Yesterday’s Hard Rock International road show before the ostensibly investigative Nevada Gaming Control Board played out pretty much as expected. Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen effectively ran out the clock by dwelling on how Hard Rock would make over The Mirage when its purchase closes, which is now a fait accompli. Not one question was asked about Hard Rock’s 10-day defiance of Judge Dabney Friedrich‘s order to shut down its sports betting servers in Florida—and what this means about Hard Rock’s attitude toward regulations going forward. Nor did anyone raise the messy topic of a Seminole Tribe lottery that was mounted the incentivize Covid-19 vaccinations. (The Seminoles own Hard Rock, ICYMI.) The lottery was supposedly won by Chairman Marcellus Osceola‘s bastard son, sparking a petition drive to recall Osceola, who negotiated the compact with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) that granted Hard Rock sports betting in the Sunshine State. (Say what you like about DeSantis, he treated the Seminoles as equal partners, a hint other state governors should take.)

Making good on a promise and a plan, Station Casinos offloaded 21 acres next to Durango Station (ab0ve) last week for $24 million. Not a bad score. The buyer is Ovation Development Corp., which will help seed Durango’s customer base by building residential properties on the adjoinging site, just as Station hoped. Ovation, an offshoot of the Molasky family of companies, is also building senior-friendly housing right behind Sunset Station. In the now-distant past, Station would try to shop vast tracts of land at one great gulp but didn’t find takers. Its new, more-selective, bite-size strategy is working, as seen at Wildfire Fremont, Durango and Sunset. Next up, Cactus Lane, where Station has much more land than it needs, having doubled down on its real estate position there recently. We still think it’s quixotic to go up against South Point but it will be very interesting to watch.

Having sacked and pillaged Caesars Entertainment infamously, Apollo Management told Nevada regulators it had learned its lesson and would be a better steward of Venelazzo. Has the Apollo leopard really changed its spots? Seems not. We haven’t heard anything untoward coming out of Sheldon Adelson‘s old place (yet) but Apollo’s attempt to merge the Kroger and Albertsons supermarket chains is turning out to be classic private equity rapine. You think grocery prices are bad now? Wait til this deal goes through. It hasn’t even closed yet and Apollo is strip-mining both companies. Albertsons announced a $4 billion “special dividend” on Nov. 7—a sum 57 times larger than the regular quarterly dividend, depleting the chain’s $2.5 billion cash on hand and saddling it with $1.5 billion in additional debt. Moody’s Investor Service accordingly downgraded Albertsons credit rating. There goes one-third of Albertsons’ market cap—along with the ability to “meaningfully compete” with Kroger and others.

Borgata is putting its best foot forward for the holiday season, as can be seen here.

That great Las Vegas recovery on the Strip suddenly flattened in October but new signs of vitality were evident in the local-gambler sphere. Las Vegas Strip casinos grossed $706 million, almost dead-even with the year before. Locals-derived win, meanwhile, surged 11%. Downtown‘s $90.5 million was a 19% vault, while an 18% leap happened on the Boulder Strip ($80 million). Similarly robust numbers were reported by miscellaneous Clark County ($143.5 million, +9%), Laughlin ($45 million, +10%) and Mesquite ($16 million, +7.5%). North Las Vegas lagged somewhat, up 3% to $23.5 million. Further afield, Reno was up 3% to $64.5 million, while new Legends Casino in Sparks continues to fuel play, hopping 14% in town to $16.5 million. Lake Tahoe got in on the fun, climbing 13% to $18 million and Wendover was up 6% to $23 million.