Tourism to Singapore jumped 20% last month, surpassing expectations. Resorts World Sentosa and — no surprise — the opening of Marina Bay Sands are credited for the success.
Another stumbling block has arisen to the casino market in Massachusetts. A bill wending its way through Congress thanks to Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK, left) would make it easier for Native American tribes to take land into trust (the prerequisite to casino development). This would upend both a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and possibly even a Bush administration edict that restricted off-reservation casinos to a somewhat arbitrary 250-mile “commuting distance.”
It’s not exactly news to Bay State lawmakers that states can’t dictate the number of tribal casinos — although it’s a revelation to some of the anti-gambling bluenoses up there. However, should 2-3 tribal casinos be thrown into the mix along with two state-sanction casino resorts, that diminished the up-front fee that Massachusetts can shake down request from would-be developers (i.e., Harrah’s Entertainment, Las Vegas Sands). They might have to settle for a mere $333 million per license instead of a billion clams, theoretically. What a crying shame.
Unfortunately, not only is Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) determined to stop the bill in its tracks but Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), in his usual guise as water boy for Big Gaming, is trying to thwart the Cole bill, too. You’d think Reid’s “george” donors in the industry would like anything that could reduce the cost of getting into Massachusetts. However, it appears they’d rather make a preemptive strike on tribal competitors (one of which is bankrolled by Genting Bhd). Who needs the free market when you can have a duopoly?
Lady Luck 3.0: While I can but summarize Alan Choate‘s story in The Newspaper That Shall Remain Nameless, CIM Group is proposing a downsized version of its Lady Luck revival. A previous pitch would have expanded the luckless Lady into a grotesque wraparound of the old Post Office (aka Mob Museum) and eradicated the downtown public-transit hub.
The more recession-conscious version now before the City of Las Vegas would reduce the hotel to 634 rooms whilst adding 8.5K square feet of meeting space and a pool deck atop the casino. Unfortunately, the casino-management entity that will be handling the gaming side of things is distinctly unprepossessing: generically named Resort Gaming Group, which is best known for its Timbers Bar & Grill chain. Having a lot of bartop video poker is one thing. Owning the casino experience to succeed in downtown Vegas is something else. Here’s hoping the Timbers folks can succeed where so many are failing.
Speaking of Mob museums, while S&G broke the news that Antoinette Giancana‘s rival Mafia exhibition is going into the Tropicana Las Vegas, for the full story, you’ll need to read John Katsilometes, who got the Trop’s partners to go in-depth on their plans. Of the two museums, as described, the downtown one sounds far superior: more evocative, thanks to its vintage location.
Also, I’m not one of those people who gets drippy and sentimental about “the olden days” (as casino queen Sue Lowden would call them) when the Mafia called the shots in Vegas, and I rather suspect that the Trop exhibit will wax nostalgic in that respect. Given that a septet of “Family” family members are providing the crucial material, a certain partiality is to be expected. At least Millicent Rosen Siegel and I agree that Barry Levinson‘s film, Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty as a cuddly, misunderstood Benjamin Siegel was “lousy.” Your knowledge of Vegas history will actually be enhanced if you avoid that pile of maudlin twaddle, even if the presence of Sir Ben Kingsley as Meyer Lansky makes it intermittently watchable.
My Trop tour (which resulted in enough notes to fill half a notebook, hence my dribbled-out reportage) was also accompanied by local freelancer Damon Hodge, late of Las Vegas Weekly. The latter ought to have its corporate noggin examined to find out why such an excellent writer — whose questions to Trop Vice President of Hotel Operations Arik Knowles were spot-on and better researched than my own — was turned loose. Since the tourism beat at the Las Vegas Review-Journal has devolved into a catch-as-catch-can committee effort since its main reporter was bumped to the political beat, I can think of one newspaper in town that could badly use Hodge on its business desk.
Tom Cole is not the most powerful member of the Oklahoma delegation (although the Chickasaws are a major player). Maybe this is a reflection on myself, but I don’t recall reading anything about this measure in the Oklahoman. I’m thinking this may be a way for the Chickasaws to gain tribal status for Remington Park, the local racino that the tribe bought out of bankruptcy late in 2009.
Somehow, I don’t think this is going anywhere.
As the late, great Johnny Carson would say, “I did not *know* that!” Thanks.
Hi David, What makes you think the Lady Luck project has been scaled back? The project always included both the renovation of the hotel and the companion project across the street. Both were conditions of the DDA with the City Council. The proposed Site Development Plan is for the Lady Luck and doesn’t mention the companion development across the street. Have you heard the DDA is scrapped?
At one point the plan also included a third tour and the ceding of certain city-owned land to CIM. The current plans stay within the existing footprint of the hotel. Given the economy, it’s certainly no surprise that CIM is putting forward a less-expansive strategy now.
In order to get the city land about which you speak (and the big tax deferral), CIM had to first spend $100 million on the Lady Luck. I think this action just gets that piece going and I don’t think the rest has been scrapped. I could be wrong.
You’re probably right, Isaac. I think I’m going to have to do some remedial reading vis-a-vis the Lady Luck.