#5,001

Yes, this is the 5,001st Stiffs & Georges post and let me start with a big  thank-you to all of you, the readers, for making it possible. If it weren’t for your support I’d probably have hung it up long ago. Much has changed in these last ten years. For instance, whoever thought that the most-failed casino owner ever would fail his way into the White House? Who thought that Caesars Entertainment would go bankrupt (well, I knew something bad would come of its LBO but nothing that drastic)? Ditto Station Casinos. Who could have figured the whole Sam Nazarian saga, ending with SLS Las Vegas falling on its ass? We’ve seen casino gambling plant roots in Kansas, Massachusetts and Maryland, even Alabama, and fail to take hold (despite much trying) in New Hampshire and Georgia. We’ve also seen Las Vegas Sands try twice to sell Sands Bethlehem, only to change its mind both times.

Who would have thought Atlantic City would lose four casinos and come out the better for it? Or that the Seminole Tribe — through Hard Rock International — would become a powerful American force? Who could have predicted that, after much skirmishing, Japan would legalize casinos, only to have the nascent industry imperiled by over-regulation? Who would have thought Steve Wynn‘s prediction of an “unbundling of the Strip” would completely miss the mark — or that he would contemplate building a giant, animatronic King Kong to spice up Wynncore? And who ever imagined that Sheldon Adelson would switch from persecuting journalists to purchasing the Las Vegas Review-Journal? In short, it’s been a wild ride. Thank you for taking it with me.