamest casino promotion. Ever

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:06:00 -0700

Not long ago, I received an oversized postcard in the mail from Eastside Cannery Casino Hotel (or E-Can, in LVA parlance). They want me to go to www.cannerycasinos.com and sign up for a players' card. And what do I get for adding my personal info to Cannery's database? Just you wait!

Woo-hoo! I get to motor down to E-Can and pick up a free commemorative grand opening T-shirt! I could practically "Squee!" from the excitement. It's almost as thrilling as meeting Amanda Tapping.

Well, no, actually it isn't.

I mean, how many free-tchotchke promos are out there? And haven't you lost count of the free T-shirts you receive from charities (I get so many I have to donate them to charity; there's irony for you) or at company events?

And, worst of all, other than having to actually be on-premises to get your freebie, there's nothing in this promo to incentivize you to play. Nada. Squat. Bubkes, baby. How about ... oh, I dunno ... some free slot play? Five bucks matchplay on blackjack? A discount at the buffet?

Legend has it that, when Excalibur opened, Circus Circus execs (including the late Bill Bennett, of sainted memory) were nearly trampled by hordes of patrons bulldozing their way into the casino for one free slot pull. Imagine what E-Can* could do if it gave players' club members a reason to plunk their fannies down and start, y'know, playing.

* -- Is it just me or does Cannery Gal, in the logo, look like the twin sister of Casino Boy?

Wizard in Oz. One of HP's favorite numbers-crunchers, Michael "Wizard of Odds" Shackleford, will be speaking next month at the Australasian Gaming Expo, in case we have any readers Down Under.

Shackleford played an important role in LVA history. After some exhaustive research, several years ago, he was able to quantify that the slots at George Maloof's The Palms were looser than those at Michael Gaughan's Coast Casinos properties.

Gaughan never forgave us. Even after Coast was devoured by Boyd Gaming, its casinos continued to boycott our Pocketbook of Values. Once Gaughan huffed off and left Boyd, taking South Coast, er, Point with him, the Coasts soon came onboard the PoV. But if you ever see an announcement that LVA is holding an event at South Point, you can be sure someone's pulling your leg.

Vegas Right Now = Bargain Country

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

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

Boulder Strip quality at Las Vegas Strip prices

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

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

Case Bets: Airport, Encore, Pahrump, Roadhouse

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:14:00 -0700

You know things are bad when McCarran International Airport offers space for three hotel-registration kiosks (ranging from 525 to 935 square feet, starting at $200/foot) and can't find takers for all of them. Fifteen possible candidates were solicited and, when all was said and done, McCarran received two -- count 'em, two -- bids.

MGM Grand will get the mid-sized (764 sq. ft.) space, having bid on all three -- albeit at the minimum. The Venetian Casino Resort was feeling more open-handed, offering to start at $400/square foot, but decided that the smallest of the three kiosk areas was sufficient to its purposes. Which means there's almost 1,000 square feet of express check-in area at McCarran going begging. Belts must be getting pretty tight 'round here.

Encore is taking applications. I wonder what prospective dealers are going to hear about tipping policies in their job interviews (and how many of them will be unhappy campers from Caesars Palace and other Harrah's Entertainment properties). Wynn Las Vegas dealers who are sticking it out through slow-moving negotiations would surrender a hard-won victory by applying at Encore?

And does Steve Wynn risk having unionization spread to his new casino if he raids his Wynn LV dealer pool for Encore? If he extends his tip-confiscation policy to Encore, what incentive would current Wynn dealers have to apply there, other than perhaps a bump in their base salary? Does it boil down to arguing that keeping most of your share of the tip pool at Encore is better that keeping all of what you'd make anywhere else? Since Wynn's properties are still perceived as the top of the food chain (regardless of what Sheldon Adelson proclaims), that could still constitute a powerful argument.

Besides, you have to tip your cap to any company that makes the preservation of the King's English part of its code of conduct: "Use complete sentences, avoiding slang and phrase fragments." Because that's like so totally ... Whatever. Y'know?

Blame it on Kansas. Maybe it's because their eyes are on landing a contract to build a megaresort in Kansas. Or maybe Pahrump just seems like small potatoes when you're hanging out with Kurt Busch and Daniel Negreanu, but Golden Gaming has bailed on its purchase of Saddle West Hotel & Casino, dumping it back into the lap of Marnell Sher Gaming.

