The video poker king of Vegas; Adelson: Whodunit?

On the local video poker scene, it’s an arms race between Golden Gaming and the Dotty’s chain. With twice as many establishments at Dotty’s, Golden can legitimately claim victory. It recently snapped up a couple of Mom-and-Pop slot bars and converted a PT’s Ranch to its regular PT’s brand, bringing the count in the Vegas market to 42. CEO Blake Sartini is not beyond contemplating out-of-state expansion but it’s problematic: Two of the adjacent markets — Arizona and California — are tribal-only casino states. And to expand without gambling as part of the revenue formula is pretty well unimaginable. The current buy-and-expand Sartini strategy is a response to the Great Recession. Like his in-laws at Station Casinos, he’s sitting on a bank of real estate whose value can’t be unlocked at this time. But he seems like a man who can afford to wait.

You’ll have to curb your enthusiasm for the new Siegfried & Roy Park … because it’s just on the drawing board right now. Seriously, the park would improve a blighted stretch of Russell Road, near McCarran International Airport.

Instead, wait a couple of weeks and you can sample the myriad attractions at Linq, much of which is still under wraps. Compared to some of the recent mall product on the Las Vegas Strip, Linq is firmly oriented toward the middle class and Caesars Entertainment says that social-media chatter indicates that it’s hitting the desired, 21-46-year-old demographic.

Whether there’s appetite for six new arenas is another question. For that matter, why would it cost developer Jackie Robinson $690 million to do what MGM Resorts International and Cordish Cos. could accomplish for $350 million-$390 million. I doubt more than three of these will see fruition. In a town bereft of major-league sports and with little in the realm of minor-leagues, it’s difficult to argue the case for so much new stadium product. At least UNLV will be able to revamp the Thomas & Mack Center at negligible coast, all but $1 million of the cost having been covered by excise taxes on slot machines.

Could Stanley Ho’s people have been behind the mega-hack of Las Vegas Sands? “[T]he lack of any group taking responsibility plus the extent and success of the attack … tend to point to it being Chinese in origin,” writes one pundit.