No, it’s got nothing to do with the smoking ban. Well, maybe. MGM Resorts International, as we mentioned yesterday, has decided it has too much hotel-room inventory going to waste on the Las Vegas Strip. As part of an austerity move, Park MGM is the first casualty, going dark (except for restaurants) from noon Mondays to noon Thursdays. Why Park MGM? It’s the only MGM Strip property to be operating in the red, making it a natural and inviting target for cutbacks. “While we do not currently expect the mid-week closures to remain in effect past December, we will continue evaluating business levels to determine how long Park MGM’s mid-week hotel closures remain in effect,” said marketing viceroy Anton Nikodemus. Interesting that MGM is, in effect, writing off New Year’s Eve, traditionally a booming period for business. But these are not traditional times in which we live.
Now that gaming has run the table of every single referendum in yesterday’s election, the question becomes: Who benefits? Well, consumers obviously. But what’s Wall Street‘s take? JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff burnt some midnight oil and came to the following conclusions …
I think Frank Farenkoff dodged a bullet given that the next President doesn’t hate him.