Author: David Mckee

Yesterday, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg continued to insist that Everything Is Fine, despite serious indicators to the contrary. March was supposed to be the month in which gambling grosses ‘normalized.’ In Sin City they did nothing of the sort. Statewide, they were only 1% off last year’s pace, which can probably be shrugged away. But on the Las Vegas Strip they sagged 5%. Given the comebacks manifested by Downtown and the Boulder Strip, we would suggest that A) maybe things aren’t so fine on the Strip as Reeg imagines and B) consumers are looking for bargains elsewhere.

Continue reading Strip Catches a Cold

Never able to resist the sight of an open mike, Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim has been doing interviews Down Under, on the subject of his acquisition (at a rock-bottom price) of troubled Star Entertainment. The results were even more dismaying than one feared. Kim’s message to Australia about Star: “Everything you knew is over.” Kim told the Sydney Morning Herald that “the company’s luxury casinos will need to lose some of the glitz and glamour as they start life over from scratch.” That’s right. He’s going to reinvent the company’s three state-of-the-art casinos as—Guess what?—grind joints.

Continue reading Bally’s Race to the Bottom

Las Vegas just lost a lot of class. Elaine Wynn died yesterday and, with her, a golden age in Sin City. She tempered then-husband Steve Wynn‘s worst impulses (albeit not enough of them) as the ministering angel of Wynn Resorts and its precursor, Mirage Resorts. We feel unqualified to write Ms. Wynn’s obituary but will hasten to note that the tributes have come flowing in from far and wide, including from competing casino companies, which is quite unusual. (Try to imagine Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta penning a verbal bouquet to Tilman Fertitta. You can’t.) Ms. Wynn consistently strove to make Las Vegas a better place and we thank her for that. We’d love to be remembered so fondly when we shuffle off this mortal coil … but we’re no Elaine Wynn.

Continue reading A Class Act; Atlantic City Mailbox

Congratulations, Bally’s Corp. You’re the tiny dog that caught the enormous car. What do propose to do with it? In case you missed it, Star Entertainment was so desperate for financial relief that it accepted a teensy, $180 million buyout offer from Bally’s for 57% of the company. An infusion of capital from Down Under publishing baron Bruce Mathieson subsequently lowered Bally’s upfront cost to $120 million. That’s $40 million per megaresort, which sounds pretty sweet on the face of it.

Continue reading Guppy Swallows Whale

Say what you like about Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim. He’s bipartisan when it comes to greasing the gears of power with cash. One never forgets how the then-mayor of Chicago, a certain Lori Lightfoot (D), short-circuited her own selection process for a Second City casino the moment Kim crossed her palm with $40 million. Bally’s got the nod hor concours in what was corruption plan and simple. Now Kim has his eyes on a bigger prize: the White House.

Continue reading A Boy Named Soo