Roadhouse rides again. Another one of the ghost casinos of Sunset Road rose again as a slot house, if only for eight hours, to keep its gaming entitlement alive. Can the former Holy Cow Brew Pub & Casino be far behind?

The Alystra is toast

Wed, 14 May 2008 11:11:00 -0700

OK, so it was a derelict that's been closed for 10 years and unlikely ever to reopen. But the Alystra is now officially "a total loss." Too bad. It was an attractive building that happened to sit in a sort of mini-Bermuda Triangle where no casino could flourish. It also was operated in a manner that brought it afoul of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. There were some flutters of interest 16 months ago, then silence. Since the Alystra had become a homeless hangout, it'll probably be no great mystery how it caught fire.

A bad month for Adelson. First, there was a shaky performance on the witness stand in the Richard Suen/Las Vegas Sands lawsuit. Then a first-quarter loss. Now he's been questioned in a bribery investigation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government. Sheldon will probably have to do a little 'splainin' to the Control Board when he gets back from Jerusalem.

Luxor 2.0: A review of the ongoing makeover has been posted at VegasTripping.com. The verdict: "Pharoah's Tomb Meets Airport Bar." Hard to believe that Luxor is already 18 years old -- unlike Excalibur, which only looks like it's been around for 30 years or so.

Nathan Burton at the Flamingo. I went. I saw. (And the stunt pictured here does not figure in the act, so caveat emptor.) The magic tricks were sloppily executed -- you had to wonder what the coterie of rival magicians in attendance thought of them -- and almost made one nostalgic for Hans Klok. For this Harrah's Entertainment ditched Society of Seven?

No warp speed here: A story that broke on the Web last week (and was picked up by LVA's "What's News" page six days ago) finally crept into the pages of the Dogpatch Daily. (UNLV's David Schwartz has a good critique of the situation, though.) The same writer who branded Strip casinos as "monuments to gullibility" now turns his scorn upon patrons of the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek attraction -- while managing to meet the R-J's two-factual-mistakes-per-story quota and confusing "premiere" with "premier."

But he's not alone. A local publisher mistakes "ringer" for "wringer" in ...

An utterly ridiculous column that suggested the Democratic presidential ticket be suggested by a coin-toss. Seriously. It's difficult to decide if this is a bigger insult to Las Vegas Sun readership or to the democratic process itself, this flippant (pun intended) notion of hinging the fate of our country -- and perhaps, by extension, the world -- on a game of chance. As one Sun reader notes, "I admire your ability to get paid for this."

Since one normally needs to pack a lunch and some No-Doz to finish a Brian Greenspun column (and I couldn't even get through this one w/o skimming), I'll boil down the "logic": "Hillary Clinton has worked harder than any person I know of to become America’s president [and] running for president, and the presidency itself, has to be the hardest job on the planet."

So? Meaning if Greenspun's next-door neighbor worked harder than Hillary Clinton to be on the donkey-party ticket, then he/she would deserve it even more? As Clint Eastwood's William Munny observes in Unforgiven, "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it."

Greenspun cites exit polls as holy writ, whereupon his moving finger moves on to write, "We all know that the polling this year has been wrong at best" (Who's this "we all"? I know no such thing. Do you?) "People, for good or bad reasons, don’t tell the truth to pollsters when it comes to race or gender." Well, if true, that puts paid to those exit polls in which Greenspun places so much stock.

After calling upon the respective campaigns not to "short-circuit the democratic process," out comes the loony coin-toss idea. Why? "We accept the coin toss in every other facet of our lives," quoth the suddenly Solomonic Greenspun. Oh, do we? Maybe that's how they make important decisions at Greenspun Media but I don't think, for instance, that the board of Harrah's Entertainment decided not to accept Penn National's buyout offer because the nickel came up "heads."

Hey, let's have representatives of the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis over to the Bellagio poker room to decide the fate of Iraq in a game of Texas Hold 'Em, with Halliburton taking a "rake" of the pot. Works for me.

The clue to Greenspun's thoroughly trite and un-democratic "solution" can be found in a passing comment that enfranchisement "for far too long has been a burden to Americans rather than a blessing." I'll leave you to ponder the disturbing -- and elitist -- implications of that telltale remark.