F-blew sale rumored; New Jersey legitimizes DFS

According to VitalVegas, Carl Icahn finally has finally hooked a big one and the upshot will be a long-delayed sale of Fontainebleau for $650 million. Uncle Carl has long since recouped his bargain-basement purchase price by selling off everything wasn’t nailed down — and even something that was: the custom-built escalators, which you can now ride at Downtown Grand. The Plaza Hotel and even Affinity Gaming‘s sad-sack trio of casinos in Primm benefited from Uncle Carl’s rummage sale. The buyer of Uncle Carl’s Carpet Barn is as yet unidentified save as a “very politically connected … sizable Eastern real estate investment company.” Except for the first part that sounds like Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. (The Trump Organization already has undeveloped real estate just off the Strip, so I think we can count them out, although they have the ultimate political connection.)

But whoever it is had better have some very deep pockets. $650 million is chump change compared to the billions it will take to finish this eyesore. “That’s right Edna.”

Ironically, the news breaks just as Uncle Carl is finally, belatedly and much to the relief of Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani putting a wrap on the hideous lower skeleton of the building. Icahn can credit himself with having influenced legislation as, from now on, building plans in Clark County have to come with contingency provisions in case they have to be suspended or taken down. The fact that someone is willing to drop nine figures on buying F-blew and undertake the Herculean task of completing suggests that interest in the north Strip is finally heating up, even if it takes until 2020 to finish the incredible hulk. SLS Las Vegas couldn’t do the trick but the success of Lucky Dragon Casino and the oft-heralded beginning of work on Resorts World Las Vegas seems to have done the trick. (Not to mention that F-blue will be cheek-by-jowl with the expanded Las Vegas Convention Center, currently marching toward the Strip.) At any rate, expect the purported buyer to come from outside the casino industry as “operational” details were described as being finalized — i.e., the buyer needs someone to come in and run the place for them. If this comes off, it’ll be the biggest real estate play in Las Vegas since CityCenter, although hopefully more of an outright success.

* Over at Sheldon Adelson‘s Las Vegas Review-Journal, the paper is poking at one of Station Casinos‘ sore spots: Its massive bank of undeveloped land, an erstwhile asset that has turned into an albatross around the company’s neck. The article skates over the fact that the “Losee Station” (not zoned for gaming) Cactus Lane (near — too near — South Point) and the Castaways sites have long been for sale. It dwells primarily on Durango Station, for which plans have been submitted to Clark County lo these many years now. Wall Street analysts keep pointing to the current economic strength of Las Vegas to prod Station into action but the Fertitta Brothers, currently focused on redeveloping Palace Station and the Palms, will not be hurried — especially at Durango Station. When I arrived in Las Vegas in 1999, this plot was slated for construction as part of the larger Rhodes Ranch development. Today it’s no closer to the shovel than it was 18 years. Say what you will about the Fertittas, they’re patient.

* Last week, New Jersey lost state Sen. James Whelan (D), former mayor and longtime champion of Atlantic City. One of his final accomplishments was a bill legalizing DFS in the Garden State. Gov. Chris Christie (R) may have thought DFS was a topic beneath the dignity of presidential debates, yet he signed the Whelan bill into law. While casinos are taxed 9.25%, DFS leagues will pay slightly more — 10.5%. That’s a small price for being in the clear.

* Bucking the trend, Westgate Las Vegas has reopened its poker room after a two-year hiatus. The mass exodus of poker rooms from Sin City (Circus Circus, Sunset Station, Aliante Casino, El Cortez, Texas Station, the Palms, Bill’s Gambling Hall, M Resort, Tropicana, Gold Coast, Tuscany, Fitzgerald’s, Hard Rock Hotel, Luxor and Monte Carlo) has been epitomized by Linq, where poker was in, then out, then back in, then out — again. One expert blames the decline of poker in Vegas on the nationwide spread of the casino industry itself: “The proliferation of casinos across the United States has decreased the need for players to travel to Nevada to play poker,” according Nevada Gaming Control Board analyst Michael Lawton. Revenues at the Silver State’s poker rooms are flat with the last fiscal year but that’s actually good news in disguise, because it means more money is being made by (far) fewer rooms.

* Ever want to stay in Jackie Gaughan‘s fabled penthouse? Well … you can, if you know to ask for it. If it’s good enough for Ellie Goulding, it’s good enough for our readers.